The acquisition board proposed simultaneous construction at Northrop Grumman's Ingalls yard and General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works, but authorization lagged. By late 2005 Congress provided only a trickle of funding and the House allowed enough money to begin one technology demonstrator. The number rose to two ships by 2007 while most funding remained a promise for future budgets. This uncertainty undermined a program whose economics and operational logic assumed a real class rather than isolated prototypes.
Chapter · 27:15-29:08
Congress turns a class into a technology demonstrator
Congress funded construction only incrementally, reducing a planned class first toward seven ships and then to one or two demonstrators while future money remained uncertain.