Builders Escape Most Costs as Navy on the Hook for Warships
- Warranties forcing Austal, Lockheed to pay weren’t used
- Auditing agency reports for a House hearing on the ships
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The U.S. Navy must pay “for the vast majority of defects” on its troubled Littoral Combat Ship, not contractors Lockheed Martin Corp. and Austal Ltd., according to congressional investigators.
The government has to foot the bill because the Navy didn’t require warranties that would force contractors to pay many of the costs, as the U.S. Coast Guard does, the Government Accountability Office said in a statement delivered at a congressional hearing Thursday.