US warship faces expanding list of problems

Tony Capaccio for Bloomberg reports that the “U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship lacks the robust communications systems needed to transmit critical data to support facilities ashore, according to an unreleased congressional audit, the latest in a succession of troubles for the $34 billion shipbuilding program.”

“The program to build a total of 52 ships in two versions made by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Austal Ltd. has faced an expanding list of questions about their manning, mission, firepower, defenses and survivability.”