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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Personal Finance / Macroeconomic Trends & Risks
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Author: tjscott0   😊 😞
Number: of 4582 
Subject: Another Fail in US Weapon Platform Procurement
Date: 02/05/26 10:44 AM
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responsiblestatecraft.org - US navy constellation
John Phelan, the secretary of the Navy, announced the latest shipbuilding failure by canceling the Constellation-class program on a November 25.
The Constellation program was supposed to produce 20 frigates to serve as small surface combatant ships to support the rest of the fleet and be able to conduct independent patrols. In an effort to reduce development risks and avoid fielding delays that often accompany entirely new designs, Navy officials decided to use an already proven parent design they could modify to meet the Navy’s needs. They selected the European multi-purpose frigate design employed by the French and Italian navies.

Navy leaders made the decision to speed up the process with the Constellation program because it was supposed to fill the capability gap created by the failure of the Littoral Combat Ship program. The LCS was intended to be the Navy’s affordable small surface combatant ship of the future, but it ended up failing spectacularly. Engineers were never able to get the ship’s mission hardware to work properly. The ships also suffered a string of embarrassing mechanical breakdowns.

The decision to use a proven design for the new program was sound. Defense policymakers typically pursue clean-sheet designs because the contractors can maximize their financial gain through the research and development process. But the Constellation-class program now clearly demonstrates how the national security establishment’s natural proclivity to make simple things complicated remains firmly in place.

The Constellation-class program failed because rather than simply building the ships as designed in Europe, American naval engineers effectively tore up the blueprints and designed a new ship. The U.S. Navy has different mission requirements than its European counterparts, so the ship’s design did need some modifications. Officials sold the idea of the Constellation-class program in part by saying the American version would have 85% commonality with the European version. They then lengthened the hull by nearly 24 feet, redesigned the bow, completely redesigned the ship’s superstructure, and added approximately 500 tons of displacement. The American design today has only 15% commonality with the original.

Well. Now I now understand the NEED to increase the nearly trillion dollar defense budget to $1.5 trillion.
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