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| A Tree Ran Out In Front Of Me! |
Sure, the Navy will do an investigation, probably chaired by
an Admiral, and publish a report with a long list of recommendations to prevent
this from ever happening again – you know, until the next time it happens. I guess all those McCain and Fitzgerald report recommendations didn’t solve the Navy’s basic seamanship and ship handling
deficiencies but I’m confident this next batch will.
We can't sail a ship without hitting something but our sensitivity training is going like gangbusters.
We can't sail a ship without hitting something but our sensitivity training is going like gangbusters.
This is just embarrassing.
(1)USNI News website, “Littoral Combat Ship Billings Still
in Montreal After Hitting a Moored Ship”, Sam LaGrone, 26-Jun-2019,
https://news.usni.org/2019/06/26/littoral-combat-ship-billings-still-in-montreal-after-hitting-a-moored-ship
The latest Ultra intercepts show that the PLAN is now building a class of armoured Q-Ship Tankers to use in the
ReplyDeleteanti-fonops role.
That might actually be good ship design for the USN. No weapons, no sensors, just a heavily armored, crash resistant former tanker. If a captain runs into anything all we need to do is repaint and apologize. Take a bit more effort to remove from those pesky reefs that always get in the way, but still worthwhile.
DeleteMaybe the ram bow will come back in style....
DeleteFound this article this morning on CDR website. After all these incidents and the latest one, I really think USN has to come to the conclusion that LCS is useless as a combat ship. Just forget it, INSTEAD use them as training ships, remove all the weapons, keep them inside CONUS waters more or less and turn them into floating classrooms for practical experience. As unpractical real ships with practical problems and possibility for everyone to practice IN ALL the areas on the ship, they are great as training ships!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/07/future-of-work-expertise-navy/590647/
CNO, this is embarrassing... Extremely. Now, the story is that somehow they lost steering after being freed of the tugs? Or some mechanical breakdown?
ReplyDeleteNo no no no a thousand times no.
This should not have happened. Not in my Navy. Seamanship, DC, casualty repair/response, inland piloting? This should not have happened.
Wish I had a pithy response about LCS seeing some action (particularly in light of the Strait of Hormuz littoral which you would think a Littoral Combat Ship would be perfect yet we don't seem to have one of the dozens operating in), but I really don't
Maybe we should get serious about accountability. Not only for action/inaction, but for program management. There are things wrong here. This isn't normal
Hmmm if enough ships "accidentally" dock into a freighter can we collect some insurance and buy something useful.
ReplyDeleteBinoculars perhaps, maybe a PT boat??? Those still work.. right?
OK fair question the USCG has perhaps more ships how come they are not running into things on what is now a regular basis like the USN.
ReplyDeleteClearly the USN needs to just kill the LCS and spend the money on you know actual training time at on land in port, in the classroom wherever.Again buying stuff doesn't help if you can't sail them. I mean how often do they say turn off all the GPS crap (that might be jammed or gone if people start knocking satellites out of the sky) and make sailors practice dead reckoning and you know using that analogue compass and such.
Norway gave the USN a bit a break with own indecent but USN couldn't wait for a another euro navy to mess up. So yes embarrassing. The immediate comments I see say current and wind could be a factor but maybe than the call was to stay under tug control longer? The sip does seem to boxed in by the tug that is not actually helping.
Kinda related the house started meddling in the FFGX with its buy American bill way to go there Dems.
ReplyDeleteNot a problem if it the NSC based ship, besides all the others will be essentially built in the US anyway. And the some like the FREMM options look like mini burkes not FFs
ReplyDeleteMy thinking is they are leaning to Fremm or Navantia F100 design which will need the least modification it already has the size mk41 and can easily accommodate future upgrades
ReplyDeleteBack to the article this thing started my blood boiling in 2014 so its hardly surprising I talk to other friends bot the Little Crappy ships every Tim a new article comes out the only thing I can see them being useful for is for foreign donations for the Freedom class and convert all the Independece class to total minesweeper only the aluminum hull and all of that extra deck space for choppers should possibly useful in that role Freedom is a Freaking Junk Pile
ReplyDeleteLCS class ships will probably NEVER live down their crappy rep, no matter how good they possibly become in later years (if that happens).
