LCS Maintenance Stand Down: This Isn't a Sailor Problem

Of all the doomed-to-fail concepts that are baked in to LCS, the one that is most infuriating is the manning concept.

A classic case of, "Here is your number. Make the rest justify it." - it was strictly an artificially constructed idea force-moded on to our Navy by a toxic, anti-intellectual command climate and kept going through bureaucratic inertia, personal loyalty, and the standard issue careerism tactic of pushing problems to other people's PCS cycle.

The last few weeks have been a parade of horrors taking up a lot of space on this blog, but the news is the news. This "quickening of fail" was just a matter of time. As LCS critics have warned for over a decade, once these things start to displace water, you will only be able to hold off the reckoning so long, and then it will all cascade in. Forget chickens, the turkeys are coming home to roost.

The response to the series of engineering problems has been disappointing, but understandable. We always knew that when reality showed itself, the only cure to extruding some utility out of the Little Crappy Ship would be seabags full of cash and the blood, sweat, and careers of innocent Sailors. As the forklifts are moving additional pallets of cash, it looks like the system is going after the Sailors.

It was bad enough that part of the force-moding of LCS was to simply work our Sailors harder from a normal hard job using the idea that, "100% if fine, but we can get 120% if we just call it something else - how about "hybrid?""

So, here we go. Via our ever-reliable Sam LaGrone at USNINews;

After four combined engineering casualties within the last year, the commander, Naval Surface Forces (NAVSURFOR), “ordered an engineering stand down for every [Littoral Combat Ship] crew to review procedures and standards for their engineering departments,” the Navy said in a statement issued late Monday.

Following recently disclosed engineering casualties on the Independence-class USS Coronado (LCS-4) and the Freedom-class USS Freedom (LCS-1), Vice Adm. Tom Rowden ordered stand down for all LCS crews and the LCS squadron (LCSRON) which was completed on Aug. 31

“These stands down allowed for time to review, evaluate, and renew our commitment to ensuring our crews are fully prepared to operate these ships safely,” Rowden said in a statement.

Again. This is no more a Sailor problem than an overheated engine is the fault of the needle pointing towards the red area of the dial.

Where is the OPNAV and NAVSEA stand down? Where is the Clark, Mullen and Roughead call to account? 

Yes, VADM Rowden, we do need to "review, evaluate, and renew" - but your best bet is to find a way to weld in more berthing. Give our Sailors the time and focus to do their job right and serve their ship and its Navy, and not allow a manning concept to continue based on bad ideas, and a Plan B which is only, "work harder and hope."

“I have asked the Surface Warfare Office School (SWOS) commander to review the wholeness of our LCS engineering education and training to include the testing and retraining of all LCS engineers,” Rowden said.
“This training will occur over the next 30 days and will allow the SWOS leadership to review our training program and determine if other changes need to be made to the training pipeline.”

According to the service, “the required engineering training will be conducted by the SWOS’ engineering team, who will develop both a level-of-knowledge test and specialized training that will be deployed in the next 30 days to the LCS engineering force. The commanding officer of SWOS is also conducting a comprehensive LCS engineering review, which will likely take 30-60 days. From there, more adjustments may be made to the engineering training pipeline.”

I know, lots of word salad and bureaucratic squid ink there. First thing, we have outstanding Enginemen (EN) in our Navy. They are only doing what they have been trained to do and can do inside a 24-hr day. We are talking about training, but the real fix will be in what we are asking them to do.

In addition to announcing the stand down and the retraining, the service also announced following Sunday’s return of Coronado to Hawaii NAVSURFOR sent a team to the ship “to take a holistic look at the engineering program on board. A preliminary investigation will provide an initial assessment and procedural review of the situation, and any shortfalls will be addressed quickly to get the ship fixed and back on deployment,” read the statement.

The word of the stand down and the ongoing retraining for the engineering departments comes ahead of a soon-to-be-revealed LCS review that promises fundamental changes on how both classes are manned, equipped and operated, USNI News understands.

OK. We are welding on a patch until we can get LCS's manning concept back to the intellectual dry-dock.

