> Costly Lesson on How Not to Build a Navy Shiphttp://tinyurl.com/6ea7gr
>
> With the crack of a Champagne bottle against its bow, the newly minted
> Navy warship, bedecked with bunting, slid sideways into the Menominee
> River in Wisconsin with a titanic splash.
>
> Moments before the launching on Sept. 23, 2006, Adm. Mike Mullen, the
> chief of naval operations, told the festive crowd of shipbuilders,
> politicians and Navy brass assembled at the Marinette Marine shipyard,
> “Just a little more than three years ago, she was just an idea; now
> Freedom stands before us.”
>
> Not quite. The ship — the first of a new class of versatile, high-speed
> combat vessels designed to operate in coastal waters — was indeed
> bobbing in the river, just four months after the promised launching
> date. But it was far from finished. In fact, the ship floats there
> still, work continuing day and night.
>
> A project heralded as the dawning of an innovative, low-cost era in Navy ...

>
> They will be easy to sink.