Posted on 04/28/2012 6:14:43 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
Where was it built?
Agree completely. The Little Crappy Ships need to be cancelled yesterday.
Wisconsin apparently. The other LCS class is being made in Alabama.
I read maybe two years ago about a proposal to replace current Coast Guard ships with an upgraded version of their current ships. Those could probably replace the LCS, and be much less expensive.
I especially like how they can’t go into head-waves at all during bad weather. It’s just what our Navy needs.
Hell, bring back the Battleships, they’d be cheaper and they look spectacular. :)
Really now... This SHOULD not have happened. When I was in the Coast Guard back in the 1970’s the 378Ft Secretary class ships were of this style construction and they had the same stress crack problems. It was easily fixed with an expansion joint in the superstructure that allowed the superstructure to flex with the hull.
Bi-metal construction often has this sort of problem especially where there are wide temperature extremes from the Water to the Air temperatures.
Somebody really fell down on the job with this design. Then again maybe they were more concerned about the quarters for a mixed crew?
Union workers strike again !
Milwaukee - gotta love them union welders.
My dad refused to accept a similar piece of crap when he was at the Pentagon. He had US Senators calling to lean on him to approve the defective vessel. He stood firm. It cost him a promotion from Commander to Captain. He was fine with that. Everyone knows where a Commander sits. The title Captain often elicits the question “Army or Air Force”.
Ray Mabus appears to be a typical Obamanoid appointment--which is to say, totally incompetent and politically crazy. And I would guess that Roughead probably is the kind of Perfumed Prince that Obama and Mabus would pick to do their wrecking for them.
All this, of course, under a Communist Secretary of Defense.
If you believe those pukes at POGO are nonpartisan and independent I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you cheap.
“Bi-metal construction often has this sort of problem especially where there are wide temperature extremes from the Water to the Air temperatures.”
Also, that in a salt water environment, you get electrolysis that degards the metals. Navy learned that years ago. Why would they still try it today?
Nonetheless, my Navy days had plenty of well designed ships; epsecially the Essex Class carriers, where heavy-weather steel flexing situations were covered ... thanks to design excellence.
I think they’re all union-thug welders...anywhere.
Yes, it should not be a surprise.
Trouble is....
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/03/16/navy-aluminum-idUSN1513314120100316
There’s just no way around the actual material properties here. Aluminum has a higher thermal coefficient of expansion than steel, work hardens much faster than steel, fails under work hardening conditions without much warning, and will melt at rather low temperatures compared with steel.
It isn’t a good material for a combat ship. A fishing skiff? Maybe. A combat ship? No.
But I NB that the crew has fold-down tables that will allow them to use a laptop. Whoopie.
Why would they still try it today?
Because it’s a “cheaper” construction methodology... supposedly. Yeah sure it’s lighter for the superstructure but you lose a tremendous amount of “armor” capability and aluminum has shown a tendency to melt and deform easily in a fire at sea situation.
If it had been me and weight was of a paramount concern I would have gone with a carbon fiber construction such as you see on the Airbus aircraft or the 787. Sure it’s a bit radical for sea-going warship design but I would have loved to have a prototype built to test it all out in a real-world environment.
May be time for me to re-join the Navy.
...uh...nevermind...just remembered the recent tiff they had over DADT.
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