U.S. Navy wastes 2 bln USD to maintain older guided missile cruisers: GAO

NEW YORK, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Navy mismanaged a program to keep in service 11 older cruisers designed primarily for air defense, "wasting" nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars in the process and failing to hold contractors accountable for shoddy work on a broad scale, according to an audit released on Tuesday.

"The congressionally-mandated report sheds new light on a years-old dispute between Congress and the Navy over whether or when to retire the aging Ticonderoga-class fleet and save, perhaps, billions of dollars," reported Bloomberg News on the development.

Lawmakers said the vessels must be modernized and upgraded to increase and sustain the Navy's firepower. The effort has not gone well, however, stymied by poor planning that squandered money and resulted in vessels that won't be useful for many more years, according to the audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Overall, "the Navy did not effectively plan the cruiser effort" and "this led to a high volume of unplanned work -- 9,000 contract changes -- resulting in cost growth and schedule delays," the GAO noted.