Bonhomme Richard flight deck unfit for flight operations, could delay next deployment

Stars and Stripes ^ | 22 Aug 2014 | James Kimber

[GATOR NAVY]

SASEBO NAVAL BASE, Japan – The USS Bonhomme Richard will likely miss its next underway deployment after a botched $3 million resurfacing of the amphibious assault ship’s flight deck.

The ship had undergone the resurfacing less than a month ago.

“A recent application of non-skid coating on the flight deck of the USS Bonhomme Richard was not up to Navy safety standards and is being reapplied,” Cmdr. William Marks, spokesman for 7th Fleet, said in an email to Stars and Stripes. “This will cause an increase in port time and decrease in underway days for Bonhomme Richard.”

An “accidental gouging” of the flight deck on Aug. 8 led to a visual inspection, during which time officials from Naval Ship Repair Facility and Japan Regional Maintenance Center Detachment Sasebo saw the non-skid surface was flaking.

Further testing confirmed the nonskid material had not set properly, making the surface unsafe for flight operations, something preliminary quality-assurance testing didn’t indicate, Marks said.

The problem was immediately reported to Naval Surface Forces Pacific.

“We are now researching the root cause of the failure,” Marks said. “There could be a number of reasons it didn’t set properly and we won’t know the final details until additional testing takes place.”

As a result, the ship will likely have to delay its next deployment, which was set for late September or early October. The ship is currently conducting sea trials, and the repairs will take place afterward.

Personnel from SRF-JRMC Detachment Sasebo are working with technical experts from Naval Sea Systems Command and Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock on a rework plan, the Navy said. The same contractor, Sumitomo Heavy Industries, is expected to reapply the nonskid with increased oversight.

“At this time, the contract for this rework is not yet complete,” said Marks. “SRF is still reviewing what it can do to hold the original contractor accountable for paying for the rework.”

The Bonhomme Richard — which can carry a crew of 100 officers, 1,000 sailors and 1,900 Marines, along with four CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters — is often called into duty when disaster strikes. Most recently, the ship spent more than a week in the Yellow Sea, assisting South Korean officials after the April 16 sinking of a South Korean ferry.

While the ship is out of commission, Navy officials say they will lean on the USS Peleliu — which arrived Friday in Sasebo a port visit — and the USS Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group to pick up the slack.

“Peleliu can be configured to conduct the same operations and take the same types of aircraft and landing and attack craft as USS Bonhomme Richard in different numbers,” Marks said. “Her characteristics are different, but she can support the same mission as USS Bonhomme Richard and this will not affect our participation in planned exercises throughout the deployment.”

The Bonhomme Richard arrived in Japan in April 2012 to replace the USS Essex, which had its share of problems during its final days in Sasebo.

In the months before the hull swap, mechanical and maintenance issues made the Essex unfit to fulfill its mission. In July of 2011, the ship was unable to take part in the Talisman Sabre exercise in Australia, and it never left port in February of 2012 when it was to participate in Cobra Gold training in Thailand.

Ironically, the Bonhomme Richard broke down while en route to Sasebo to replace the Essex. Problems with its boiler forced the ship to stop in Okinawa for repairs before making it to Sasebo.

For years, Navy officials have said that the high operations tempo placed on ships have led to advanced wear and tear.

Testifying before Congress in 2012, then-Vice Adm. William Burke, who was serving as deputy chief of naval operations for fleet readiness and logistics, said the Navy has “a limited supply of forces.”

“When you have these additional deployments, you sometimes impact the maintenance, or you impact the training, which will impact the maintenance,” Burke said. “So what we have is one event cascading into another, so we don’t get either of them quite right.”

kimber.james@stripes.com Twitter: @james_kimber

[cva66snipe]

You were lucky to be below the Hanger deck! I was in V-2 Catapults and our berthing was only ONE deck below the Flight deck, just below the arresting gear! When we finished our launches for the night, we’d just be starting to get some sleep and the aircraft recovery would begin, with the planes hitting the deck plates about 4-5 feet above our compartment.

LOL Believe it or not I berthed up there as well while in the yards. In the yards I went TAD to Fire Department which was full time rather than a fire party during yard periods. In 1980 it became a permenant division. In Oct 80 I got out EAOS.

[cva66snipe]

There are quite a few pictures floating around of 4 & 5 carriers at N.O.B. One have them has a carrier in shipyard posture. IOW tents and huts on the FD.

[Mariner]

Sasebo is a GREAT yard.

Should probably blame USN schedulers and the rain.

[aumrl]

I’m not quitting.
“IT IS better to light a candle than curse the darkness”
The utes of today got that way because of us AND that ‘greatest generation’.
G.I. - G.O.

[GATOR NAVY]

This was 30 years ago, perhaps the process has changed.

It hadn't by the time I got out in 2006. It was a royal PITA process for regular decks and flight deck resurfacing was even worse as far as the standards it needed to meet.

[cherokee1]

Yes but not just Poor Richard’s. Ben Franklin spent a lot of years in France, was well known and quite popular there and had his own French version of the Almanac, When the US Navy went to name a ship after him they used the French nickname. Then in the early 60’s, while the carrier was still in service, they named a class of missile subs after him. The class boat SSBN 640 was named the Ben Franklin but was called BonHomme Richard by its crew. That part is slightly confusing but I actually worked on the boat a couple time while it was stationed at Pearl and knew some of the crewmen and they all called it the Bon Homme-— even tho the carrier was still in service.

[Robert A Cook PE]

That would have been the original aircraft carrier B. Richard, which regularly served off of Vietnam.

This is a newer class amplib/helo/vertical takeoff Tarawa class LPH. Comparable to WWII era carriers in size, but oriented to Marine amphib landing and vertrep planes.

The Navy’s STOL/VSTOL F-35 could work off of them though - Probably a major reason the Navy wants the F-35 so badly, even though it doesn’t work as well as it should, is heavier than promised, and is less fuel efficient when operating in VTOL mode.

[Robert A Cook PE]

The USS Schenectady (LST, back in ‘75) was the Skinny Titty to those on board her.

[Robert A Cook PE]

rlmorel

I always wondered why someone thought they could put sleeping quarters below the flight deck right there,...
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I think it was because it provided us a quicker access to our battle stations during general quarters, instead of being several decks below. There were passageways along the port side and catwalks that permitted us to move from the berthing compartment to our stations forward much faster than having to climb ladders. (I carry scars and dents in my shins from the edges of hatch combings while running in near dark to travel about 600 feet to my station during GQ)

Nope. I mean, yes, the people sleeping up there are closer to the flight deck for GQ, but the more important reason for putting a couple of decks between the flight deck and hanger deck that can be loaded up with lightweight stuff like berthing compartments is to provide a bomb-deck: A semi-armored series of flat deck plates and armored deck plates so the bomb and rocket blasts coming from above or penetrating the flight deck DON’T get all the way through to the hanger deck before exploding. A rocket blast that does explode up high gets diverted and spread out as it tries to go through each deck: Again, saving the planes and people working down on the hanger deck.

It is nice that berthing spaces are cheap, needed, and lightweight: All good reasons for a ship designer to put them up high above the waterline. Bad for the crew though.

At Midway, our bombs DID get through the flight deck to the hanger deck - which was clogged with planes refueling and re-arming as the Japs tried to shift between AP bombs and GP bombs and torpedoes. That lesson (that killed the Japanese) saved our nation in WWII.