Since the day the Navy commissioned it, the Norfolk-based amphibious ship San Antonio has been plagued with costly defects. Five years later, it sits along the Elizabeth River unfit to deploy.That is the key. You get what you inspect. When this ship got underway, I said what many have said - the ship will do its job and be fixed - but on the back of its Sailors and with a metric butt-ton of money.
Now a report says that the Navy, as well as contractors who designed and built the vessel, bears blame for the problems.
Released publicly Thursday, the report details findings from a six-month Navy investigation. While it looked only at the San Antonio, the inquiry could help answer questions about defects aboard the four other ships in its class that are now in service, including the New York.
The first of the five to take to the sea, the San Antonio has suffered the worst of the problems. In its short life, the $1.8 billion, 25,000-ton vessel has been called in for several major repairs worth at least tens of millions of dollars.
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But the Navy shares in the blame for failing to identify the flaws, the report says: If the government had properly overseen and inspected the vessel during construction, the problems could have been caught early.
Investigators also fault the San Antonio's crew for failing to uncover the defects before they caused major damage.
"Ship's force was slow to recognize lube oil contamination (because of) a variety of long-term issues," the report says. Specifically, it cites sailors who weren't properly trained and who didn't carry out vital systems checks.
Navy officials declined to discuss whether crew members were disciplined or consequences they could face.
"The chain of command has taken appropriate administrative action aboard San Antonio to hold accountable those responsible for the training and maintenance deficiencies aboard the ship," Naval Surface Force Atlantic said in a statement.
The report includes several pages detailing the training failures. The Navy requires 42 sailors aboard the San Antonio to complete a course on operating its engines; only three have. Fifty should have taken a class on the ship's lube oil system; only one has.
The defects do not have to do with the Sailors and leadership of the ship though - they are only trying survive with the equipment and work environment that senior leadership with their consultant-speak and transformationalist fever-dreams made for them.
This all comes from institutional addiction to happy talk. Just follow the LPD-17 tag below - people who have been involved with this program from the start have been telling me the problems and warning of what was going to happen from cost and maintenance. Eric makes a good point in the article,
Eric Wertheim, author and editor of the Naval Institute Guide to Combat Fleets of the World, said the Navy appears to be taking the problems seriously. "The Navy and the Defense Department should look at this as an example of how every step of the process can go wrong," he said. "Most of the problem seems to be with the shipbuilder, but the Navy's the one that really needs to figure how to stop this from happening again."Yes - we need an open table, Chatham House Rules dissection of this. The first three witnesses need to be Clark, Mullen, and Roughead. This is their baby.
Phil has some other thoughts worth your time as well.
The legacy of happy-talk and the Tiffany Navy.
34 comments:
Meh. It is just taxpayer money anyways. Burn all you want. They will make more.
And what is all this scuttlebutt about expensive? How much of taxpayer money has been spent on diversity and refiting combay vessels with women's heads and quarters, instead of maintaining Ageis and othe weapon systems?
The old San Andy is working just fine for the Indain navy. Why did we hand it over again?
I'll bet the ship is "green" for annual sexual harassment and diversity training!
Absolutely pathetic! I agree w/ ExNFO, though. I bet their BS sensitivity training was good to go! Crap priorities get you crap performance and product. We can not go after pirates but by God, we can make everybody feel ok about them selves. USN, the Global Farce for Good. Our upper leadership has absolutely taken a big, steaming, corn infested dump upon the Navy. Good job gentlemen.
Would it be cheaper to decomm LPD-17? Then do a SLEP on a older LPD.
The good news that money spend on separate facilities will help us to not get called on the carpet by Mexico and China for committing Huam Rights Violations.
You know, the CNO said Diversity is Job #1!
And The WON said he was going to redistribute wealth...and we didn't believe them...silly us!
"...<span> USN, the Global Farce for Good."</span>
How about the Global Force for Feel Good?
Because it was a crime against humanity.
In other news, Saudi Officals were not available for comment, as they observed "stone a homo" day.
The liberal side of the equation, by forcing the issue of never discussing a God, has lost the ability to determine "good" from "evil." All they know is the relative merit of "feeling" like they are dooing something good, with no analysis of possible consequences.
Sort of like the Navy leadership.
