Following the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced funding, the decision was taken to scrap the platform. In August 2023, Rob Sparrock, the program officer overseeing ONR’s research vessel program noted that it “… would cost about $8 million to make FLIP useable for another five or 10 years, but that funding could be better used elsewhere.”

Clearly an agent of the secret cabal of Good-Time-Ruiners.