[kcb]

The US navy is in freefall. The best we can do is build a 40 year old destroyer hull and an aircraft carrier class that we plan to be building for literally 100 years. Shipyards can't build anything. Every design is mismanaged so poorly and leached on by traitorous defense contractors so badly that we get essentially nothing but the bill.

[JumpCrisscross]

> best we can do

Why would you take this as an indication of the “best we can do”?

[mpyne]

I think they pretty clearly meant 'practical best' rather than 'theoretical best'. Theoretically we could be so much better, which is why everyone is so grumpy about U.S. shipbuilding.

For 'practical best' you'd normally point people to examples of warships the U.S. actually can build without much drama, but if you try this with the Navy you're basically left with, what, the last LPD class?

10 years ago you'd call the Virginia SSNs a success, but even those have now run into construction delays due to various issues, even as the Navy needs their #1 priority (Columbia-class SSBN, also delayed) to succeed to decommission the Ohios on time.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

Because US Navy procurement has been a disaster for over two decades now?

Just Zumwalt and LCS alone are like $50 billion burned up for nothing.

The Navy's issues with procurement go all the way back to the retiring of the Oliver Hazard Perry class without a suitable replacement in the pipeline.

[Bratmon]

Because there's no secret group of competent people waiting in the wings.

The military-industrial complex we have is the only one we got.

[jjk166]

One project becoming a boondoggle is evidence we're not living up to our potential. Every project becoming a boondoggle is evidence we are.

[kcb]

I'm not saying its the best we should do. But its the best we are capable of doing.

[russdill]

Hulls last a really long time and the relevance of a large navy has changed. Keeping existing hulls up to date seems like a much better use of funds, no?

[nradov]

The hulls on many older US Navy warships are literally cracking. They can be repaired at great expense but at this point it's more cost effective to scrap the old hulls and build new.

https://www.twz.com/sea/navys-cruiser-modernization-a-lesson...