Fair.

Now, as I am not through kicking my hobby horse, let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we? We cannot know how we got where we are unless we look at the path that brought us here.

From 2005;

The Center for Surface Combat Systems (CSCS) is the lead Learning Center of Excellence for LCS and is working in conjunction with the Center for Naval Engineering (CNE), Center for Service Support (CSS) and Center for Information Dominance on individual schoolhouse training issues. To identify the skills needed to operate the ship, Human Capital Objects (HCO), a detailed description that identifies all work, including watches and collateral duties.

"LCS is the first ship on which manning and training requirements were determined based on the development of Human Capital Objects, leveraging the significant work accomplished in Job/Task Analysis and skills-based assessment," said CSCS Commanding Officer Capt. Rick Easton.

With a total projected crew of 75, the optimally manned Freedom requires that its crew members have skills in more than just their rating. They will have a blend of skills from several ratings, which is creating a new, or hybrid, Sailor.

"Today you have a billet on a ship that's ascribed to an Engineman second class. That means you have a stovepipe you can only put an enginemen in that billet that does enginemen type work based on occupational standards and things of that nature," explained CNE 5 Vector Model Manager Roy Hoyt. "When you want to build a hybrid Sailor, what you're doing now is mixing and matching the flavor of work contained within that billet that becomes your Human Capital Object."

As a result, some of the LCS work requirements such as some scheduled maintenance and repairs are being moved ashore.

"The LCS Task Force that built the Navy's first HCOs selected, based on the approved Concept of Operations, those functions critical to mission accomplishment and then moved remaining functions ashore to be provided through Distance Support," Easton said.

Yes, the BS Bingo has always been thick with LCS;

"Sailors on this Littoral Combat Ship are going to attain various certifications, qualifications, knowledge, skills and abilities that will be resident on their 5 Vector Model, so that in the future when they want to move to another Human Capital Object that is created, they can compare their resume against that position and in many cases may fit better than their contemporaries," he said.

"LCS is without doubt an advanced combat platform that provides significantly expanded opportunity in both operational and technical responsibilities outside of traditional Navy Rating boundaries," Easton added. "Part of the Revolution in Training vision is to expand opportunities for Sailors to grow beyond traditional constructs of today's ratings. LCS provides that opportunity unlike any other platform in today's Navy."

Laugh, cry, or scream. Me? I'm well in to the laughing phase as I quit screaming in 2009, and crying? Well ... their is no crying on the blogger platform.

2008;

Freedom is designed for a "core" crew of just 40 people, supplemented by another 30 or so who accompany "modules" fitted with weapons, sensors and robots. It’s been an open question in Freedom‘s five-year development how a small crew would handle such a large ship, especially if she were attacked. Would there be enough hands to cook, clean and stand watch — never mind fight fires, pump out flooded compartments and repel boarders?

To get the most "bang" from a small crew, the Navy has doubled up their training. Nobody gets assigned to Freedom without years of experience, a proven ability to handle all sorts of tasks, plus qualifications on pistols, rifles and machine guns. The youngest sailor aboard is 26, compared to 18 for most vessels. The Navy calls these cross-trained sailors "hybrids." Passing through the locks was a test for the very first all-hybrid crew. "Even the skipper got into the act, hauling in and resetting fenders set from the bridge wings," Defense News‘ Chris Cavas reported.

When you are busy doing other people's job, you can't bloody well do yours. Yes, I know that is "old think" - but hey;

Even so, Freedom collided with a gate, tearing a gash in her bridge.

Snort.

Speaking of 2008, let's quote our buddy John Baggett's NPG school quote of Fleet Forces Command #3 Cardinal rules for LCS;

3. Do not try to compare LCS to legacy platforms. It cannot be manned, trained,
equipped, maintained or tactically employed in the same way. No old think.

Old think wins again, or as the great American philosopher said, Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut.

Moving on to 2010;

"As an engineer I had never stood watch on the bridge before," he said. "It's a lot different from being down below the waterline."

On this ship, multipurpose monitors allow engineers to oversee the entire operation from a seat on the bridge rather than having to stand watch in each engine space.

