Efficiency and Competition
11th July 2024
In WWII, a dozen or more shipyards built Fletcher class destroyers. The yards were given a set of blueprints and contracted to build the ships according to the plans. It didn’t matter which yard built any given destroyer, they were all the same. This worked because the Navy designed the ship and generated the blueprints. Once that was accomplished, any yard could build the ship. It was just a matter of following the plans.
In contrast, because the Navy no longer designs ships, generates blueprints, or even requires complete designs and blueprints prior to the start of construction, only the contracted yard can build a given ship. The LCS is the standout example of this badly flawed approach. Lacking any guidance or blueprints, both Lockheed and Austal generated their own LCS designs, spec’ed their own equipment and combat systems, and no one else could build them. Thus, we wound up with two LCS classes that had almost nothing in common; the epitome of inefficiency.