Lawmakers Fire Back At Excessive Spending On Littoral Combat Ships – $40 Billion On Aluminum Ships?

Littoral Cost.

It’s not secret that military spending costs a pretty penny every now and then for the cause of keeping our country safe. However, some defense programs are a little less than necessary but still rack up huge amounts of taxpayer money. The latest program to come under fire for excessive spending is the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships.

The United States Navy is planning to spend $34 billion to produce 40 Littoral Combat Ships in the next few years. There are some lawmakers who aren’t sold on the idea of spending that much money the LCS. Many see these ships as completely unnecessary and serve no real purpose, nor having the ability to hold their own in combat. Now coming under fire from lawmakers may not destroy these ships, but their aluminum frame isn’t doing them a lot of good on the defensive side.

“Well, we gotta continue to produce another 20 of these ships that serve really no good purpose and, by the way, will probably be sunk at the very first shot that’ll be fired and don’t have much utility, but we need to do it because we need to keep the defense base working.”

– Rep. John Garamendi

The aluminum hull and superstructure of the Litoral Combat Ship is good for speed, but it was attacked it would catch fire and burn faster than if it were made with steel. Some think that money would be better suited for more established warships rather than small LCSs which are limited to coastal activity. Where do you stand on this issue? Should we continue to produce the Littoral Combat Ships despite its low survivability and limited range?