Posted on 06/19/2011 2:22:55 AM PDT by tlb
The U.S. Navy has discovered "aggressive" corrosion in Austal Ltd.'s first new combat ship designed for operating close to shore.
The corrosion is in the propulsion areas of the USS Independence, the Littoral Combat Ship built by the Mobile, Alabama-based subsidiary of Australia's Austal and General Dynamics Corp.
"This could be a very serious setback," said Norman Polmar, an independent naval analyst and author in Alexandria, Virginia. "If the ship develops a serious flaw, you're not going to continue producing them."
Permanent repair will require drydocking the ship and removing its "water jets,".
Aluminum-hulled ships such as Austal's tend to rust faster than steel-hulled ships, Polmar said. "But I'm surprised it happened so early," he said. "This ship is brand new."
The corrosion discovery in a ship that was commissioned in January 2010 marks another blow to the Littoral Combat Ship program, planned to ultimately consist of 55 ships. In February, the Navy discovered another ship in the series, from another construction team, had a crack through the hull.
Austal won a $465 million contract that could reach as much as $3.78 billion if all options are exercised. Building all 55 ships will cost the Navy at least $37.4 billion.
Officials were concerned about the potential for corrosion during construction of the ship because of "dissimilar metals," particularly near the steel propulsion shafts, the Navy memo said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
27 really hits home. This is really hurting the yacht biz. Boatyards can’t use effective paints. You have to leave the USA to get good antifouling, for example.
Roger that, linda like that tail dragger vs. nose wheel debate for aircraft. They finally got it figured out.
Easy to state in theory. Very possible in a smaller yacht or sailboat. Difficult to attain even in a "crew boat" type vessel, due to having so many "competing" systems jammed into such tight spaces. And far more difficult on a high-speed warship with its vastly more high powered electrical systems. I worked as a welder on lots of older alloy yachts and workboats. A lucky alloy boat indeed if it reaches 20 years without serious plate corrosion, just for example. One guy (a contractor retrofitting a new system, usually) makes one mistake with grounding etc, and the boat can literally dissolve in a matter of weeks. THat's the REAL world, not the lab, where alloys are kept in perfect isolation for totally bogus and worthless electrolysis tests. The only real test takes place when the vessel has been operating in salt water for a decade.
However they figure it out, that jet drive area will always be a challenge. What an operating environment! By comparison a typical “shaft alley” on a steel hulled ship is a child’s trike compared to a formula racing car.
For command of the sea, the US Navy needs about 12 Carrier Battle groups. IMHO. We need command of the sea because we import most of what we use (yet another great national policy).
Ask “Geraldo” how much fun he had with the alu-hulled yacht he bought from Tom Watson. “Paladin” was a disaster!
Travis, I agree with you!
Tell the Earth First, Sierra Club etc, to pound sand. What a bunch of idiots have taken over our country?
Tell the Earth First, Sierra Club etc, to pound sand. What a bunch of idiots have taken over our country?
Tell the Earth First, Sierra Club etc, to pound sand. What a bunch of idiots have taken over our country?
“Tell the Earth First, Sierra Club etc, to pound sand.”
Environmental requirements are first made law, probably by sticking a sentence here or there in unrelated more important bills. Then, our government gives environmental groups grants so the environmental groups can sue the government into enforcing the new law. (You didn’t think they spent their own money on lawsuits, did you?) So, the Army, Navy, AF etc. are told by the Pentagon that they have to write these ultra-green requirements into their contracts. Early on, the military granted waivers, but the waivers are temporary and the contracting agencies can’t just keep granting them. So, the ultimate product is inferior, sometimes failing before it’s ever installed due to corrosion or on-going chemical processes.
Big winners here are the lawyers, contractors, who get to repair or replace their defective product and the Greenies who get to stick it to the military, damage American military preparedness and fantasize about saving the whales all in one go. Losers, of course, include the taxpayers and the poor Joe who really needs his weapon to work after a month in the field. Honestly, the Chinese military must be watching this while eating popcorn and drinking beer.
'Somethings wrong with our bloody ships today'
Somethings wrong with this articles title; consider.
Navy Finds 'Aggressive' Corrosion on Austal's Combat Ship (Littoral Combat Ship)
Navy Discovers Radical Environmental Laws Have Aggressively Corroded it's New Clitoral Design Warship
It's more than merely interesting, we could be completely without escort vessels. We should put off building anymore hulls (50 have been cranked out ASAP), because the Aussies know that the program hulls have many unable to fix tech challenges. Why not build ten more Arleigh Burkes while we get the bugs worked out on the Clitorals?
Yes, but the Navy combats it by reversing the normal current flow to near zero and by the addition of sacrificial anodes.
EPA banned lead based paint on metal air conditioning cooling towers a few years ago.
Instead of lasting 10-15 years they now fall apart in 3-4 yrs.
About as many as the loadout of a single V-22 Osprey or a CH-53 Sea Stallion actually.
Absolutely SWAMPSNIPER. Absolutely. Israel experimented with all aluminum welded cargo containers in the early seventies. Absolute disaster as electrolysis literally consumed them in a relatively short period of time. Other than electrolysis they also were susceptible to damage in normal handling that was way costly to repair given their construction, and the requirements to repair. They could only be repaired in sophisticated ports such as the United States where the costs were much too high relative to an international trade.
This relates to most anything aluminum and saltwater, or similar commodity bleeds such as say a cargo of hides to a foreign land to make shoes, or other leather accessories. The salts wiped out the containers quickly.
“Engineers? Right those are the guys that design cars that require you to remove the A-C compressor to change the oil filter.”
I understand the politics of ludicrous designs. It’s not the engineer’s fault that you can’t easily maintain the car. The car is designed by stylists, not engineers. The engineers look at the stylist’s shape and say, “Okay, it’s only got room for our 1.5 liter engine.” But then the marketing people say, “The competing vehicle has a 3.2 liter V6 with 100 more horses. We have to match that.” The engineer’s say, “But our 3.5 liter won’t fit!” The company management says, “We don’t care, we have to match the competition.” Forget that the competition designed their car and engine together and your engine was designed 15 years ago as a rear-wheel drive unit that’s now turned sideways. So, us buyers (those who don’t read Consumer Reports) buy something we can’t change the oil in.
This works the same way in the military procurement arena. The engineers preferred the color “haze blue” for the F117 stealth fighter. But the AF said, “Nope, it’s got to be black.” Why, ‘cause black is sexy and haze blue made the plane so hard to see you couldn’t find the edges when they took publicity photos.
In short, if you want a maintainable vehicle, you’ve got to buy it from a company run by engineers rather than company politicians.
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