The Non-Floating Submarine
When
: 2013
Where
: Spain
Who
: Navantia
Losses
: $2.2 billion
Even airheads know that a submarine has one main job: floating. Despite paying about $2.2 billion to develop a new, cutting-edge Isaac Peral Submarine in 2013, the Spanish government didn’t even use it because of this immensely expensive error.
Photo by Peter Kovalev\TASS via Getty Images
The submarine was so incredibly massive that it couldn’t float correctly. Engineers investigated the issue and concluded that there had been a miscalculation. Luckily, the design didn’t make it to the production stage, but it still lost the government a ridiculous sum of money.