http://gcaptain.com/littoral-combat-ship-uss-montgomery-suffers-cracked-hull-collision-tugboat/
In addition to new placards in the engine room of these EXORBITANTLY EXPENSIVE toy boats stating:
CAUTION: DO NOT ENGAGE TRANSMISSIONS!
they will have to add in bold letters on the sides of the ship:
CAUTION: DO NOT PUSH TOO HARD ON THE HULL!
Experience in getting in and out of Zodiacs could be highly valuable.
Can you imagine a tugboat cracking the hull of a United States Naval Vessel? How about this one; The GRF class aircraft carrier’s certification to join the fleet is delayed, again, due to her bleeding edge electrical circuitry . If that doesn’t dope-slap you, what about Elmo Zumwalt DDE 1000 leaking through her stern tube. Water lubricating stern tubes prevented a four billion dollars public relations disaster and environmental embarrassment. Not to belabor the point, but what about the Spearhead super-fast cat boat. Doesn’t anyone think about this stuff? Ships of the United States Navy must be designed to take what the ocean dishes, and that means steel and lots of it. Whoever recommended aluminum I hope retired long ago. The former SeaLand SL7’s performed this duty without incident in all of our Arabian war’s starting with Desert George HW Bush.
I haven’t mentioned the OH Perry frigates, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. A little more thought and these great ships might have done better. As it is Turkey purchased several along with the upgrades our Navy neglected to do. I don’t mind a few billion for the ships of the United States Navy. But they must be able to fight, survive, keep our sailors alive, and fight another day.
The United States has the lowest progressive federal tax code in the world, or at least it seems like it. It does not take a genius to realize a ten percent across the board tax increase is the cheapest way to build a navy. Bob’s first law: Never buy cheap, you always spend more in the end. We Americans must demand from those we entrust with our countries life, we did not vote you into office to nickel and dime us into a second rate power.
And this dear reader has nothing to do with Thyucididies Trap. Someone in Washington DC, get a clue.
Bob Durino
I think the USA is being taken to the cleaners by the designers and builders of these multi-purpose disasters. Sure, new designs and methods of manufacture have bugs that need to be experienced and fixed, but I can’t recall the amount of misdesign, adverse construction and other mistakes being this bad over the last fifty years.
The serious lack of shipboard maintenance or lack of direction is a sure sign that the Navy is paying far more attention to personnel PC issues and not near enough to nuts and bolts training and education of it’s ship-drivers and crew!
I think these Littoral Combat Ships, need to be scrapped out immediately. They are not safe for the crews and certainly not from enemy gunfire or missiles! Gosh knows, our treasury isn’t safe from the ships either!
I think you forgot the sarcasm tag (?).
Considering we spend more on defense that the next seven countries combined, and it accounts for over 50% of our discretionary budget, I think the DoD is doing juuuust fine in the financial department. There is precisely a zero percent chance of becoming a “second-rate” military power anytime soon. In fact, a fair argument can be made that the garbage we’re getting for our cash is exactly because of the open flood gates in military spending. Shoot, they could pay for new ships solely with proper accounting of their current funds!
The military industrial complex ALWAYS demands more money to feed itself, using good 'ol fear mongering as its justification (not to mention how cheap it is to buy off a couple of congressmen and spreading your manufacturing plants across as many congressional districts as possible). Tweaking the contracts with a little self control and disciplined spending from the purse holders (and a fair dose of campaign finance reform) would get us exponentially better bang for our buck and a leaner acquisition process. We can do this without stealing more money from our citizens coming out of a recession.
I’m all for taxes for defense and the benefit of all, but holy hell, enough is enough. The problem is the rot of the system, not its inadequate budget – not even close.
/rant.
The USS Colorado has reached Singapore without reported incidents, accidents or near misses: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/us-combat-ship-here-for-regional-drills
Not bad for an accident prone class of ships, or what?