Had a comment from a shipmate who was part of the Balisle report. His comment: He went to 50 ships and said I'd be heart sick with what was going on out there. Knowing the caliber and integrity of the commenter, I know it's bad. This is where we have gone, as eager to get more MSM for thier uniform types in the Pentagon have made decisions, without standing up and telling the truth about happens when you don't maintain your equipment and training.
Not like Congress and the President would understand the analogy of caring for their own vehicle: They just call for one from the Pool to drive them about. Someone makes sure they never have downtime...
They, too, have lost touch, while spending money as fast as they can to get votes. Shameful. Evidence: They're still getting around earmark "ban" as noted in NYTs - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/05/us/politics/05earmarks.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
Funny: The axpayers railed against "earmarks" and somehow Congress, after "banning" them has figured they can still do them. I guess it all depends on what "ban" means, right?
I've been trying to tell everyone how bad the suck was for years now. Did your friend crawl any bilges to see how bad the rust has eaten away at hulls? or all the freakin' leaks?
He's a Combat Systems guy. I haven't send him a note, but I suspect he spent his time looking over the readiness topside, the "business end," but he had been CO of a DDG-37 Class 1200lb plant. He also was very "holoistic" in his work, and services from below the main deck were a critical part of the equation. I'm sure he meant that, too. He was later a CDS (TACDESRON) Commodore. Plenty of experience to make good calls on where we are.
have crawled the bilges, have seen the leaks, have seen the corrosion in the top mast. Here's some truth: In 1996, this was the way of the future. "Transformational Navy." Contractor outsourced maintenance and upkeep. This ship was the 1st, DDG 1000, CG(X), LCS all were to be just like this as well as any follow on ships. Except the Navy never fully implemented the plan. So instead you got a half assed training plan that is being corrected (getting rid of the computer based training for school houses), getting rid of the SWAN (ship wide area network), and finally correcting the shipyard problems such as misaligning the frickin MRG's (main reduction gears). There is more than enough blame to go around, but the bottom line is that we will never know if the original plan "would have worked" because big Navy got sticker shock at the up front costs (without respect to the life cycle or total ownership cost) and decided to half-ass resource it.
Now, as I thought about it, I realized Gary Roughhead was a senior to me by a few years when I met him as a CO of DDG-52.
That being the case, and back to my comments a few days back (The Balisle Report) on the debacle that followed Vietnam in the Engineering world that put PEB into play, the CNO had to have been a JO when the pain of not maintianing ships came to light back in the early 70s.
He has done a great disservice to the US Navy by not, having lived in that time, considered the consequences of putting the Fleet inot such a condition once again. May be a different judgement by me if he was junior to me (when I came in PEB was well established and a way of life, and the plants were doing better, and we weren't killing hardly anyone in major accidents by then. let alone firing COs and CHENGs for breakfast), but that can't be the case. He had to have known about it as a young officer.
Apparently the computer learning module on lube oil systems doesn't mention lube oil contamination. And none of the senior petty officers, chiefs, j.o.'s or the Cheng thought it was all that important. Nor what passes for the functional equivalent of Squadron Engineer. And I guess the concept of a force diesel engine inspector went away. And the force Material Officer has nice desk and a pretty yeoman and doesn't have steel toed boondockers, or a set of oil stained coveralls with matching rag, flashlight and inspection mirror. Not to mention a very pretty manicure.
The ISIC and his staff aren't there to cluck when things go wrong. Rather, walk the deckplates and crawl the lower level with ship's company in tow holding a seminar in good engineering practice, so things don't.
Nobody leads from behind a desk. Nobody.
Sounds like several other "well intentioned" solutions. They got approved, begun, then someone else came along, replacing the proponet in DC and the money got "re-programmed," yet everyone still thought the program they were told was in play was in it to win. "trading" away the capabillity was never fully briefed.
I had one like that: Grew up in SWO Basic and DH school being told the 963s were "ASBESTOS FREE!" Everyone I knew "knew" that. It was taught as reality. When ENG on an extended visit to nearby AW1 Tim's place of residence for an ROH, all of a sudden the BIW workers were hauling a$$ off the gangway like a fire was burning. Turned out a guy was on scaffolding in the hanger, laying on his back cutting out lagging and got a faceful of dust.
