SEATTLE: US Defense Secretary Ash Carter on Thursday defended the Pentagon's decision to buy just 40 Littoral Combat Ships instead of the 52 originally planned, saying the money saved would allow the Navy to buy more missiles and undersea technology.
Carter told reporters during a visit to Seattle that the US military was making a deliberate choice to skip buying the additional dozen LCS ships and focus more on improving the Navy's "lethality and capability."
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and other backers of the program have said the Navy's requirement for the smaller, fast coastal LCS warships remains unchanged at 52, despite Carter's decision to truncate the program. Mabus told lawmakers on Wednesday that the final decision about how many small surface warships to buy would ultimately be made by the next administration.
Carter was emphatic when asked about those comments on Thursday, saying the department has set a clear priority to buy other more powerful warships and beef up the firepower of its existing ships.
"Forty is enough. The Navy's own war-fighting analysis indicates that, but it is also our priority," Carter said. "That's the right decision to make because it allows us to have the right kind of ships, lethality, and to make investments in ... undersea technology, in missiles."
Lockheed Martin Corp and Australia's Austal are building two separate models of the LCS ships. Carter has said he wants the Navy to have a competition and pick just one supplier for future ships, although the timing of that remains unclear.
Carter told reporters during a visit to Seattle that the US military was making a deliberate choice to skip buying the additional dozen LCS ships and focus more on improving the Navy's "lethality and capability."
Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and other backers of the program have said the Navy's requirement for the smaller, fast coastal LCS warships remains unchanged at 52, despite Carter's decision to truncate the program. Mabus told lawmakers on Wednesday that the final decision about how many small surface warships to buy would ultimately be made by the next administration.
"Forty is enough. The Navy's own war-fighting analysis indicates that, but it is also our priority," Carter said. "That's the right decision to make because it allows us to have the right kind of ships, lethality, and to make investments in ... undersea technology, in missiles."
Advertisement
© Thomson Reuters 2016
COMMENTS
Advertisement
Wreckage Of US Navy World War II Submarine Found After 80 Years US Navy Shoots Down Missile Fired By Yemen's Houthi Rebels US Military Declares Two Navy SEALs Lost At Sea "Deceased" After 10-Day Search Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Joe Biden Is The Best Person To Take On Trump, Says His Campaign Wife Among Two Jailed For Life For Man's Murder In Gurugram: Cops 1,100 Flights Cancelled In US As Microsoft Outage Disrupts Operations Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.