And you thought your ammo was expensive

[99 pewtercoupe]

The U.S. Navy can't fire its awesome new gun that can hit a target more than 70 miles away because the rounds are costing the service nearly a million bucks a piece.

Just a couple weeks after the Navy commissioned its most advanced warship, the USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000), the service says it won't be buying any more of the guided precision munitions the ship's Advanced Gun Systems uses, called the Long Range Land-Attack Projectile (LRLAP).

The 155mm round is "the most accurate and longest-range guided projectile" in Navy history, according to Lockheed Martin. It's also one of the most expensive, with the price of each round costing roughly $800,000 to $1 million, for a total cost of around $2 billion if the service purchased its planned buy of 2,000 rounds, Sam LaGrone of USNI reported.

The Navy wasn't expecting the exorbitant cost when it first began producing the advanced Zumwalt-class destroyers.

It originally planned to build 32 of the stealth ships, but cost overruns led the service to eventually reduce the number down to just three. That reduction in the number of ships also led the cost of its ammunition to rise, Defense News reported.

“We were going to buy thousands of these rounds,” a Navy official familiar with the program told the site. “But quantities of ships killed the affordable round.”

The Navy is now looking for alternative rounds that can be fired out of the AGS system, though its possible a replacement will not be found by the time the Zumwalt finishes sea trials and is integrated into the fleet by 2018. The service is looking at a number of alternative rounds, though a replacement could be tricky since the gun was built specifically for the LRLAP round.

The rounds aren't the only budget-busting item, however. The three Zumwalt-class ships themselves — the newly commissioned USS Zumwalt, and not-yet-commissioned Michael Monsoor and Lyndon B. Johnson — cost about $4 billion each.

The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.





The Navy can't fire its awesome new gun because the rounds cost nearly $1 million each

[Bill]

Beware the military industrial complex. $ 1M a shell? Yeah, somebody's gettin' rich on this, while all the sailors who man those ships go under defended because they don't have enough ammo on board.

[DAB]

don't worry, we'll make it up on volume.

[Bill]

Originally Posted by DAB

don't worry, we'll make it up on volume.

So, just like ObamaCare then?

[DAB]

Originally Posted by bill_daniels

So, just like ObamaCare then?

yup.

you can thank lucille ball for that line.

[99 pewtercoupe]

Originally Posted by DAB

yup.

you can thank lucille ball for that line.

She would fit in perfect in government today

[Vette40th]

Same crap happened with Seawolf class submarines.

[DAB]

'hey industrial complex, how much would a new boat cost?'

'um....what's the budget?'

'$1 billion each, we want 32'

'no sweat, we can bring those in on time and under budget!'

time passes

'senator blowhard, we need to make a slight change to the schedule and budget, but we'll keep those well paying job in your district if you'd be so kind as to up the budget and extend the due date.'

'how much more you boys need?'

'how about 3 bill more?'

'total?'

'each'

uh oh.....

[04 commemorative]

and you can still use the ammo you are using now.....

[FasterTraffic]

In a nutshell...

Pentagon Wars - Bradley Fighting Vehicle Evolution - YouTube

[John Wiz]

The 'Pentagon Wars' is one of my favorite movies. While a satirical look at that program, is truer to what goes on in government procurement than anyone would believe.

I'm sure when the .gov was going over the planning for DDG-1000, someone came up with a 'should' cost for the ammunition who had no idea what the development/manufacturing would entail.

But let's go ahead and put the gov in charge of our health care and everything else as they are the experts...

[DAB]

engineering...anyone can do it, if they have enough money and time!

elegant solutions are rarely appreciated. but it's pretty easy to find fault where none lay originally.