Big flap followed. I called SUPSHIP (still then) Ingalls. WTF, K? Response: "Only three ships were certified asbestos free. Did you get a certificate? If not...then it's not you, sport." *Click!*
Boy that was fun talking to our SUPSHIP and BIW reps, who also had been told the ship didn't have any on board...because of the myth a generation of Engineers E and O were told. Only a very generic para on removal, on a per item basis was in the work package.
I'm sure it was a victim of someone with more pull needing more money.
Oh, and you guys who thought you served on asbestos free 963s (most likely CG-47s, too, and 993s), better check into it if you have any lung issues.
Had a CO who liked to go to remote places like under the trubine modules to take the pulse of things...and call to have you meet him there. Great leader.
Had a bilge lighting project to make it easier to catch problems from the walkways, but he still did very through zone inspections, shipwide, and he expected me and the troops to make sure all of the ship had the repair/support it needed so he could train JOs in the finer points of using binoculars to compute distance via mil marks, especially when we were putting 5" rounds down range.
Did BIW send the warning bells we should have listened to? Their absolute happiness and joy to get out the LPD-17 contracts for DDG-51's should have said maybe they know something others should know. Maybe they knew the problems Avondale was having and didn't want the stain to taint them and their brand new shipyard complex.
COMNAVSURFOR has three line LCDR in his Diversity shop though .....
Sadly, it will be the CO's CHENGs, and other Dept Heads and DivOs who will bear the brunt of the failures of their superiors. The SWO "do more with less; cheery aye aye" mentality is unsustainable in the real world. No amount of "overtime authorized" for ship's company can solve this.
What is most shocking is the lack af adequate training in something as basic as lube oil.
Why are we accepting crappy built ships? Why are we designing crappy design ships? Why are we failing to provide the resources, both on the deckplates and the promised off ship assets, to carry out the necessary maintenance? WHy don't crews get the necessary quantity and quality of training for their job [in lieu of diversity crapola]?
Enough with the diversity crap! Get those bodies down in the bilges ASAP to help fix ships. Sailors belong on ships and ships belong at sea, not sitting around flapping their gums about sexual, racial and gender fantasies, or reporting about same. That alone won;t help much, but we need all the help we can get.
The boss men (and ladies) got some explaining to do on why we got so many broke d!ck ships!
No Worries.
At least the Boat School has a good national football team!!!
I suspect if the ship's company spent more time working the bilges and less doing diversity stuff, they might not have the time or energy to engage in inappropriate behavior.<span> </span>
It's worse... you should read some of the 2 Kilos that generate our work packages.
A certain FFG at a certain Naval station had their accom ladder completely overhauled. It was a fairly expensive evolution, too, requiring both welding and machinists support to accomplish the work item. The checkpoints for operation and weight test were succesful and well-documented. The ship left for a few days and upon returning recieved permission to set down their accom ladder. Big clang, big mess, they forgot to pull the pins on the upper platform that lock the ladder to the rotating platform. Bent the hell out of the platform. Fortunately, it was fixable.
The moral of the story is get your ass out of the divison offices, get off the damn computers, and TRAIN!!! Best wayto do that is to actually work with the equipment.
Since I'm now retired and "bullet-proof", here's a comment about LPD construction:
NAVSEA PMS-317 tried something innovative with this new class. Mid-way into construction, beginning before the first light off of each piece of equipment/system, a combined gov't and civilian team assumes responsibility for powering up, then lighting off, testing, debugging, grooming, repairing of the many subsystems installed on each new construction ship. This team is civil servants from several branches of NAVSEA plus key contractor personnel. A great idea to experiment with a new process: the shipyard gets each subsystem physically inside each space, and then is relieved by this combined team run directly by NAVSEA PMS-317. Unfortunately, two flaws showed up: the combined gov't / outside contractor team was too small to accomplish everything. And, secondly, the shipyard (AVONDALE or INGALLS) was no longer responsible to get all the huge amount of stuff inside the ship to work ! So, we had this combined NAVSEA team completing power hookup, lighting off, grooming, running internal checks, system level tests, and then finally Builders Trials and then presenting this new ship to the INSURV board during Acceptance Trials. Too much work for such a small team. And great experiment which has had poor results. The shipyard is relieved of so much responsibility and the too-small combined team is in charge of inspecting (and passing) all their own work ! No more Gov't SupShip inspecting the shipyard; rather, it is the govt team ensuring they are ready to present themselves to AT/INSURV. Still, this was a fantastic concept, but staffed at too small a level.
