@shamoononon:
Because this poster hanging by my desk [www.globalsecurity.org]
is clearly a security breach

Atlantys

@Kaiser-Machead: OH MAN! Perfect.

Imagine sailing this thing towards the enemy with FU-2 or FU-4 on the side.

GIZisGOD

I think I know what they're doing with the old ships.

+ Watch video

Jim (The Canuck One)

"The report details such projects as the Navy's $5.2 billion Littoral Combat Ship, which has had such extensive troubles that the service expects the cost of its first two ships to exceed their combined budget of $472 million by more than 100 percent. The Navy canceled construction of the planned third and fourth ships by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics, the prime contractors on the project."

Unseelie23

The FU-Boat.

Kaiser-Machead

"remember men, we're stationed in ITCHY Hull"

discounteggroll

Oh my god. It looks like Die Another Day got it right. Look out for mysterious stealth ships that cause global panic and disruption.

P.S. Where's the Fox News logo?

MobileEMP

@Atlantys: That's a security breach right there. :: scoffs ::

shamoononon

It protects your life to be able to read the books. Simple. Ask the Tibetans.

FThorn

We have posters of those ships all around the office because we were involved in the designing of them.

Feels good to see concept images put out to sea.

Atlantys

@Fuzzysmith:

wasn't that referring to a different ship?

MrBlahBlah

I wonder how many educational books that ship could buy. Or renewable energy advancement or medical research or infrastructure development/repair or... Oh, nevermind. Just bomb something already.

johnnyabnormal

"Run by Informix"...blahahaha splat.

shamoononon

Time to buy some General Dynamic stock.

TheGeektoriousBIG

Cool! My dad served on the USS Independence (CVL-22). It got atom-bombed twice. And O'hare (as in Chicago O'hare) was on board for a while, too.

You can see all the good photos at

[www.cvl-22.com]

FThorn

This ship......in space!

Git Em SteveDave

more like clitoral combat ship.

Sorry, too easy.

CODIFEROUS

@s0crates82: no shit!!!! That Rules, I'm in SD, but been on the 405, and a bunch of others up there many times, terrible!!!!

Faslane

faslane

[www.nytimes.com]

Funny...this thing was just mentioned in the above story from a week ago about how NOT to build a military ship.

Fuzzysmith

I like it...
If we dont build it, we will all speak chinese.

Razta

If there is one thing i don't mind having my 30+% tax being taken out of my paycheck for it is cool military shit.

shamoononon

People will surrender just to make it sail away, ugly ass boat.

workingonyourinvoice

That. Is. Hot!

whiteknight

Yarp. That boat's scary alright.

Tell ya what, though. Why don't we take only 20, rather than the planned 55, and spend the rest of repaving the goddamned 5 freeway through LA.

s0crates82

200 mill for that baby? Can I get payments on that? I've got some neighborhood kids pissing me off.

bobdobbs

Looks like something I'd have made out of Legos, back in the day: lots of angles and HEAVY.

Sean Harrington

Yes but we would most likely win... and be the only people left on the planet.

Technogen

Holy frak, that's an awesomely scary piece of machinery!

Sean Harrington

ah i see our debt is at a low 9.3 trillion. let's buy a couple of hundred of these and go to war with another country pushing the debt to over 10 trillion. hey, why not?

foureight84

This thing could kill the S#&T out of you!!

Faslane

faslane

Ok first of all 60 knots is about 70 mph and thats nuts. Its amazing what these new hulls can accomplish. And by comparison an F/A 22 Rapter costs about $125 million and a B2 bomber costs about $2 billion. Dang this is quite a bargin.

ab3

Well, that will be useful in the fight against Al Qaeda. As I always say, when fighting radical terrorists in the desert sands, you need a good....navy?

*sigh* How many educational textbooks, indeed.

Marcelo

Sounds like these Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) have been built for Figurative Usage (FU).

Mandatory_Field

Where can I put a down payment? I've been meaning to get a new yacht.

Super_Moose

@Epaminondas: The speedboat gets blown up and the destroyer laughs. The haul is made to deflect shaped charges.

Technogen

@Fuzzysmith: You beat me to it. That NYT article was the first thing that came to mind when I saw that picture and read the headline.

