Here’s the US Navy’s plan to stop its string of shipbuilding failures

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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy’s top officer has laid down the gauntlet: The service must deliver two new classes of surface ships on time.

After 20 years of what two leading lawmakers last year called “absurd acquisition debacles,” the Navy is changing its approach. Instead of building ships and technologies in concert — as it did with the Zumwalt-class destroyer, the littoral combat ship and the Ford-class carrier — the Navy will move forward by designing hulls around fielded systems with room for upgrades, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday said Monday at the annual Surface Navy Association symposium.