Posted on 11/30/2020 2:13:44 PM PST by Lower Deck
The Navy will scrap the USS Bonhomme Richard after a fire burned aboard the amphibious assault ship for nearly five days in July and rendered it unsalvageable, the service announced Monday.
After “thorough consideration,” the Navy has decided to decommission the ship “due to the extensive damage” from the blaze, the service said in a statement.
“We did not come to this decision lightly,” Navy Secretary Kenneth Braithwaite said in the release. “Following an extensive material assessment in which various courses of action were considered and evaluated, we came to the conclusion that it is not fiscally responsible to restore her.”
The Navy estimated that repairing the ship could cost more than $3 billion and take between five and seven years, a price tag and timeline that service leaders did not find feasible.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
NO!
Do you know the history of that name? She is named for Ben Franklin and the French who gave us the ship to fight the Revolution with. John Paul Jones was her first commander.
Unless Trump’s loss put’s us in the post-USA (in all but name) category, the name should always live on.
Sorry lower deck i have to disagree with you about the ship being in The yards hands. I went thru a complete overhaul. And we never let “all kinds of flammable crap” lay around. We had 24/7 fire watches and they often had to stop welding jobs because the yard birds were literally a bunch of fk ups. And we never let them get very far with out safety and fire prevention being first on our minds. Yes yard birds are going home , you aint, yardbirds have set ships on fire because they didnt want to work the weekend. But thats no excuse for not having a competent fire watch thats roving.
"U.S. Representative John P. Murtha, of Pennsylvania's 12th Congressional District, delivered the principal commissioning address. Then Secretary of the Navy, John H. Dalton, placed the new ship in commission. Congressman Murtha's wife, Mrs. Joyce Murtha, served as Ship Sponsor, and christened the ship at Ingalls in May 1997. During the commissioning, Mrs. Murtha gave the traditional order to "Man our ship and bring her to life!" "
One has to ask if the ship was designed for war with advanced fire suppression why did it burn up so easily?
==========+=======
IIRC, ship was undergoing yard work. Crew was not on board and many systems shut down while yard maintenance worked.
IIRC, the fire suppression system was deactivated.
It reminds me a little TOO much of the USS Miami.
they said this was deliverare saborafe
can we at least execute the people that destroyed such a large us military asset?
save a bit from keeping them taxpayer supported in jail for life?
I would imagine so.
LHD-6 was the U.S. Navy's fifth ship named Bonhomme Richard.
You can bet there will be a sixth.
The conversion was to make it even more of one. They were going to take out the well deck used by the landing craft, and expand the hanger deck (and modifying the flight deck) to accomodate F-35s that are replacing the Harriers.
That’s different. I wasn’t aware of the significance of the
Bonhomme Richard. Yes. We should continue to honor that
legacy and that moment of diplomacy.
FunFacts:
I just found out Franklin would sometimes use a different name; that being Richard Saunders.
I am reading now that Ben was the 10th son of a soap maker, Josiah Franklin.
At least partially. The bottom of the mast melted and it twisted and sagged.
I haven’t seen any mention of the cost to replace.
“I think that’s very superstitious.”
Sailors are a superstitious lot.
Because the fire suppression system was disabled and disconnected for maintenance
Well, I hope they get it completely scrapped before Biden takes over... He’d likely give it to the Chinese to reverse engineer completely.
Lower Deck ~ They were in the hands of the shipyard with most of the crew ashore and flammable crap everywhere. A whole lot different than combat conditions.
The fire suppression system was down for refurbishment as part of the work to be performed. That would have made quite a difference, as would the watertight doors being closed as they would be in an attack scenario, that limits the spread of any smoke and fire, as well as isolating flooding.
Still, a good solid hit with not just the damage from the warhead, but any unburned solid rocket fuel bouncing around inside is a BAD THING!
It burns quite hot enough to make aluminum flow like water.
I read there are different standards for nuclear powered ships that are as you said, but for oil burners its a different story.
The Enterprise
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.