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U.S. Navy Discovers That Sailors Need Sleep (LCS Troubles)
War is Boring ^ | 07/11/2014 | Michael Peck

Posted on 07/11/2014 10:51:02 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki

Undermanned and overworked crews can’t keep Littoral Combat Ships running

Did you ever work a job that required two people, but your stingy employer insisted that one was enough? Then you understand the problem with the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship.

One of the LCS’s supposed advantages is its much smaller crew compared to other vessels. Where a Navy frigate might have 200 sailors, the frigate-size LCS has just 40—although, to be fair, two different 40-person crews take turns running the ship.

LCS is a jack-of-all-trades warship that can carry different modules for various missions—anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare or mine-hunting.

The idea was that automation would enable fewer sailors to operate the $400-million LCS for all these missions. This saves on manpower costs as well as on precious shipboard space for crew accommodations.

But a new Government Accountability Office report proves what any Burger King worker already knows—cutting your workforce by 80 percent without also decreasing its workload … isn’t always a great idea.

When the GAO studied USS Freedom’s recent 10-month deployment to Singapore, the auditors found that crews worked too hard. “Freedom crews averaged about six hours of sleep per day compared to the Navy standard of eight hours,” the GAO stated.

“Some key departments, such as engineering and operations, averaged even fewer.”

And this happened despite the Navy temporarily adding 10 extra sailors to the crew and sending contractors aboard.

Missing sleep isn’t exactly a new problem for Navy sailors. But the sailing branch has workload standards for a reason. “Crew members told us that their sleep hours decreased significantly during major equipment casualties, particularly those affecting the ship’s diesel generators and other engineering systems,” the GAO explained.

Warships naturally have to periodically return to port for replenishment and repair. But with its small crew and limited on-board maintenance capability, the LCS is particularly dependent on shore-based support. If something needs to be fixed, the LCS either returns to port or maintenance teams—supplied by private defense contractors—fly out to the ship.

During the Singapore deployment, Freedom had to report to port for five days of preventative maintenance every 25 days, plus two weeks of intensive maintenance every four months.

The result was that the Freedom spent lots of time on the sideline. Ships of the Seventh Fleet—the Navy’s Pacific force—typically spend about 20 percent of their time in port. Freedom spent 58 percent of her tour docked in Singapore.

Mechanical problems were so common that the Freedom lost 55 days at sea, which in turn limited the amount of useful data that the Navy could collect about how reliable the LCS is in the first place.

Nor was Freedom the only problem ship. Another LCS, USS Independence, spent eight months of 2013 in dock or in maintenance.

The Navy wants at least 24 LCS. But critics worry that the vessel is too fragile and too expensive. Freedom’s maintenance issues suggest that such a small crew can’t maintain the ship, let alone cope with emergencies. And one wonders how many contractors would be eager to fly out to fix an LCS in the middle of a combat zone.

The Navy might want to sleep on this. Even if the LCS’ sailors can’t.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: lcs; usn; warisboring
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USS Independence. Photo via Wikipedia

1 posted on 07/11/2014 10:51:03 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
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To: sukhoi-30mki; blueyon; KitJ; T Minus Four; xzins; CMS; The Sailor; ab01; txradioguy; Jet Jaguar; ...

Active Duty ping.


2 posted on 07/11/2014 10:54:07 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Resist in place.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Is it me, or is that thing ugly as sin?

[Yes, I know that appearance is not an issue in designing a warship, but...damn.]


3 posted on 07/11/2014 10:56:26 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

Modernize the Fletcher class destroyer instead.

4 posted on 07/11/2014 11:03:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki
"Mechanical problems were so common that the Freedom lost 55 days at sea, which in turn limited the amount of useful data that the Navy could collect about how reliable the LCS is in the first place."

To the contrary, sounds to me like they got all the useful data they needed...

5 posted on 07/11/2014 11:12:52 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
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To: Slings and Arrows

I think it’s one of the sexiest ships alive.

Not very reliable, tho.


6 posted on 07/11/2014 11:14:24 PM PDT by Ready4Freddy
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Too many guns, did you not get the memo that guns are dangerous?

The LCS is a much more PC type of ship, with far fewer scary guns and stuff on borad to hurt people with!

