09/29/2026
Suit Up Maine
13 hours ago
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“But Susan Collins does so much for Bath Iron Works!” Does she, though? Folks seem to have missed that some mighty fat shipbuilding plans are in the works, and Maine won’t be getting any of them.
Take the mother of all vanity projects: the nuclear-powered “Trump-class” battleship. Set aside for a minute that the Navy expressly does not want or have the capacity to build this behemoth and asked instead for smaller, more nimble vessels better suited for modern warfare. And set aside for another minute that paying an eye-watering $275 billion for 15 of these dinosaurs will gobble up insane resources that could be used for things like universal heath care.
For now let’s just look at who gets to build them.
Did Susan Collins, with all her power and clout, snag even one battleship for the fine workers in Bath? Nope. They’ll be built in Virginia.
What about the 11 new polar icebreakers? Nope. The first batch of them won’t even be built in the US! That’s right, your taxpayer dollars will be paying workers in FINLAND to build our ships.
What about the new FF(X) general-purpose frigates? Nope. They’ll be built in Mississippi. And maybe also Pennsylvania – by a South Korean shipbuilder, no less.
So what has Collins done for BIW lately? Well, it looks like they may get one LESS ship than they expected. Ouch. Pete Hegseth cancelled one of our Arleigh Burke destroyers in his most recent budget request. Our entire delegation (not just Collins) is trying to get it back. We’ll see.
So please, the next time you’re tempted to spin seafaring fantasies about Susan Collins, maybe let the fog clear off the ledges first.
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