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(Late last week some and we're planning a trip to Pascagoula in preparation for the hoped for July 16 delivery date.) Privately, one young officer had this to say: "Obviously, a delay of something on something on the order of nine months would dilute your training efficiency." The Pentagon has argued, however, the longer the men wait, the more training they can get. Litton received a contract for 30 Spruance-class ships June 23, 1970. That prompted congressional criticism about a single shipyard getting too much work at one crack. The original target price for all of the vessels was $1.3 billion, but it now has risen to more than $2.1 billion. Apiece, the destroyers were to have cost about $85 million. It is now believed that the per-copy price will be more than $100 million. Navy and Litton officials say that the ships will have far greater effectiveness against submarines than do current Navy vessels, particularly at high speeds, because of silencing measures and improved sea-keeping capabilities. The first large U.S. warships to employ gas-turbine propulsion, the destroyers are intended as replacements for aging Navy craft built during World War II. The Pentagon has high hopes for them. Nevertheless, the new ships are engulfed in controversy that has stretched from stem to stern at Litton, involving submarines and other vessels as well as the destroyers. Adm. Hyman Rickover said more than two years ago that Litton was guilty of "misrepresentation, if not fraud" in a dispute with the Navy over increased costs three submarines. That was one of many disputes. Three years ago, the sum of all Litton's claims before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals was estimated to between $164 million and $173 million. The Board arbitrates disagreements between the Pentagon and defense contractors. Litton submitted two of the claims shortly before then President Richard M. Nixon picked company chief Roy L. Ash to be director of the Office of Management and Budget, a job that gave him responsibility for Navy fiscal matters. |