GAO disputes reliability of Columbia class costs
The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that the US Navy’s (USN) costing figures for its new Columbia-class SSBNs may be unreliable.
A recently released report made this claim on its front page and states that the $115 billion project faces the challenge of an ageing workforce pushing up costs.
This is despite the USN taking steps to ensure costs do not spiral out of control through methods such as block buying key components.
The GAO told Shephard that 'nothing is strictly off the shelf'.
This is due to the nature of SSBNs, meaning commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components cannot be
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