The Navy's New $4.4 Billion Ship Is A Big, Shiny Waste Of Money

[Onkel Neal]

The Navy's New $4.4 Billion Ship Is A Big, Shiny Waste Of Money

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b03a640a6c0508

Huffington Post, so, grain of salt.

However fancy it may look, the USS Zumwalt’s development has been anything but smooth. The 600-foot ship will cost at least $4.4 billion, according to AP — more than twice the cost of the Navy’s current Arleigh Burke class of guided missile destroyers.

When the ship was originally proposed in the early 1990s, the Navy ordered 32 of the destroyers. As costs soared, commanders hacked the order down to three. At one point, they tried to kill the program entirely.

Now, the Navy is starting development of an entirely new destroyer — slated for completion in the 2030s — and is building updated Arleigh Burke destroyers in the meantime.