Out of sight, out of mind, out of ... well ...

Compared to the crews on most ships in the fleet, those aboard the Independence go through more training, do a broader array of jobs and rely more on technology.

As we warned; when everyone is a jack of all trades - then you have a ship where no one is a master of anything.

This is known.

But the crew of the Independence wasn't focusing on the future during the two days it spent at sea this past week while traveling from Key West to Mayport.

Instead, it was a chance for the men and women to hone their proficiency at handling the array of jobs that comes with being "hybrid sailors," as well as an opportunity to do things like launching a boat and dropping the anchor, which they had not yet done in the open ocean.

Getting those jobs done with a crew about a quarter of the size of the one on a frigate can be daunting, with sailors jumping between unrelated tasks.

Petty Officer 1st Class Brian Bunch, for example, had barely removed the gear he wore for a fire-fighting drill when he was jogging to the ship's massive mission bay for the boat-launching exercise.

When you ask too much of your Sailors and think that wishes can fix math - you get what we have today.

Still in 2010;

Ooley, for example, had to attend engineman "C" school and learn much more about the workings of diesel engines than a normal GSM ever needs to know.

Engineers also regularly stand bridge watches, in fact, as it gets into the fleet, Independence needs to qualify as many of its engineers as possible for bridge work, so the ship can spare its fire controlmen and operations specialists to work radar and monitor the ship's air picture, Renshaw said. For that, the ship has two combat information centers, known as "interior communications centers" in LCS jargon, one of which is located behind a curtain in the pilothouse.
...
And despite the Navy's growing experience with LCS, Independence suffers from the same basic challenge as Freedom: doing the full-time work of a ship at sea with far fewer people than normal.

Chief Engineman (SW) Gary Thomas said that under normal circumstances it might take 50 or 60 sailors to run an engineering plant like Independence has, but instead, it has 10.

"It's no secret here that the e workload is excessive," Garrow S said. "If you didn't have people working overtime, giving it their all...." He trailed off.

This is not a Sailor problem. This did not happen overnight.

Learn it. Know it. Live it.

What remains in the background but has yet to really break above the ambient noise, is an understanding of "sunk cost" and "opportunity cost." Both are huge in the program, and if as an institution we understood the concepts better we would know that it was wrong not to kill this program in 2008. Wrong to not kill in in 2010. Because of those wrong decisions - can we even kill it now?

We may not have a choice. Do the best with what we have been saddled with, but don't add to it by buying more? How do you keep the builders busy so you don't lose industrial capacity?

Fun mess we have put ourselves in.

Let's all hope LCS gets off the front page for awhile now. I'm tired of kicking it, again.

We have failed George C. Marshall's First Essential of Peace

Over the course of this weekend I found myself thinking of General George C. Marshall, USA, and what we could profit if we could just have his counsel for a few days - but of course that is silly intellectual vanity.

It really isn't necessary. He left a vast legacy to draw on. It is all right there. All we have to do is read it.

As such, I found myself re-reading his December 11, 1953 Nobel lecture, something I last looked at during Reagan's second administration.

You need to read it all, but I'd like to point you to his comments below about the essential importance of the study of history - especially the parts I highlighted.

It is almost as if our education establishment decided to do the absolute opposite in some ways - but in others took it all on board, but with a selective substitution of ideology for facts. As our education nomenklatrura is worm-eaten by leftists who hated him from the start, this should not be shocking. As always though, one must ask; why no pushback?

Enough of me; here is a man how knows the world as it is.

In this brief discussion, I can give only a very limited treatment of these great essentials to peace. However, I would like to select three more specific areas for closer attention.

The first relates to the possibilities of better education in the various factors affecting the life of peaceful security, both in terms of its development and of its disruption. Because wisdom in action in our Western democracies rests squarely upon public understanding, I have long believed that our schools have a key role to play. Peace could, I believe, be advanced through careful study of all the factors which have gone into the various incidents now historical that have marked the breakdown of peace in the past. As an initial procedure our schools, at least our colleges but preferably our senior high schools, as we call them, should have courses which not merely instruct our budding citizens in the historical sequence of events of the past, but which treat with almost scientific accuracy the circumstances which have marked the breakdown of peace and have led to the disruption of life and the horrors of war.

