The U.S. government is once again under fire for a long-standing shipbuilding habit: starting construction before designs are fully baked. The practice has repeatedly led to cost overruns, delays, and technical setbacks across several major maritime programs, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has repeatedly pointed out in its reports. 

Earlier this week the Navy announced the termination of four ships from its troubled Constellation-class frigate program. Only the initial two vessels of the program will be completed following a 36-month delay pushing delivery to April 2029.

For more than a decade, the GAO has cautioned defense and homeland security officials against “concurrency,” the risky practice of overlapping design and construction phases. Yet despite repeated warnings, the pattern persists. 

In recent reports, the watchdog has pointed to the Coast Guard’s Polar Security Cutter and Offshore Patrol Cutters as well as the Navy’s Constellation-class frigates as examples of this problem. The Zumwalt-class destroyers serve as another case study where construction began before the design was finalized, resulting in massive cost overruns and the program being cut from an initial 32 ships to just three hulls.

The Polar Security Cutter, which the Coast Guard desperately needs to replace its aging icebreaking fleet, has become a flagship case study. During repeated Congressional hearings on the issue expert witnesses urged Coast Guard leadership to achieve 100 percent design maturity before starting construction.

“We will not be at the level of design maturity that the GAO would like to see when we do [begin construction],” Vice Admiral Paul Thomas, Deputy USCG Commandant for Mission Support, stated in front of Congress last year.