The US Navy spent $754 million upgrading a cruiser. It is being scrapped.
The decommissioned cruiser USS Vicksburg left Philadelphia under tow on 30 September for dismantling in Brownsville, Texas, Baird Maritime reported on Monday.
Its modernisation cost $754.1 million and never returned it to service.
The ship entered the U.S. Navy's cruiser modernisation programme on 1 July 2016 and was decommissioned on 28 June 2024. In a September 2023 inspection, the Government Accountability Office found the work "largely incomplete", with combat consoles "wrapped, disconnected and unusable". Fleet officials told the GAO the ship had been stripped for parts for other cruisers.
Sonar-dome repairs used "plastic wrap, household glue, expanding foam and a television-advertised sealant", according to the GAO.
Across the programme, the GAO said the Navy "wasted US$1.84 billion" on four cruisers retired before deploying. Baird Maritime's report carries no Navy response.
Eight years in the programme, and the ship left service before the work did. Parts were taken from it for other ships. The report does not put a value on what was reused.
On your programmes, who reviews the cost still to come rather than the money already spent?
Sources
For your next steering committee
- 1Ask which design decisions in your programme would be expensive to reverse, and when each was last reviewed.
- 2Ask which expected benefits change if the implementation approach changes.
- 3Ask who owns a decision to change course, and where it would be recorded.
Issue 01 of the ERP LEADERS brief puts a timeline, the three-number review and six questions on one page. Read issue 01
Welcome back. · Issue 01