There may perhaps have been a "last clear chance" to avoid the tragic conflagrations of our century. In the case of World War II, for example, the challenge may well have come in the early thirties, and passed largely unrecognized until the situation was unlikely to be retrieved. We are familiar with specific events such as the march into the Rhineland or aggression in Ethiopia or Manchuria. Perhaps there was also a last clear chance to begin to build up the strength of the democracies to keep the military situation in equilibrium. There may also have been a last clear chance to penetrate to the spirit of the peoples of the nations threatening the peace, and to find ways of peaceful adjustment in the economic field as well. Certainly, had the outcome of the war, with its devastation and disruption, been foreseen, and had there been an understanding on all sides of the problems that were threatening the peace, I feel sure that many possibilities for accommodation would have been much more thoroughly explored.

It is for this reason that I believe our students must first seek to understand the conditions, as far as possible without national prejudices, which have led to past tragedies and should strive to determine the great fundamentals which must govern a peaceful progression toward a constantly higher level of civilization. There are innumerable instructive lessons out of the past, but all too frequently their presentation is highly colored or distorted in the effort to present a favorable national point of view. In our school histories at home, certainly in years past, those written in the North present a strikingly different picture of our Civil War from those written in the South. In some portions it is hard to realize they are dealing with the same war. Such reactions are all too common in matters of peace and security. But we are told that we live in a highly scientific age. Now the progress of science depends on facts and not fancies or prejudice. Maybe in this age we can find a way of facing the facts and discounting the distorted records of the past.

I am certain that a solution of the general problem of peace must rest on broad and basic understanding on the part of its peoples. Great single endeavors like a League of Nations, a United Nations, and undertakings of that character, are of great importance and in fact absolutely necessary, but they must be treated as steps toward the desired end.

We must depend in large measure on the impartiality of those who teach. Their approach must be on a scientific basis in order to present the true facts. The scientists, no matter of what nationality, make a common approach to their problems.

Gene Wilder Tribute

About the best way I can think of to give a nod a man who led a full and funny life would be to play a sample of bits from the movie he was in that I enjoyed the most.

Of course ...

Fullbore Friday

Think about Lou is that just a few years before, he was just another dude trying to figure it all out. Instead - he became something even a fiction writer would have trouble making up;

1 of only 3 US Aces to claim kills agains all 3 Axis powers, (3 main powers: Germany, Japan & Italy). The ONLY one to shoot down a USAAF plane as well, and definitely the only one to shoot down his girl friend

He was a POW for awhile to boot.

There are a lot of stories out there about Lou, but this one from AcesOfWWII catches it about right;

