Page 12: of Marine News Magazine (January 2026)

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Column

Back to the Drawing Board

That was then …

Secretary of the Navy

Carlos Del Toro gives remarks at the keel laying of the lead ship of the Constellation-class of guided-missile frigates

USS Constellation (FFG 62), April 12, 2024.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd class Jared Mancuso

The US Navy Contracting

Approach Fails the Stability Test

By Rik van Hemmen, Martin & Ottaway came pretty close to the Navy’s claimed repair cost.

In the 1990’s,

This was not a complex damage, and in actual repair my father was asked to attend a side shell damage on a US process was no different than the repair of a commercial

Navy vessel. The damage was caused by assist tug hard con- vessel side shell damage, but still it somehow cost four tact. He surveyed the damage and came back to the of? ce times as much as it would cost in a commercial setting. To to write it up. His partner Harry Ottaway saw my Dad’s my father this was a surprise because when he worked for commercial damage repair estimate, and said: “Henk it is US underwriters in Rotterdam in the 1960’s, he remem- a Navy ship. Double it, and double it again”. He did and bered attending to a US Navy destroyer that had a contact 12 | MN January 2026