"Budget Office Warns of Tripled Costs for Amphibious Ship Project"

The Congressional Budget Office predicts that the Landing Ship Medium program could cost between $6.2 billion and $7.8 billion for an 18-ship program, significantly higher than the U.S. Navy's estimate of $2.6 billion. Uncertainty surrounding the ship's role and design has led to discrepancies in cost estimates, with questions remaining about the ship's concept of operations and survivability standards. The cost will also depend on the number of ships the Navy ultimately buys and the standards used for design, with potential cost variations of $4 billion to $8 billion for an 18-ship program.