Lt. Curdes was circling low over one of his P-51 pilots who was bobbing in his dinghy just off Jap field Batan Island. Another pilot whose plane had the lowest gas in his tanks headed for home. A fourth plane was circling at 20,000 feet sending out a distress signal. It had been a fairly good day, as fighter Mission days over Formosa go. Curdes' flight had knocked down two planes over the target, Curdes getting his first Nip since he came to the Pacific from the MTO last December. They had blasted three more on the ground at Batan before flak caught one of his flight. Curdes looked down to the tossing dinghy and figured the chances of a Catalina coming in for a rescue before dark. It was getting along towards mid- afternoon, and the nights come fairly early off northern Luzon in the middle of February. Suddenly, Curdes noticed a black speck coming from the southwest toward a Jap landing strip at Batan. Then the speck became a dead ringer for a C-47. And, as the wheels came down on the transport, Curdes saw the American markings. "Those damned Japs have patched up one of our buggies and didn't even have the grace to take the markings off" Curdes figured as he wheeled about to give the visitor a closer look. Then he read a familiar number on the tail. It was the number of one of the "Jungle Skippers." At this point, the Jap ack-ack, opened up at Curdes’ P-51 but not at the transport. A quick run of thinking convinced Curdes there was only one thing to do since the plane would be Jap property as soon as it landed, if it was not already. The P-51 banked steeply, head on into the flak, and opened up with its fifties on the C-47’s right engine. As the transport headed out to sea, with one engine gone, Curdes made a 180 degree turn and cut loose on the other engine. The C-47 settled into the water within yards of the downed fighter pilot's dinghy. Curdes dived in to do a little strafing after all occupants of the transport climbed aboard life rafts, but he observed in time that the survivors were white. So he went back to his low level circling. His water bound charges had grown from one to thirteen. When darkness fell and still no help had arrived, Curdes figured all would be safe until dawn and returned to his base.
The next morning before daylight, he and his wingman took off. And they were circling over the survivors when a rescue Catalina arrived to pick them up. Back at base, Curdes learned that the C-47 had been American manned with 12 occupants including two Army nurses. The pilot had become lost during a flight from Art island in the southern Philippines and had been forced to head for the nearest visible strip because of a fuel shortage. Curdes gave a start and a shout when he glanced at the names of the survivors. One of the nurses was the "date" he had been with the night before at Lingayen.
"Jeepers," He exclaimed, "seven 109's and one Macci in North Africa, one Jap, and one Yank in the Pacific -- and to top it, I have to go out and shoot down the girl friend."
A few weeks' later, Captain Louis E. Curdes of the 4th Fighter Squadron. Third Air Commando Group was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for shooting down a C-47.
Captain Louis E. Curdes was assigned to the 95th Fighter Squadron, 82nd Fighter Group. He was reassigned to the 4th Fighter Squadron, 3rd Air Commando Group (1945) where he flew the P-51), "BAD ANGEL". A Jap flag and U.S. flag were added to the seven German and one Italian markings on the fuselage of his Mustang. Curdes made wheels up forced landing on a beach South of Naples, Italy in August 1943 when he ran low on fuel trying to return to N. Africa. He was interned as a Prisoner of War until October 1943. He escaped twice and evaded capture for about eight months before returning through enemy lines on May 27, 1944.

Some say he got a DFC for downing that C-47, but that is bad gouge. He has two, but not for that.

Retired in 1963 as a LtCol. Good work, good career - GREAT PIC.

R2P does not age well

For those of us who have the Kosovo campaign in their CV, besides that little blue bit of NATO ribbon, there isn't all that much we got out of it besides an ongoing contempt for Wesley Clark.

Aidan Hehir over at The National Interest reminds us, the track record in the Balkans is not all that great.

There is something to be said for letting wars burn themselves out - in a way what we are in mid-process of doing in Syria - or otherwise you are just creating another "frozen conflict" that will only blow up in someone else's face at an undetermined point in the future. You also find yourself expending blood and treasure for something that simply is not in your national interest - only in someone's personal pseudo-psychological interests.

There is no small measure of the internationalist narcissism in play here and other places. Kosovo is just a datapoint;

despite the hyperbole and the extraordinary scale of the state-building project, Kosovo currently suffers from a crippling array of problems, and bears the hallmarks of a failed state. This could be verified by consulting the Failed State Index but for the fact that—illustrative of its contemporary predicament—Kosovo is not considered a “recognized sovereign state.”

