In reality BIW gets to double dip — they charge for R&D and also postpone the “D” part until after the ship is built, at which point the Navy will pay again to fix problems that should never have made it out of the yard.
Why do anything right the first time if you can get paid twice, thrice, or six times to fix your fuckups later?
P.S. if I buy a bespoke suit, I pay a fixed cost and it’s guaranteed correct — problems are paid for by the maker, not me.
> P.S. if I buy a bespoke suit, I pay a fixed cost and it’s guaranteed correct — problems are paid for by the maker, not me.
Using materials that have been used for decades.
If you want to create a new nano-fibre fabric in a lab that's never been used before, and will not be purchased by anyone else, why should Henry Pool or Huntsman & Sons be the ones to pay for all the lab equipment?
If the USN wants cheap and cheerful there are OTS options:
Last I checked, ships are still built from steel, just as they have been for a century.
Also the ffg/x “competitive” “bidding” process is a joke. They are paying five vendors to make PowerPoint presentations, then whoever made the prettiest slide deck gets billions of dollars.
The folks who run this are sensitive to criticism but also either unwilling or unable to enact any substantial change.
BIW even gets to triple dip by being the planning yard during repair availability while never being the yard to actually do the work. Same goes with HII. Usually it's Pascagula yard instead of Newport News.
Why do anything right the first time if you can get paid twice, thrice, or six times to fix your fuckups later?
P.S. if I buy a bespoke suit, I pay a fixed cost and it’s guaranteed correct — problems are paid for by the maker, not me.