Unit cost of Army watercraft more than twice the original price

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Army’s new watercraft will cost more than double the original price tag to build, according to the service’s acquisition chief.

The unit cost, after the most recent contract negotiations with the Maneuver Support Vessel (Light)’s builder Vigor Industrial, increased from $27.8 million to $63.1 million, a spokesperson for the acquisition chief confirmed.

Army officials have stressed the importance of building up a new watercraft fleet to contend with operations, particularly in the realm of contested logistics, in the Indo-Pacific region. Years ago, the Army shifted its priority away from the capability as it focused on operations in the Middle East. Now, with the service concentrating on deterring China as well as forging allies and partnerships in the theater, the need for watercraft is high on the Army’s list of requirements.

“Like a lot of first-in-class in shipbuilding, costs were higher than expected,” Doug Bush, the Army acquisition chief, told Defense News in an interview last month. “We found all the problems in building a vessel like that. And then our vendor — there were some challenges they had with their parent company that we had to work through. But we’re now, I think, clear and running on that one.”

“Material costs more, labor costs more, and then on the Army side … requirements drive the cost,” Bush added, explaining the cost increase did not surprise him. “The Army wants it a certain way, and it’s harder to build that in a shipyard well. That adds time and money.”

The program “faced significant changes in economic conditions such as increased material cost, supply chain disruptions, workforce availability and labor rate increases,” Bush’s spokesperson said in a Nov. 8 statement to Defense News.

Increases in material cost made up 75% of the growth, the spokesperson added, with labor and overhead accounting for the remainder.

The Army took a long time to negotiate the new price, Bush acknowledged, and now hopes additional funding within the next budget can stabilize the program.

A year ago, the service placed the new vessel into the water in Portland, Oregon, marking the first time the Army embarked on a new watercraft program since the mid-1990s. The service awarded a $980 million contract to Vigor to build the new landing craft in 2017. The plan a year ago was to procure 13 of the MSV-Ls, according to the Army’s program executive officer for combat support and combat systems support.

Bush said the Army was ready to move into low-rate production. “We’re willing to take a bit of risk on the cost because the Army really wants [them],” he said.

Jen Judson is an award-winning journalist covering land warfare for Defense News. She has also worked for Politico and Inside Defense. She holds a Master of Science degree in journalism from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kenyon College.

华盛顿——据美国陆军采购主管称，美国陆军新型水上舰艇的建造费用将是原先预算的两倍多。

采购主管的一位发言人证实，在与机动支援船（轻型）建造商 Vigor Industrial 进行最近一次合同谈判后，单位成本从 2780 万美元增加到 6310 万美元。

陆军官员强调，建立一支新的水上舰艇舰队对于应对印太地区的作战行动至关重要，尤其是在竞争激烈的后勤保障领域。多年前，由于陆军将重心转移到中东作战，因此降低了对水上舰艇能力的投入。如今，随着陆军将重点放在威慑中国以及在该地区建立盟友和伙伴关系上，水上舰艇的需求再次成为陆军的当务之急。

“就像很多首舰建造项目一样，成本高于预期，”陆军采购主管道格·布什上个月接受《防务新闻》采访时表示。“我们发现了建造这类舰艇的所有问题。此外，我们的供应商——他们与母公司之间存在一些问题，我们也必须解决。但我认为，现在我们已经解决了这些问题，项目进展顺利。”

“材料成本上涨，人工成本上涨，而陆军方面……需求也推高了成本，”布什补充道，并解释说成本上涨并不让他感到意外。“陆军想要按某种方式建造，这在造船厂很难做到。这会增加时间和金钱。”

布什的发言人在 11 月 8 日向《防务新闻》发表的声明中表示，该计划“面临着经济状况的重大变化，例如材料成本增加、供应链中断、劳动力短缺和劳动力成本上涨”。

发言人补充说，材料成本上涨占增长的 75%，其余部分为人工和管理费用。

布什承认，陆军花了很长时间才就新价格进行谈判，现在希望在下一个预算中获得额外资金，以稳定该项目。

一年前，陆军在俄勒冈州波特兰市将这艘新型舰艇下水，这是自上世纪90年代中期以来陆军首次启动新的水上舰艇项目。2017年，陆军授予Vigor公司一份价值9.8亿美元的合同，用于建造这种新型登陆艇。据陆军作战支援和作战系统支援项目执行官称，一年前的计划是采购13艘MSV-L型登陆艇。

布什表示，陆军已准备好进行小批量生产。“我们愿意承担一些成本风险，因为陆军确实需要这些武器，”他说。

珍·贾德森是一位屡获殊荣的记者，为《防务新闻》报道陆地战争。她也曾为《政治报》和《内幕防务》工作。她拥有波士顿大学新闻学硕士学位和凯尼恩学院文学学士学位。