Navy’s fingers are crossed on this one
November 21st, 2011 | Board of Inspection and Survey LPD-17 Photos San Antonio class | Posted by Bill McMichael
The sixth San Antonio-class ship completed its acceptance trials last week, and the Navy is sure hoping that the future USS San Diego can jump out of the gates after its December delivery without the problems that have plagued the rest of the class.
Dock Landing Ship 22 has something going for it: It wasn’t built at Avondale, La. While all five previous 17s have had issues, one, the Mesa Verde, overcame its initial power plant problems and shock trial issues. The Pascagoula, Miss.-built ship is now on its second full deployment, replacing San Antonio, which had to stay home so the finishing touches could be put on a two-year repair job for fixes too numerous to mention. The other Avondale-built 17s had serious issues: New Orleans (propulsion, steering, elevators), Green Bay (steering, engine contaminants), New York (lube oil, bent crankshaft).
The amphibious transport dock ship Pre-Commissioning Unit San Diego. // U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding by Ron Elias
San Diego was also built at Pascagoula. According to Naval Sea Systems Command, during the acceptance trials, Huntington Ingalls Industries, the builder, “successfully demonstrated” systems ranging from main propulsion engineering and ship control systems to combat systems, communications systems, damage control, food service and crew support, and the Shipboard Wide Area Network.
During the at-sea portion of the trials, San Diego “successfully completed” a four-hour full power run, self-defense detect-to-engage exercises, rapid ballasting and deballasting, steering, quick reversal, and anchoring, NAVSEA said.
“The ship fully performed as expected, successfully completing all of the required demonstrations in port and at sea with some of the highest scores seen in this class to date,” said Rear Adm. David H. Lewis, program executive officer for ships. “These trials reflect the hard work the LPD-17 class team has accomplished in order to prepare this capable warship for delivery to the fleet.”
Problems in the first editions of military ships, jets and ground vehicles show up more often than not. But after five of these things, you’d think the design and construction issues would have finally been ironed out. Time will tell.
At INSURV site, life ring is front and center
July 7th, 2011 | Board of Inspection and Survey Humor Navy | Posted by Sam Fellman
In case the 14-hour days of checks, inventories, walk-throughs and re-checks leading up to a Board of Inspection and Survey visit lead you to think dark thoughts, there’s help: a link to a suicide prevention hotline is front and center on the INSURV website.
“Life is worth living,” it says. Clicking on the life ring redirects you to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline website.
These suicide prevention links are common on Navy sites, appearing on most – if not all – official websites. But normally, this button is tucked in alongside other links to Navy.mil, Navy Freedom of Information Act, and Navy and Marine Corps recruiting. On INSURV’s page, the suicide link stands alone, right below the board’s contact info – as one eagle-eyed Navy Times reader pointed out.
It’s as if the sudden realization that INSURV is bearing down on you might lead to some unsavory thoughts.
A success story, and a lesson learned
April 30th, 2011 | Board of Inspection and Survey Fleet Forces Command Gator Navy leadership Maintenance Navy Personnel Photos | Posted by Bill McMichael
A year ago, the dock landing ship Oak Hill was in poor shape — and that’s by the Fleet Forces Command chief’s reckoning. Beginning in 2005, five deployments in five years, no time for maintenance and inadequate manning had left the relatively young ship with a degraded power plant, endemic corrosion and a whole lot of systems that just didn’t work. A long-overdue yard period, money, lots of outside help and long hours produced a remarkable turnaround Apr. 4-8, when the ship passed its rigid underway material inspection by the Board of Inspection and Survey with flying colors. Oak Hill scored “green” in 16 of 18 functional areas, and “yellow” in the other two. Refurbishment and upgrade work continues, but the ship is just about back up to where officials want it to be. And it’s looking good:
The dock landing ship Oak Hill, on a recent afternoon at Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story. // Photo by William H. McMichael
The lesson learned — or more accurately (over the past two years), reinforced — is that it’s far easier, and the Navy is better served, when ships are maintained on a more even keel. That means, officials say, ships accurately reporting problems, leaders honestly assessing and reporting how much money the Navy needs for ship maintenance, and fully manning ships so that commands can better perform everyday maintenance as well as prepare to fight.
