Posted on 07/12/2020 11:27:54 AM PDT by bitt
Yes, one of so many proud ships of our United States Navy.
“The area where the fire started, which was the lower vehicle storage area, was filled with cardboard, rags, drywall, and other combustible material.”
INESCUSABLE. Won’t bring the ship back though.
This whole affair reeks of malfeasance. We may prosecute and discipline the people responsible for this but what good does that do us in time of war? Our military looks more and more incompetent.
Shameful. Disgusting.
Sickening.
These ships are bigger than the carriers most other countries have.
Social engineering gone out of control is what has caused this shameful disaster and will cause others if it is not ended and reversed. Forget that, it won’t happen.
They were doing a refit to be able to fly the F-35B, so a welding accident is likely. However, there won’t be any update on that for a while, not until the fires are out.
Actually, it’s more likely that the contractors/shipyard workers will have been at fault and the fact that the ship was torn up with systems completely shut down for the refit will have been the cause of not being able to fight the fire in the early hours.
Who was in charge of managing the project?
Looks like BAe and/ or General Dynamics. BAe had just released it from dry dock recently, but GD had part of the contract. BAe had also rebuilt Wasp’s deck in Norfolk for the same F-35B conversion.
Triwalls. Not dry wall. They are big cardboard boxes with an open top. Usually how stuff comes over during an unrep or filled with trash.
So then you mean to say that BAe / GD are doing this work turn-key having taken possession of and responsibility for the ship in every way with the obligation to return it to the Navy with all the work completed and only then accepted and paid for after inspection? Also you mean to say that the contractor assumes liability for failure to deliver the ship complete and in a timely manner or for its loss? Such liability involves remedies I doubt any contractor can satisfy.
If so then this also implies the Navy has required a bond equal to the replacement value of the ship in the event of such a loss as this or failure to perform the work?
If the contract officers for the Navy have not done this then they are negligent. If there is some other contract relationship then the controlling and accountable party is the Navy.
Fact of the business is, the loss of this ship is bigger than the loss of the ship. The loss of a war fighting asset is one the contractor can’t indemnify for. There is no amount of insurance available for that if it could be obtained. Therefore, the ultimate responsibility and accountability for the well being of the ship can only be with the Navy.
It looks to me like as usual with these incidents it will be a series of events that causes the accident. Digging around some more, I see there is berthing barge next to the ship. That suggests to me the ship was nowhere operational. An update to the article says the Halon gas fire suppression system was turned off. Combine that with a skeleton crew on the weekend, it was likely a recipe for disaster.
Historically, what happens when a contractor breaks a ship through negligence or screw up, the contractor ends up replacing it or does payment-in-kind on other contracts. Fortunately, a Wasp isn’t actually all that expensive relatively speaking and Ingalls can (last I looked) still make them. In fact, they were looking at selling some new-build ones to the Japanese a few years ago (2014-2016).
Of course, if it is arson, then the contractor will be off the hook.
No, they stated it wasn’t anywhere near operational as they were going to be ripping the flight deck up to replace/rebuild it and had already started dismantling procedures. The drydock period it had just had was to do normal overhaul procedures and it was immediately taken over to its current pier to have the deck work done. It wasn’t going anywhere soon.
Historically, what happens when a contractor breaks a ship through negligence or screw up, the contractor ends up replacing it or does payment-in-kind on other contracts.
= = = = = = = = =
MAYBE
Back in RICKOVERs day, a young female USN inspector found some missing welds in the hull of a Nuke Submarine...it was shortly after the Thresher ‘incident’ and the NAVY immediately shut the job down.
HOWEVER the contractor turned around and sued the NAVY for shutting the job down AND WON as - at the time - The NAVY (WELL US) had self-insured the job (which apparently was normal at the time and the provisions of the contract allowed the builder (General Dynamics???) to sue over the shut down even though it was basically their fault)
I realize I am just ‘skirting’ the issue, it is really brought out in the book
‘Running Critical-The Silent War, Rickover and General Dynamics’ by Patrick Tyler (1986).
Anyone EVER involved in Submarines should have this on their reading list and it definitely brings out the old
‘Remember this ship/rocket/whatever’ was built by the LOW BIDDER...
Looks like it is going back to the NASSCO shipyard in SD. I wouldn’t think it would be in any shape to go elsewhere..
cardboard, rags, drywall, and other combustible material.”
INESCUSABLE.
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To make that claim you have a lot of familiarity with shipyard practices? Thanks for your service.
That is almost always the way it is with these things, but...it is good to keep in mind that deliberate arson is not unknown in these things, as other posters have pointed out.
Also, it is pretty clear the ship was non-operational and undergoing a refit. I wouldn’t be too harsh on the skeleton crew if you had a nasty fire like that and there were only a small number aboard...particularly if the person in charge on board was a somewhat junior officer with little experience.
Here is a little more background with what has been going on with the rehab and mentions fires aboard other ships during rehab..
https://news.usni.org/2020/07/13/warships-in-maintenance-always-face-increased-risk-for-fire-damage
Have you considered getting your Caps Lock key fixed there?
There were cases in WW2 where a ship would be launched... and then promptly break in half and sink. The contractor had to replace the ship at their cost.
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