Wouldnt matter if SUPSHIP GC was there, they are in bed with NG. The good old boy network lives! I count my blessings every time another DDG rolls out of BIW that doesnt have to have numerous things corrected at PSA.
Same problems with most Pascagoula crews. Not sure what the PRECOMM folks are doing down there, but taking ownership of their ship doesnt seem to have been a priority lately. Sad, because Pascagoula ships used to be decent.
We've had to modify engine stands because nobody who recieved or inspected the things knew anything about fabrication. As it was they were all found to be defective after an engine fell. Turns out that the welds were utter crap. Any welder could see that through the paint (that's how bad they were). I've seen brand new AC AGE units need repairs because they were bad from the factory, but no one noticed until AGE fired one up. I'm thinking that it is rather prevalent in the DoD that inspectors are unqualified to actually do valid, quality inspections.
Kalroy
Dunno. I had a great crew in Engineering, but a few months after the two 3/c female Midns had been aboard for cruise, one of my crew let it slip that "the Engineers had 'been there' first" while yukking it up about how the BMs thought they had beat everyone else to the task down in overflow berthing. We passed all our Engineering inspections with great marks...clean and operational and I had 2 GSM2s qualified as EOOWs, along with the people senior to them.
Where there are "diverse" hormones, they'll find a way to play...always my foundational rejection of women at sea...
We didn't have computers in the dark ages of 77, but we had an aviator as CO and you could look over your shoulder anytime, to find him there, because he wanted to know what made the ship really run. He knew what was going on. He was liked and respected by all.
When I got to ROH in BIW (first 963 there), the BIW Sup used to love to come and get me and drag me off to see some poor workmanship. Bobby loved doing that.
I had Pre-Commed one, and had been to MIssile Officer without a working battery until PSA, so I was the liaison with Ingalls. I saw the workmanship at each yard as a result. BIW wins..
What a mess...... it reminds me of when the DD-963's were built and we had to deal with the wonderful mess Ingalls and the Big Navy sent us to sea with. Leaky WHB tube bundles, Copper Steam Condensate Piping, Leaky Firemain welds, Single Entry GTG Fuel Nozzles that would Coke-Up, Vacum CHT Systems.......etc..etc...... it seems we never learn!
Good luck to those Deck Plate Sailors who will have to find a way to make there ship run!
great story. Our old DCA was a CWO5 who when he was CDO would pick the most remote places on our LPD to hold eight o'clock reports. It forced the chops to learn the ship, and helped out a new JO learn as quick as possible too!
Sounds like DD-979 or DD-989........BIW is definately a great shipyard that leaped ahead of the Gulf Coast shipyards with it's new shipyard concept.
CBT sounds great but as a OS1 is was always frustrating to see young Ensigns lost and looking to me to train them on Moboards. Yet at the same time I had young OSSN's who needed training also. So the OSSN's got taken care of first and if I had time I would train the young Ensign's. In DC sitting in comfy land pushing training to the fleet sounds great and yes saves money. In the real world it's a cluster fudge and frankly a disservice to all involved. Spend the money and train these people right before they hit the fleet.
The clue is in there....nuke it out, ShawnP.
One of the best times in SWO basic was going to the ship simulators (a room with real S/P phones, faked ZR/T circuits a SPA-25, a helm/lee helm and lighted MoBoard table to do DivTacs. The ATP1 signals came so fast. you were computing the next maneuver before the first one was executed. Yuo got good, or you got yelled at. I used two colors of grease, and that way we could plot the maneuver in progress and have the entire DRM ready for the next one. Rinse and repeat!
You learn things via immersion, not from reading. Got to play in how to conduct realistic drills with a slittle simulation as possible. It works. CBT? not for war fighting skills, please.
Happy Talk; it's running through my brain, as there's some of that horse pucky in corp America too. Thing with the Navy is, rarely does anyone get fired for fielding crappy ships. Please, next time, name name's; active, retired, or dead. Be a nice little reminder to the current happy talkers.
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