7 posted on 07/11/2014 11:15:16 PM PDT by doorgunner69
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To: sukhoi-30mki

It is littorally a disaster.... (duck’n & runn’n!)


8 posted on 07/11/2014 11:15:34 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: doorgunner69

Don’t they open up those windows and point cannons through them?


9 posted on 07/11/2014 11:16:36 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: Ready4Freddy

Sexy, to what? A platypus?


10 posted on 07/11/2014 11:17:10 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: doorgunner69

You want to see guns? Look at any dreadnought battleship.


11 posted on 07/11/2014 11:17:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

It’s a BUFF. Big Ugly Floating something or other.


12 posted on 07/11/2014 11:19:18 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Moonman62

How about BUFCF? No i can’t explain as i would get my post deleted.


13 posted on 07/11/2014 11:29:10 PM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deco et Vives)
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To: Ready4Freddy

Different strokes, etc.

Truth be told, I’m more worried about whether it can fight.


14 posted on 07/11/2014 11:29:27 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: DariusBane

Big Ugly Floating Charlie Foxtrot?


15 posted on 07/11/2014 11:30:30 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows (You can't have Ingsoc without an Emmanuel Goldstein.)
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To: sukhoi-30mki
Typical work day at sea on a carrier 1977-80. 7:00am Muster on Station go to work. Two men have been on watch in the shop since 0400 that morning. Work till about 6:00pm including time for lunch. The typical 24 hour routine was working and standing 2 four hour watches. The morning 0400-0800 watch would likely also stand the mid watch 0000-0400. Next morning your watch time rotated. You'd likely get the 4:00pm-8:00pm watch and hit the rack at 9:00pm. That was under ideal conditions nothing broke down requiring extra time working. It was more likely you'd get at most 6 hours sleep in 24 at sea.

The snipes in The Hole {Boiler Rooms} did 6 on and 6 off. Only 6 hours in 24 was sleep the another 18 was work and watch or you did 4&4 of same.

Ship readiness evaluations on some days off of GITMO you got an hour of sleep. That was 30 days of whatever the inspectors wanted to do like General Quarters at 2:00am till noon the next day.

Due to Murphy's law I believe an undermanned ship is begging for trouble and an automated combat shipis just that. Undermanned except in ideal conditions.

There are other serious considerations besides just the work. Breakdowns requiring extended at sea repair times, Fire, mass causalities, illness, God forbid taking a hit requiring Repair Teams {Damage Control Teams}. The numbers mentioned in the article seem too low. Several losses of critical skill persons could put the ship in trouble. Cross training does not replace experience.

16 posted on 07/11/2014 11:33:09 PM PDT by cva66snipe ((Two Choices left for U.S. One Nation Under GOD or One Nation Under Judgment? Which one say ye?))
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To: Slings and Arrows

Exactly


17 posted on 07/11/2014 11:34:42 PM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deco et Vives)
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To: Slings and Arrows

It is fugly.


18 posted on 07/11/2014 11:37:03 PM PDT by laplata (Liberals don't get it .... their minds are diseased.)
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To: cva66snipe

They don’t have enough people to service the turbines and clean the heads at the same time. God forbid cleaning up the chow hall (or whatever the navy calls it) and working the sonar suite at the same time.


19 posted on 07/11/2014 11:42:03 PM PDT by DariusBane (Liberty and Risk. Flip sides of the same coin. So how much risk will YOU accept? Vive Deco et Vives)
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To: sukhoi-30mki

It sounds poorly thought out by brass that wanted all thing to other brass. A ship requiring that much maintenance with no crew at sea is not reliable in combat. It isn’t a plane that can be easily replaced when it is down. It is a warship.

With the crews forced inside they have no access to sun and fresh air. It is vital to moral on a ship. Submariners are trained and rewarded for months of underwater duty. Sailors on this ship are not.

You won’t find too many complaints about six hours of a hot rack. Any good sailor can grab a nap on light duty but it sounds like this ship is so undermanned sailors are pushed to exhaustion. Exhausted humans make mistakes. If this story is true that is....


20 posted on 07/12/2014 12:02:15 AM PDT by Organic Panic
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