"I am quite confident the price would come in under 50 million dollars, quite possibly well-under." The outfitting on a LPD and any other Navy vessel is the ma

"I am quite confident the price would come in under 50 million dollars, quite possibly well-under." The outfitting on a LPD and any other Navy vessel is the majority of the cost. There is over 50m USD worth of radar processing equipment in a single space on an LPD. Chocks, non-skid, RAST, extensive welding well beyond a VLCC, and more. The alignment work alone on the combat systems equipment, i.e. directors, CIWS, nulka, SRBOC, slq-32, spq-9b, HGHS, DTS, etc., is over 500k USD. That's just ALIGNING the foundations and equipment. It's not the actual equipment or foundations. The NOMEX panels in every space is incredibly expensive. That's something you would never find on a VLCC. Even if you used non-mil-spec cables you'd have miles and miles and miles more cable on a LPD than a VLCC. The article is correct. You could build a ship to carry 700 marines, helicopters, and support vehicles for much cheaper. You would never be able to have it move with the speed of a LPD, have the combat systems equipment outfitted, and you'd never have it with any level of defense. I have been on this exact ship many, many times. I previously commented that it just left BAE NSR within the last 6 months. It just finished sea trials at NAVSTA NFK. The LPD-class has been riddled with problems, but it's a totally unfair to compare it to a basic "off-the-shelf" VLCC. I'm surprised to see so many naval architects and engineers in this thread. You have to remember that none of us wake up every day to do a poor job. These ships are a miracle of modern engineering.