@MrBlahBlah: While the other ship (Freedom) is featured in the NYT article, the article is equally critical of the General Dynamics design. "Even though General Dynamics had more time to digest the Navy's design changes before starting construction, its ship [the Independence] ran into many of the same problems and delays as Lockheed's. The price tag also more than doubled."

roomwithaview

That awesome piece of metal looks like it's about to take off and kill some alien terrorists.

mariogalaxyman

Yeah but what happens when someone pulls a TNT ladden speed boat up next to it?

Epaminondas

(Former CW3, Honorable Discharge 2004)

DustyButt

Wow... battleships have been getting uglier and uglier, and less menacing over the years...

...kinda sad almost.

Stang70Fastback

I bet that 60kts is a lowball.

Rock on Navy. Rock on.

@Marcelo: It's called "projection of power". Al Quaeda isn't the only team in town.

DustyButt

I don't think the $208 Million price-tag is the actual cost. That may be the cost minus development overruns. But this whole project has been famous in its mismanagement.

...Silly looking ship. Feeble attempt by an obsolete Navy Dept. to remain relevant. We really need to unhitch our economy from this run-away Military Industrial Complex.

(Former FC2, Honorable Discharge - 1999)

newgalactic

Dude!! DID ANY OF YOU NOTICE THIS HAS A *DETACHABLE* SUBMARINE IN THE MIDDLE!?!??!?!!!1!!ONE!

soldstatic

the amazing thing is that we are this far down the page and not a single commenter has slapled a "C" on the front of that guy....

sqeakytoy of the apocalypse

@SirNirian: Chinese loans at work... *flushes toilet*

johnnyabnormal

lol taxpayers money at work.nough said.

SirNirian

@roomwithaview: The criticisms, however, were more about the financial and acquisition aspects, rather than its technical capabilities.

icelight

I don't know about anyone else, but that main picture reminded me of the main boss in Crysis.

- PR-0927

PR-0927

@soldstatic: I think you should ask CODIFEROUS what that is.

shamoononon

from what i hear they deflect radar pretty well too

peterlarson233

(Former Corporate Drone, Dishonorable Discharge 2001)

johnnyabnormal

[en.wikipedia.org]

Besides the stunning treatment given by Eric Harry in his book Invasion, this would be a good addition to our forces...that, and submersible aircraft carriers

DemolitionMan

I am pretty sure attacking a man while he on "the throne" is against the Geneva convention.. and if not it should be.

srw

$208 million? Pfft. I'll wait for PsyStar to start selling them for a cool 125k.

frigg

Is it just me, or does anyone else think our military has been watching too much Star Wars?

[www.blueharvest.net]

craig

**Gadgetgasm**

Meloves military gadgets...

shenanigans61

This just screams super-evil takeover.

Kinda.

HotFootMcCook

Okay, so when are they going to build the half-submerged death star to dock this leviathan in?

~Y

Upsilon

I like the recreational rock climbing wall all around the entire thing.

GiltProto

Fucking General Dynamics.

They are one of the creepiest, most tentacled organizations in the world. They build everything, are everywhere, basically RUN certain parts of the American and Canadian forces...

Pope John Peeps II

That's sexy. I worked on the Freedom Of The Seas and that fucker was 600 million. Mmmmm

Inaki

Wait...wait wait...there must be some weird glitch with the Giz right now. The Zune picture is heading this article, and I see that your avatar is still yours in your profile...weird.

shenanigans61

@Pope John Peeps II: Is there any particular reason that your avatar is mine...?

shenanigans61

@Technogen: Please tell me you were cracking a joke about the 'haul'. The hull/superstructure is angled to deflect/dissapate radar.
@Marcelo: Yes. We do need a good Navy. At last count, Navy had more satellites being used for comms/imaging than any other branch. Oh, and them fancy jets that were in theater first? yeah. Those were Navy. Lastly, let's not forget that the Navy is augmenting the ground troops over there, too.

textbooks. indeed.

TheDeadPuppet

@Razta: You're going to up speaking Chinese anyway.

FredicvsMaximvs

60 knots is nothing. seaQuest DSV got close to 200 knots and that was just a submarine built for a freaking TV show over 15 years ago!

