Man torches $400 million nuke sub (twice!)Navy's budget struggles for air

Casey James Fury simply didn't want to be at work, and in the process cost the Navy nearly a half-billion dollars and one attack submarine.

Fury admitted to setting fire to the USS Miami, a nuclear sub, in May 2012 while it was in dry dock.

Fury also admitted to starting a second fire at the dry dock three weeks later, according to federal court documents.

In both cases, he told investigators that he started the fires because he was having extreme anxiety and was trying to get out of work, according to federal documents.

On Tuesday, the Navy announced that despite the demand for attack submarines being "as strong as ever," the Miami is being inactivated. The reason: Under sequestration, the federal government's forced budget cuts, the Navy simply can't afford to make the repairs.

I’m not sure why this is a news story unless it’s just the “inactivation” announcement. The Miami wasn’t being re-fueled, just painted and otherwise maintained. It’s a little long in the tooth anyway and is/was on its last reactor core. The Navy ran the numbers quite some time ago and decided they’d rather put the money into a new hull with a fresh, lifetime, core than repair it for a limited cycle. After all it’s an LA class and many of them have been parked already. The Cincinnati is being chopped at Bremerton at this moment.

I thot it was a nice touch that the firebug punk, Nervous Norvis, got the 400 million $ restitution order. That’ll probly motivate him to write a book now that he’s got time on his hands.

Okay, I found it. He set fire to a pile of rags the first time.

The second fire was set “in an area under the sub.” Maybe wood cribbing?

I know nothing about drydocking subs, but don’t they have fire detection and fighting equipment?

The USS Miami has a nominal 30 year life - and a mid-point refueling. IIRC - the sub has(had) about 10 years left of operational service.

Consider the USS San Francisco - another LA class sub that impacted an undersea mountain and damaged the nose. Because she still had lots of life left...they took another LA class sub being decommed (USS Honolulu) ...and transplanted the nose from her to the San Fran.

Now ...the USS San Fransisco has been designated to be converted to a Moored Training Ship - to be used for training new enlisted and officers as a part of the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Training pipeline, and will replace an old MTS (either ex-626 or ex-635 - nearly 50 year old boomers that were converted to MTS use.)

Seems to me that a way of keeping the Miami operational would be to do the same...take a decomm LA class sub and move the complete Ops compartment/forward onto the Miami - which still has a good reactor compartment and engine room and 10 years of core life.

For comparison - a new Virginia Class Sub costs about $2.5 Billion ...or $833 Million per 10 years of use. If the Miami could be restored to operational for less than $400 Million ....it would be a bargain!

Since the 688 subs were fairly ‘cookie cutter’ fab - it would be far easier to transplant a new forward section than the previously planned ‘gut and restore’.

OTOH - anther good choice might be to designate the Miami as a Moored Training Ship...since they gut the ops compartment to put in additional ‘stuff’ to support ‘prototype-type’ operations!

Thanks Innovative.

Casey James Fury... admitted to setting fire to the USS Miami, a nuclear sub, in May 2012 while it was in dry dock... also admitted to starting a second fire at the dry dock three weeks later... told investigators that he started the fires because he was having extreme anxiety and was trying to get out of work...

He should receive a permanent furlough via execution.

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