tax dollars wasted on a swath vessel

Discussion in 'All Things Boats & Boating' started by lobsterman, Nov 6, 2015.

  1. lobsterman
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    lobsterman Junior Member

  2. Rurudyne
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    Rurudyne Senior Member

    To paraphrase the GEICO commercial: if you're a government you waste money: it's what you do....
     
  3. Richard Woods
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    Richard Woods Woods Designs

    But I guess the workers got paid and they in turn paid taxes and bought things...

    And how much has been spent on the nuclear deterrent, and how often has that been used?

    RW
     
  4. Rurudyne
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    Rurudyne Senior Member

    The other day I observed that thanks to the way our government "manages" the currency that, per CPI, today's Dollar is worth half of the 1987 Dollar, which was half of the 1976 Dollar, half of the 1957 Dollar, half of the 1940 Dollar, which was 71% of the 1913 Dollar.

    Of course the good news is that means boating hasn't really gotten so astoundingly more expensive than it once was (26.8 "average" cent gas in 1957 = $2.14 gas now).

    The bad: fiat currency (not just the Dollar) is at best like a slow motion train wreck, central banks hates savers, and a "strong" currency is like the swimmer likely to drown last....
     
  5. upchurchmr
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    upchurchmr Senior Member

    Lobsterman,

    Then you need to buy it.
    What is your alternate plan?

    At least if it is going to the Philippine Rec Cross it will probably get use that's not against the interest of the US.

    That report is really just hysteria. Any decent article would tell us "why" the USG did not ever use it - or what they did to test it.
     
  6. Angélique
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    Angélique aka Angel (only by name)

  7. whitepointer23

    whitepointer23 Previous Member

    Like rw said. People got employed and suppliers sold products. 85 mil is a drop in the ocean for the u s economy. They probably waste more than that every day.
     
  8. BlueBell
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    BlueBell . . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _

  9. jehardiman
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    jehardiman Senior Member

    She was a vessel of her time. Like wine, you have to taste a lot of wines you find you don't like to find a wine you do. Her contemporaries are HSV-X1, HSV-2, FSF-1, LCS-1 class, LCS-2 class and she followed the successful TAGOS-19 class and the never finished TAGOS-23 class. What was the replacement for the LCAC? Waste of money? Not really, it closed off some rabbit holes and opened others.

    Edit on retrospection: Very few designs spring forth fully armed, like Athena, from the mind of their creator. Mostly it is a slow slog trimming the tree until the "proper" branch is found. If anything, M/V SUSITNA is due diligence.
     
  10. BlueBell
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    BlueBell . . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _

    +1 Jehardiman

    Understood. Makes sense.
     
  11. Ad Hoc
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    Ad Hoc Naval Architect

    As JEH notes, a unique SOR.

    I was in contact with the designer until sometime ago, as we had similar interests.
    As far as I am aware she was and still is, used as a humanitarian ship in the Philippines:

    Infamous MV Susitna Finally Put to Use in the Philippines https://gcaptain.com/infamous-mv-susitna-finally-put-to-use-with-philippine-red-cross/

    It terms of a waste of tax dollars.. that is extremely subjective and depends upon the POV of the observer!
    Just because she has been sold and to a foreign client means....what??..really??..what does it mean?...nothing.
    Just like any commodity it has a shelf life and a limited audience.
    There are endless white elephants out there... none of those have been sold on...does that make them 'less of a waste of tax dollars'??
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2022
  12. BlueBell
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    BlueBell . . . _ _ _ . . . _ _ _

    +1 AH
     
  13. jehardiman
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    jehardiman Senior Member

    Just to show the issues with the SOR....
    Cost of US Navy’s Ship-to-Shore Connector breaches Nunn-McCurdy law https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2021/06/14/navys-ship-to-shore-connector-sees-nunn-mccurdy-breach-as-costs-rise/#:~:text=The%20Navy's%20SSC%20program%20is,challenges%20early%20in%20the%20program.
     
  14. Ad Hoc
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    Ad Hoc Naval Architect

    I wouldn't say that SOR is difficult - it is just ostensibly a hovercraft.
    It is the usual military's snails pace tender process with the overly layered bureaucrat process coupled with the very typical over promising and under performing vessel, based on the suppliers desire to win the contract.
    Ergo - costs rise...
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2022

  15. jehardiman
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    jehardiman Senior Member

    IIRC, that was the issue. The LCAC had a significant sea state issues as well as range, skirt, and lift issues as they approached EoL. There was a real hard look at the time (late 1990's/early 2000's when LCAC was 15+ years old) on how to improve rapid delivery of RO/RO units to the theater to get vehicles to the beach (i.e. the fallout of Gulf I). Hence all the HSV and pre-positioning ship work. The SOR of the expeditionary landing craft, was an all weather, beyond horizon, beaching capable vessel that could carry a M1 tank and still have fleet speed (20+ knts) and range. Even the SOR of the SSC (which is carried into the OP area) is of significantly greater sea state and environmental capability than the LCAC.
     
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