After 9-11 the navy felt it needed a new combat ship for reasons not very clearly explained. They just did. It was supposed to be a speedy thing that could do a lot of things, from "in-close" combat to zipping around doing God knows what to fend off the terrorists. That was at $440 million a copy. Now it is at $800 million a copy, two versions, one built in Wisconsin (?), one gun, undersized missiles, a helicopter that can't do anything useful...well the list goes on and on. (Bloomberg article here).
All and all, this is one of those "gotta haves" that is just a floating turkey.
The point is $37 Billion dollars - ships at twice the original price and they don't work. Literally don't work.
The Pentagon is screaming about sequestering money as disruptive to our defense, etc...putting us at risk so to speak. Next time you hear that, please remind them of this $37 Billion dollar flush down the toilet.