As a consequence of the massive investment of economic and political capital, perpetuating an image of Kosovo as “multiethnic,” “democratic” and “peaceful” has become vital to liberal internationalism’s image. Preserving this image, however, has led to the imposition of a national identity which simply does not equate with the reality on the ground in Kosovo. More damagingly, the determination to artificially contrive a facade of peace and stability within Kosovo has led external actors to tolerate, and at times support, corruption and intimidation perpetrated by Kosovo’s powerful criminal network. Paradoxically, therefore, Kosovo’s people have been forced to endure profoundly illiberal practices orchestrated by the various “internationals” who micromanage the country so as to maintain its image as their success.
...
Unemployment amongst fifteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds in Kosovo is a staggering 60.2 percent, a global low according to the World Bank. Average unemployment in the EU is 10.1 percent, yet in Kosovo overall unemployment stands at 35.1 percent, worse than in Yemen and Palestine. Prospects of economic growth are not helped by the fact that foreign direct investment in Kosovo is declining
...
Visitors to Kosovo will soon notice that while the Albanian flag is ubiquitous, Kosovo’s official flag is something of a rarity. The official flag has failed to resonate with much of the population—hardly a surprise, given that it was imposed by external actors keen to manage Kosovo’s image. Comprising a blue background with a gold map of Kosovo surmounted by six white stars, the flag is designed to convey two messages: Kosovo is European, and Kosovo is multiethnic. Describing the flag as something that “could easily have passed for a towel in a hotel in Turkey,” veteran Kosovar journalist Veton Surroi notes it is “lacking any aesthetic criteria” and “was selected because of its bureaucratic vocabulary.” The color scheme and stars are clearly an attempt to echo the EU’s flag. Likewise, Kosovo’s national anthem is titled “Europa” and has no lyrics, owing to a determination to avoid nationalistic language disputes.
...Albanians as making up 92 percent of the population. ... Kosovo’s constitution—also imposed by external actors, particularly the United States—refers to it “multi-ethnic” character no less than seven times.
...
Kosovo’s constitution promised that the newly independent state “will contribute to stability in the region and entire Europe.” Given the huge number of Kosovars seeking asylum across the EU, and the fact that the current president has been accused by the Council of Europe of leading a continent-wide criminal network involved in human trafficking, the sex trade and heroin distribution, this goal has clearly not been met.

Ultimately, Kosovo highlights the perils of unaccountable power and liberal zealotry. Beneath Kosovo’s veneer of “liberty” and “multiethnicity” there lies a disturbing confluence of corruption among and between the internationals and local criminal networks.

The Balkans have always created more history than can be consumed locally - but mostly when external actors decide they "need" to get involved.

Kosovo thus evidences a potentially explosive mixture of widespread and deep social disquiet combined with a lack of faith in the democratic system; popular anger is building and more violent civil unrest is a distinct possibility. Kosovo may soon return to the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.

The Balkans will at some point devolve in to bloodshed as the people there are want to do in that ethnic and religious zone of conflict. Perhaps this time we should just let them work it out amongst themselves - unless that is - you think the Balkans are worth the bones of anyone.

CNO Goes Salamander on LCS?

Well, he didn't go full Salamander - just part Salamander.

You never go full Salamander.

I'm reviewing over at USNIBlog. Come visit and let me know what you think.

Monday's post is over 600 comments, let's see what we can generate over at USNIBlog.

National Security Welfare Queens Ask for More Benefits

The audacity of the entitled and spoiled.

There are two NATO nations who, in living memory, were not only under Russian (Soviet) occupation, but they were invaded by the same Soviets even while they were ostensively allied with them. These nations are Hungary and Czech Republic.

One would think that since they threw off the Communist yoke, joined the club of democratic Western nations and even NATO, that this memory would have them focused on a robust defense. Sadly no.

NATO sets a goal of defense expenditures at 2% of GDP for members. Only the USA, GRC, GBR, EST, and POL meet that minimum.

Of the 27 nation NATO members, CZE and HUN ranked 21st (1.04%) and 22nd (1.01%). Almost the very bottom. In the great alliance effort in AFG, neither nation contributed more than a token force, caveat laden and ineffective.

Amazing, but here they go again - demanding others do what they won't do themselves;

The leaders of the Czech Republic and Hungary say a "joint European army" is needed to bolster security in the EU.

They were speaking ahead of talks in Warsaw with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They dislike her welcome for Muslim migrants from outside the EU.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said "we must give priority to security, so let's start setting up a joint European army".

I am not sure what is going on - but sometimes nations behave like children poorly raised by irresponsible parents.

No one owes you a living folks. If you want help from others, at least show an effort you are doing all you can with what you have available. Look at plucky Estonia. Want goodies? See that EST kid? Be like that kid. Everyone in the neighborhood wants to help that kid. You?

Spoiled brat behavior will most likely get spoiled brat results.

Also remember; if people didn't at their core like you, they wouldn't try to give you good advice.