Constellation Class: 5 Reasons Why This New Navy Frigate Will Be a Nightmare

What You Need to Know: The U.S. Navy’s Constellation-class frigates face significant obstacles that threaten their survival. The program is plagued with inefficiencies, from design changes that add weight and cost to failing shipyards unable to meet production demands.

-Bureaucratic mismanagement and lack of coherent strategic planning exacerbate the situation and call into question the Navy’s focus on surface warships amid evolving threats such as A2/AD and unmanned systems.

-With a 40% cost overrun and outdated procurement processes, the Constellation class risks becoming another costly failure in US naval development.

Top 5 Reasons constellation-class Frigates ‘Shall Never Set Sail’

We have a problem in the United States Navy. They don’t look like that build warships now. There is a major shipyard crisis affecting this country. On top of that, the entire procurement process at the Pentagon is a bureaucratic nightmare, even before the ships are built in dilapidated shipyards. We can all think of a few notable examples over the last 30 years where the Navy has failed in its core mission of creating and maintaining a viable fleet.

from Zumwalt-class destroyer to Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), The Navy routinely overpromises and underdeliveries in sales pitches for new platforms.

New constellation-class frigate is no different. intended to replace Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigatesSince these were all obsolete, the Navy wanted to make its next frigate more streamlined, modern, and interoperable with European warships. This is why the Navy made a deal with an Italian shipbuilding company. Fincantieri Marinette Marine (FREMM). Unfortunately, it was a disaster that slowly progressed from the moment the contracts were signed to the point where the ship’s hull steel was cut.

Now, Constellation class it is 40 percent over budget and does not meet the Navy’s stringent construction requirements. Here are the top five reasons why: constellation-class frigate will fail (from smallest to largest):

5. The Navy Changed the Design

Blame it on a cultural misunderstanding if you want (the Navy certainly does). But after contracts were signed with Fincantieri and specifications for the new frigate were agreed upon, the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), along with its subcontractors at Gibbs & Cox, “began making major changes to the FREMM main design.” based on with NavyLookout.com.

The Navy wanted to make the battleships 23.6 feet longer to “accommodate larger diesel generators to support compatibility with future equipment and an increase in speed to enable ships to keep up with carrier battle groups operating at 30-plus knots.” Navy also added space for 32 Mk41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells and “the bow sonar was removed to improve speed and seakeeping.” In total, the Americans added “300 tons of weight” to the European built weight. constellation-class frigate.

Now the battleship is too heavy for its own good and will not be an effective American surface warship as a result. Additionally, since the steel of the hulls had already been cut before the Navy decided to radically change the design of the battleship, this significantly increases the cost.

4. Cost is Extremely High (Even by Military Standards)

Why does this bring us to the next topic? constellation-class frigate will never see the light of day. This is a heavy cost. You see, the boat was presented to Congress as a vital affordable platform. This entire conversation is now completely irrelevant. Costs exploded with the final price for each warship of this new class comes in around $1.6 billion. This is a 40 percent increase over the original estimate. So either the original order will have to be scaled down to accommodate the new higher price, or the taxpayer will have to pay the cost.

One of the biggest problems affecting every branch of the United States Armed Forces is the prohibitive cost of these legacy programs. With egg prices at the grocery store at an all-time high, Americans cannot and increasingly will not support such large defense budgets. And there are real ones too. diminishing returnsThe types of platforms the services, particularly the Navy and Air Force, are investing in.

The systems are very complex, difficult and expensive to build, and costly to maintain.

If these systems were used and lost in a war (a true great power conflict), the burden on the U.S. military and taxpayers would be so great that we would be unable to meaningfully maintain a surface combat fleet.

3. America’s Failing Shipyards

Another major complication for the Navy is that once-vaunted shipyards have turned into a sclerotic mess. Shipyards, a shadow of their former glory, cannot keep up with current demand, let alone the growing demand to build new, complex warships to deal with an ever more contentious global threat environment. Fincantieri Marinette Marine Shipyard may be an Italian company, but it has facilities in the United States.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, these facilities weakened Under the weight of broken supply chains and greatly disrupted labor markets. A perfect storm of bad decisions, incompetence and poor infrastructure led to all the problems. constellation-class. Although constellation Even if there are no problems with its development, it is doubtful that the program will be delivered within (or under) budget or time.

2. Bureaucracy Kills

mentality Pentagon’s acquisitions The arm is what killed this project. This situation is unlikely to change no matter who becomes president or which party leads Congress. It is the bureaucracy that creates all kinds of rules, regulations, and requirements that are constantly changing and risk disrupting the program.

The cognitive dissonance exhibited by program managers is surprising. Ultimately, they want a lighter, more maneuverable warship, but with very high firepower and lots of crew protection.

Clearly, no one in the Pentagon’s acquisitions arm has taken a basic economics course and learned the immutable lessons of scarcity and trade-offs. So why would they do this? For the last 30 years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US government has spent lavishly on the Pentagon with little, if any, need to maintain economic standards.

Fortunately, those days are behind us. Failure to adapt to the new environment of scarcity and trade-offs will destroy this program and others.

1. Lack of Consistent Strategy

They say the strategy should be weaponized. Unfortunately, in modern America, the situation is exactly the opposite. Why does the USA need another frigate? or more surface warships about this?

Maybe a radical idea on my part, but with the advent of cheaper access prevention/area denial (A2/AD) And unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) It makes large investments with limited time and resources in costly systems such as constellation-class frigate is a waste, to say the least.

If the United States understood what it was really trying to accomplish on the world stage and put together ends-ways-means, they would find their arsenal fuller, more affordable, and more militarily capable. But until that day comes, Americans will continue to waste time and money on platforms they don’t actually need.

About the Author:

Brandon J. WeichertNational Interest national security analystis a former Congressional staffer and geopolitical analyst who contributes to The Washington Times, Asia Times, and The-Pipeline. He is the author of Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His next book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. Weichert can be followed on Twitter @WeTheBrandon.

Image Credit: Creative Commons.