EQC

@MrBlahBlah: The article talks about both ships, the Independence and Freedom. OT - Weren't those the two names of the shuttles in Armageddon?

Fuzzysmith

@MrBlahBlah: Yes, it was. It was a ship built/designed by Lockheed and costs ~2.5x this one.

bms

For those who do not work in Navy acquisitions, this ship is basically fucked up beyond belief.

It is grossly overweight. Mission-critical components are going to have to be left off of this ship for it to perform anything like advertised.

Secondly, its so far over budget that supposedly it will be killed if McCain wins (apparently he has said this). All the Naval officers I work with daily mention this all the time.

I work with some of the systems that will be put onto this ship in mission modules and basically we are testing something for a ship that probably won't even exist.

Naval acquisitions are pretty fucked up, boys and girls.

decrescendo

@FredicvsMaximvs: Oh man. Yeah, I think it would benefit many to speak Anglo-Asian (A mish mash of...).

Can one person drive and fire this ship?
Will we get to use one in Call Of Duty 6?

SigmundTheSeaMonster

Is that $200M out the door, or do I pay extra to equip it with all the electronics, engines, etc?

ppiddy

no one notices that this entire big ass navy ship is cheaper than 1 single f22 ?

phantam

It looks like a hawk helmet from some game.

Captain_Awesome

pfffft,

without a Yamato-class Wave Motion Gun, this ship will never be the savior of mankind.

i_prefer_sasquatch

@Fuzzysmith: The times article is about Lockheeds failure to convert a mini cruise ship into a Navy Ship. This boat is actually designed from the ground up to be a Navy Ship.

@TheGeektoriousBIG: Just logging in to pick some up...

pixelstacker

Does anyone else look at that and think our Pentagon guys are just 8 year olds with BILLIONS of dollars to spend?

Didn't I see that ship as a GI Joe toy?

sansovino

Oh hey, look at that, the U.S. government spending yet more money that they don't have! How wonderful, I wish MY credit card had a limit in trillions!

Bitstuff

@sansovino: No you saw it in Tomorrow Never Dies as the invisible boat.

N@tedog

Nobody told you that this thing could actually fly?

FinalValgas

If I'm not mistaken it was built with stealth technology too, notice the sharp angles, and the same metal on the hull as is on the bombers.

Lupison

@s0crates82: Why should I pay for new paving on I5? Isn't that what your CA gas taxes pay for?

Skeezix404

@N@tedog: How could I see it if it was invisible?

Skeezix404

@N@tedog: Wrong ship - the ship in TND is this one >
www.angelfire.com/.../images/StealthShip.JPG

Skeezix404

@Super_Moose: Predatory lenders will be available for financing. For the first 5 years your monthly payment will only be 1 dollar a month. After that it balloons to a meager 10 million a month (99.999999999% of it goes to interest) for the next 2000 years. Interested? Good. Let's start the paper work. Don't worry about the credit check. Approval guaranteed before your free coffee gets cold.

Thrillcekr

@Fuzzysmith: Yeah - the NY Times people are exactly the people that I would select to build ships to defend my country.

Skeezix404

Ah you warm-weather people thinking your roads are bad. Sooooooo cute.

1roll20s

@SigmundTheSeaMonster: Are you talking about Ingrish? I was well versed in this language while living in Japan.

TOWken22

@Skeezix404: @1roll20s:

That may be what they're supposed to be for, but that overused hunk of concrete and tarmac has been beaten up constantly and desperately needs a resurfacing.

s0crates82

To Highlight just a few critical failures (although there are dozens to choose from)

1) A cost saving measure in the original plan called for these ships to be based on existing commercial hulls (in this case, I believe the original design was an Italian ferry) despite the fact that ferry's aren't designed for the stresses or extended evacuation times designed into military grade ships. That redesign wasn't cheap...

2) Design and build were run simultaneously, leading to massive cost overruns as on-the-fly design changes vastly extended the build times

3) High political investment combined with little or no initial government oversight led to "hitting the deadline" trumping all other factors (most notably cost). Best example here is that ships are generally assembled as hull modules (think of them as cross sections of the ship) that are built with all internal components installed before the hull modules are combined to complete the ship.

