Spent $2 billion, the US military's latest warship is canceled

Facts have proven that the US Navy no longer has the ability to "assemble" a warship using off-the-shelf products.

According to the website of the "Naval Association" in the United States, on the 25th, US Navy Secretary John M. Richardson announced that the Constellation-class frigate project, which had been delayed for three years and had already cost $2 billion, was canceled. In the future, the US Navy will focus on small ships.

According to John M. Richardson's statement, after the cancellation of the Constellation-class frigate project, the US Navy will retain the two ships that have already started construction, and all four planned ships will be canceled.

But it's very absurd that even among the two ships that were barely retained, the first ship of the Constellation-class frigate, the "Constellation," has only completed 12% so far.

It should be said that the current situation of the Constellation-class frigate project is not surprising.

The original goal of the Constellation-class frigate project was for the US Navy to build a warship that could replace the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to perform daily duty tasks. Theoretically, this ship does not need too much advanced technology, and its design is based on the European multi-purpose frigate (FREMM).

But plans change faster than reality. After the Constellation-class frigate project was launched, the "Smith Commission" immediately exerted influence, and the US Navy repeatedly proposed modifications to the design drawings, causing serious delays and cost increases: the US Navy originally planned to keep the cost of each Constellation-class frigate around $1 billion, but now the cost per ship has soared to $1.4 billion, and the first ship, the "Constellation," has been postponed to 2026 for delivery.

The chaos caused by the Constellation-class frigate project also led the US "The Drive" website to publicly call the project "another disaster-level military project for the US military after the Zumwalt-class destroyers".

Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1849831823467530/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.