Thursday, March 15, 2007

LCS: Firings will continue until costs improve.

Can't believe I missed this. That is what I get for not reading EVERY update from DefenseIndustryDaily.
Jan 30/07: DefenseTech reports that Capt. Donald Babcock, the Navy's LCS program manager, was relieved of his duties Jan. 29th by Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton – who is also being reassigned.
Another scalp.

As Somebody said - standby for later on today - <>big news coming on LCS from SECNAV. I'll wait until the report comes out.
Navy Secretary Donald Winter is due to announce his plans late on Thursday for a shore-hugging combat ship being built by Lockheed Martin Corp. that is facing big cost overruns, according to Navy officials who asked not to be named.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, last week said the Navy was considering terminating Lockheed's work on the ship, but the Navy officials said on Wednesday that option now appeared to be off the table.

In January, the Navy ordered Lockheed to halt work for 90 days on the second of two littoral combat ships (LCS) Lockheed is building, due to soaring costs.

...
Winter briefed Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg about his plans on Wednesday. Krieg confirmed the meeting took place at a briefing with reporters, but gave no details.

He said only that he was pleased that Winter had decided to oversee the program review himself.

The Navy has said the first Lockheed LCS ship will cost $350 million to $375 million, far above initial estimates of $220 million for each of the new ships.
I'll post when word comes out.

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