Sub repairs will total $9.4 million [USS Hartford]

Navy Times ^ | February 04, 2004 | Christopher Munsey

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Repairing the damaged attack submarine Hartford will cost about $9.4 million, Navy officials said. Hartford briefly scraped bottom while cruising on the surface Oct. 25 near La Maddalena, Italy. The submarine suffered damage to its rudder and scrapes on its hull and lost acoustical tiles.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

This sounds worse than just a little bottom scrape.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

Just cosmetic, I'm sure. :)

[j_tull]

If the "acoustic tiles" were really hull array hydrophones, that would account for the large price tag.

[OldCorps]

guess the skipper can kiss his career goodbye.

[Taylor42]

Yeah, have they named the new skipper...

[PokeyJoe]

Any bubbleheads onboard? Where was the boat when it "scraped" bottom while running on the surface? I know of a place in Washington (by way of a documentory) where sibs must run on the surface to avoid hitting the bottom as they deploy to sea. I thought the draft of an SSN (city name) was less than a SSBN (state name).

[Poohbah]

Probably involves a lot of rewelding...and every separate weld would have to go through SUBSAFE certification. The cost of redoing the SUBSAFE cert is nontrivial.

[spiffy]

I would have gotten a second estimate before approving the repairs.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Oh yes. The CO wasn't the only officer relieved of duty over this incident.

[fso301]

I'd hate to serve on that thing. Probably use it in the future for an underwater noise generator.

[Joe Boucher]

Capt.s have to sleep sometimes and during this time someone else may have been at the helm and navigation. While ultimately responsible for everything that happens on or to his ship I'd like to hear more detail before convicting a capt.
I have always had either motor or sailboats and have upon occation hit bottom evan though i seriously study charts.

[DainBramage]

Unless the "bottom" referred to was a russian sub.

[Jambe]

Previous thread (there may be others)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1041709/posts

[Pan_Yan]

The accoustic tiles are the rubber coatings that cover the whole hull. They are a pain in the a## to attach and come off all the time. You can go out to sea for five minutes and lose twenty tiles. I'm sure they lost some hull hydrophones as well. If they banged up the rudder, they probably dinged the prop as well (not cheap). The 'outboard motor' drops out of the hull right before the rudder and it might have needed some realignment as well.

[Hunble]

I understand how the Navy demands that some person (usually the Captain) takes the blame, no matter what happens.

You know, sometimes Sh*t Happens!

I would much rather learn the lessons and keep an experienced Captain around, than destroy his reputation and waste all the time and money invested in him over the years.

This policy of the Navy is something that I have never understood.

Yes, if the Captain gave a direct order that resulted in the damage to the Submarine, then he should be held accountable for his actions.

[Poohbah]

Yes, if the Captain gave a direct order that resulted in the damage to the Submarine, then he should be held accountable for his actions.

He approved putting a complete f***ing moron on watch as the OOD.

It's not difficult to avoid running aground at La Maddelena. You just stay in the middle of the blue stuff (water), and stay away from the brown stuff (ground).