Fri, Aug 22, 2008 (2:05 a.m.)

The Navy once had plans to build a small fleet of “stealth ships,” state-of-the-art warships with a radar-deflecting design. However, those plans have been scaled back over the past few years because of cost.

After signing a contract to build two of the ships, the Navy told Congress it wouldn’t build any more. The cost of the ships is estimated at $5 billion each.

Beyond the cost, the Navy was concerned about the ships’ ability. Pentagon officials said they didn’t believe the ships could do what they were intended to do — hunt submarines and shoot down ballistic missiles.

However, the Pentagon reversed itself this week, announcing it would buy another ship next year and consider building more in future years.

The reason for the turnabout? Political pressure.

Members of Congress from Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island quickly came together and threatened to cut off funding for other Navy shipbuilding programs unless the Pentagon had a change of heart. Building the ships will have a great economic impact on New England. One of the ships will be built in Maine under the direction of Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co.

The Pentagon’s budget has long been burdened by congressional pet projects that have funneled money away from the military’s more pressing needs.

Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., represents an area that includes a shipyard scheduled to build one of the Zumwalt destroyers and said he understands his colleagues’ concerns about constituents’ possibly losing jobs. Yet he voted to kill funding for the program, noting that the new ships will overwhelm the Navy’s nearly $4 billion budget for shipbuilding. Stopping the program, he said, “would be the best thing.”

It certainly would. Taxpayers shouldn’t be on the hook for billions of dollars to build ships that won’t meet the Navy’s needs. Congress should step in and stop the program.