Posted on 08/06/2019 6:38:11 AM PDT by C19fan
The U.S. Navy officer was eager to talk.
He’d seen his ship, one of the Navy’s fleet of 11 minesweepers, sidelined by repairs and maintenance for more than 20 months. Once the ship, based in Japan, returned to action, its crew was only able to conduct its most essential training — how to identify and defuse underwater mines — for fewer than 10 days the entire next year. During those training missions, the officer said, the crew found it hard to trust the ship’s faulty navigation system: It ran on Windows 2000.
The officer, hoping that by speaking out he could provoke needed change, wound up delaying the scheduled interview. He apologized. His ship had broken down again.
“We are essentially the ships that the Navy forgot,” he said of the minesweepers.
(Excerpt) Read more at propublica.org ...
Are the rest at sea, does he say? Does he know?
I was in P-3s for many years and not often could I tell you the status of another squadron unless 1) They were based at the same NAS as we, and 2) I had a friend in that squadron.
The British Navy needed sub killers at the start of WWII.
My understanding is that their new Corvettes were essentially a fishing boat repurposed for combat.
Maybe they can produce the technology needed in the ship and then put it on ships that are already designed and more easily built.
As we said in the Navy - Every ship’s a minesweeper - once.
But experience dictates that that’s not “the Navy way.”
Tie this to the lack of manning of the fleet, sailors not knowing how to use such simple things as the navigation equipment, ships operating when not properly manned, I am not a bit surprised.
Seems that the Navy needs a complete analysis from outside.
I would like us to have about 300 brand new minesweepers.
But, you have to consider The Opportunity Costs.
The Navy doesn’t have an unlimited amount of money.
Maybe we can supply the aircraft carriers and Saudi Arabia could supply 20 minesweepers?
Too many soy-boys and bull dykes in DC running the Navy.
“It ran on Windows 2000”
Old habits are hard to break with the govt computer upgrades. Surprised they are not running XP and in some areas really old code using 8 1/4 ‘floppies’.
“Too many soy-boys and bull dykes in DC running the Navy.”
Yours is the money post of this thread! In terms of “$hit Leadership,” the US military is probably worse than our Judiciary! Oh well, at least they don’t have law degrees.
Windows 2000 ? I bet one of the crew has a kid that can rewrite the Nav program using Linux
“Considering the US Navy has the responsibility of keeping the Straits of Hormuz open for decades the lack of mine sweeping capability is scandalous. “
The USN has the most capable minesweeping in the world. Even though it could be improved, do not think it cannot keep Hormuz open.
Combined arms has a great deal to do with that.
If Iran started mining the strait in earnest, they would very quickly lose the ability to place a single mine.
“Considering the US Navy has the responsibility of keeping the Straits of Hormuz open for decades the lack of mine sweeping capability is scandalous. “
Or, according to the source of this (ProPublica) this is a crock of crap. The US Navy doesn’t let active vessels go to crap.
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