A Tale of Two Ships [pdf]
&gt;If the job of building a 22 knot, 25,000 ton ship capable of carrying 700 marines a couple of helicopters
and a couple of air cushion vehicles were put out for competitive bid to the the world shipyards, I am
quite confident the price would come in under 50 million dollars, quite possibly well-under. And the ships
would perform per spec.
&gt;In some situations, the difference between what it should cost and what it did cost can be a factor of
30.<p>... And that&#x27;s the end of the article. I&#x27;m not saying the author is wrong or makes any dubious claims, but I really wish he would have explored his alternative more thoroughly. It&#x27;s quite an easy assertion to make, that US military acquisitions are rife with inefficiencies, but solving that problem is much harder.