For more detail, see our story in Monday’s Navy Times.
San Antonio: still pierside — but getting there
March 23rd, 2011 | Board of Inspection and Survey Fleet Forces Command Gator Navy LPD-17 Maintenance Navy Photos San Antonio class Ships Surface Force Atlantic | Posted by Bill McMichael
The amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde left its Naval Station Norfolk pier at 9:05 Wednesday morning as the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group began deploying to the Med and the Libya crisis.
As it pulled away, its wake gently lapped up against the starboard-side hull of San Antonio, moored at the next pier over, in what amounted to a love tap. Mesa Verde’s crew might have preferred delivering more of a kick in the rear. The third ship in the class, Mesa Verde had been home only eight months since its last overseas deployment, and it wasn’t supposed to deploy until late 2012. Instead, it was going to sea more than a year earlier than planned in the place of San Antonio — the class’s lead ship. Commissioned in 2006 and plagued by structural and systemic issues during its maiden and only deployment in 2008-2009, it is still getting undergoing repairs.
The amphibious transport dock San Antonio, Naval Station Norfolk, March 23, 2011. // Camera phone photo by William H. McMichael
But there’s light on the horizon. According to the ship’s executive officer, Cmdr. Neil Koprowski, San Antonio is rounding into shape and on April 25 will go to sea for three weeks of intensive sea trials. Koprowski said it’ll be a “full assessment — soup to nuts” — with high visibility. One visitor, he said, will be Adm. John Harvey, commander of Fleet Forces Command, who made the call to hold San Antonio back.
If the ship passes muster, it’ll begin a 20-week basic training phase in preparation for getting back into the fleet’s rotation. Then, in October, another test: a visit from the famously tough Board of Inspection and Survey.
Koprowski, nine months into the job, is optimistic. “We’re excited about getting back out there and showing the world … we’re gonna do good things,” he said.
A new San Antonio-class ship that’s ready to fight
February 16th, 2011 | Board of Inspection and Survey LPD-17 Maintenance Navy Photos Surface Force Atlantic | Posted by Bill McMichael
It took the Navy just five tries to get it right the first time — at least, when it comes to San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships. Naval Surface Force Atlantic announced Monday that the New York successfully completed its post-commissioning Final Contract Trials Feb. 4.
CORRECTION: SURFLANT incorrectly first reported that the New York is the first of the five ships of the LPD-17 class to be certified for sustained combat operations on its first such evaluation. Rather, SURFLANT says, the ship produced the highest score during the FTC process of all previous San Antonio-class ships.
The class has been plagued with problems ever since its first, the San Antonio, was commissioned in January 2006. Five years and one long-delayed yet mechanically challenged deployment later, the San Antonio remains moored at Norfolk Naval Station, undergoing main propulsion diesel engine repairs and other work, according to Naval Sea Systems Command; the problems are such that the ship was bumped out of the rotation for a scheduled summer 2011 deployment. The first four ships of the class struggled with lube oil contamination and in late 2009 — just after commissioning — a bent crankshaft was found on one of the New York’s four diesel engines.
For the New York, those problems are apparently in the past, with the ship’s major systems having passed muster — after the delay for crankshaft repairs — with the infamously tough Board of Inspection and Survey. FTC inspections begin with two days of in-port checks followed by two days of underway checks including a full-power engine run, steering checks and a ship self-defense exercise.
The ship having “scored the highest” of all other LPD-17 ships on the FCT doesn’t come as much of a surprise, given the class’s history. Still, officials were pleased.
“Completing FCT the first time out has set a new standard for the class,” said Cmdr. Curt Jones, the ship’s commanding officer. “It’s a testament to the progress made and a rise in the level of technical knowledge in the class.”