This gives much greater access to all the little nooks and crannies as well as allowing large equipment to be put in place in one piece.

Once the hull is completed, the time and effort to do work or move components increases exponentially.

In the end, what you see in the picture included in this article is a nice complete hull that's missing a significant percentage of the internal components -- and getting those components in place is going to be a long and costly effort.

The one saving grace here is that while this looks like a bunch of smart people making truly stupid choices, it was actually a bunch of smart people gaming a competitive build system at great cost to tax payers. One can assume that the ultimate contract will lead to a more traditional construction method and more close cost oversight.

ndonahue

Yeah... I knew it looked familiar.

[americancivilwar.com]

UtahJ

All that stuff and they couldn't fit in one vertical launch tube. Adding standoff cruise missile capability seems like it would be par for the course in this beast's mission profile. Take out enemy radar/artillery installations with cruise missiles as you get your land troops close to the shore and assault. Maybe they assume it will be part of a larger strike force?

JelalTrueshot

@1roll20s: Hahaha!
Oh, buddy, I can relate.
We go through probably 30-70 freeze/thaw cycles here a winter.
Seriously, in spring, it's like driving through a friggin tank trap on every road until the potholes are filled.

shenanigans61

Wow. Look at the air scoops on this thing. At speed, it doesn't float, but flies. I'm glad one or two of the actual engineers is on this forum. Cost be damned. First airplanes evolved to resemble, almost exactly, sharks and stingrays, since air at supersonic speeds is a hard liquid. Now you are making surface ships fly instead of float. All hail the ground effect of fast moving air. Soon the distinction between boats and planes will be gone. Except that under water is the only place to avoid waves. Oh, that stuff is still classified. But to place airfoils below wave level is the same thing. DARPA doesn't F around. This is a test vehicle from '78. Can't anybody see the WINGS on the hull that lift this whole beast into the air before the ramjets kick in. It's not a boat, you idiots. It's a plane.

NikFromNYC

I could've sworn I saw a whole different page of comments here before refreshing. Anyways, I assume it doesn't have any missiles because like most Navy ships, it will probably be working in a battle group of some sort. This LITTORAL ship, being built for speed, would probably be weighed down quite a bit from missiles and the necessary equipment to store/launch them. It's probably redundant anyways, considering the bigger ships are equipped with Tomahawks of ridiculous range. Defensive and offensive firepower, if needed, would most likely be through the large-caliber guns and helicopters.

Without going into disgusting details, it looks like it could be a versatile ship that can be outfitted in different configurations (as shown), giving combat groups more flexibility and adding an element of speed, which the bigger ships clearly don't have. The helis may make it a candidate for quick-response ground support/shore bombardment as well, countering other countries' large brown/green-water naval capabilities. I'm no military expert but those are just a few things I can come up with.

If that comment about the USS Constitution comes back, well, it's a bad example since it's a wooden ship. Yes, it's still "commissioned" but it's mostly for tradition, heritage, whatever.

Also, there ARE other conflicts besides the one in the middle east, and the navy does do other things besides just sail around on ships.

albtms

Stick a C in front of it and you have the ultimate in stealth technology...nobody would ever find it.

buttersideup

Foreign nations must love this.

Who needs intelligence gathering agencies anyways. Just simpler to go online to tap the egos of the firms and engineers who designed this.

Hell, how often do you see Russian designs so boldly advertised online.

Zugzwang

Spending? We spend more on health than we do on military. Want to save money? How about losing some weight? How about closing all the wasteful goverment programs that few people benefit from? I have no problem having my tax dollars used to defend our country and get rid of facists. Actually, that's what my tax should be used for.

theeraserhead

It's money well spent. A lot of things the military develops eventually benefits us such as GPS, computers, internet, freeways, submarines, jet engines, satellites, etc. The military is progress and it encourages Americans to be more talented/educated cause there is high demand in innovation and protect the country at the same time.

theeraserhead

Is it me or does that thing look like a Star Destroyer from the front view while on a dry dock?

Sora-Chan

@Technogen: It's hull and I didn't say anything about shapped charges. No reason to think the armor on this thing is better than a DD class, but hey, keep fighting that cold war!

Epaminondas