ReplyDeleteTWZ people are saying that (1) No bow thrusters (2) No rudder (3) Lack of training all contributed to this debacle.
Heads need to roll. Many of them.
ReplyDeleteStarting with whoever signed off on procuring these pieces of junk in the first class. Then CO (presumably PCO at this point), XO, OOD, and whoever is responsible for training on this tub.
Certainly high muckety mucks should pay for the existence of the LCS as a program. Oin question n the ship I'd be a little cautious. A bit ago I was trying to compile a list of USN and USCG collisions that I could dig up. Back in the 70s 80s there were a number that were just the result of careless commercial traffic or poorly run tugs in the Panama Canal. Even so it interesting that the reports even if they decided the tug was essentially on auto pilot or a commercial ship veered into a US ship there was one thing that is notable. In most collisions the US ship lacked a full compliment of on deck watch officers/crew - that is out on the deck not just the watch in the control stations and bridge.
DeleteThe temptation to just rely on what the shiny screens show seems to a nasty habit that has not gone away.
Embarrassing and a tad pathetic...
ReplyDeleteI sailed under a Captain that constantly waved off tugs and nestled his single-screwed, huge sail area ship up against the pier in less than perfect conditions. Once we left a Caribbean port in a hurry due to a tropical storm making a sudden appearance. We backed away from the pier, and out an L-shaped channel barely bigger than our ship,without tugs because it was already too rough for them!! We had a top flight sea n anchor detail, and a competent bridge and nav team... What happened to Navy ships being manned by sailors who took pride in being good at their jobs??
Poor ships evidently manned by poor sailors. When will this end???
I am not laughing to anybody about such matters any more. When I was boating last month, we ended in a wrong part of the marina, which was too narrow for us. It was dark. We were surrounded by expensive looking motor yachts and we couldn't get out.
DeleteWe managed it without bumping anybody but it was very unpleasant 15 minutes. I felt really ashamed.
Good morning Skipper and crew. VA-35/Nimitz A6E AME guy here. Mostly I just read here, but I was inspired with this one. First, I am amazed they haven't found a gender-friendlier pronunciation for the word 'seamanship', especially since it's been the EEOC hires tied to these collisions. Nuff said about that, heh. Off Naples, Christmas 1979, they called GQ middle of the night aboard Nimitz and that puppy was turning the screws balls-to-the-wall as a squall was causing the ship to drag-anchor toward some breakwaters (we used to lie three miles or so off Naples and take motor whale boats in to port). I'm not certain who sprang into action but perhaps an enlisted Quartermaster saved the day, the Skipper being off the bridge?. I'm not certain what happens if a carrier runs aground, but they got us far enough out to avoid that and it was churning mud, the residue was all over the fantail. As far as the LCS class, it's beyond corrupt that they built that class. The thing is supposed to get in close and snugly to enemy shores, yet the superstructure of the thing is of aluminum. Other than weight, was there some reason for that? Carlton Meyer at G2 has written extensively on the LCS-mess, predicting they'll be razorblades by 2025. The Ford Class EMALS situation, along with the F35 are far and away the greatest failures in the supply chain, but all over the web the LCS situation gets bigger press.
ReplyDeleteFailures in ship-handling were bound to occur because: EEOC. Someone at the top directs that There Will Be X at the wheel and that's that. I saw all I needed to see in 1981 with female instructors taking up shoreside billets as instructors doing FRAMP schools at Oceana. Never having been to sea, these ladies were teaching the minnows who would handle Tomcats and Intruders about shipboard operations. Females didn't go to sea then, but it was somehow important for them to instruct those classes. I mean, what more do you need to see? That Zumwalt, he was a scamp. Thanks for the reads and chuckles.
Glad you enjoy the blog. Feel free to continue commenting. The voice of experience is always welcome!
DeleteSlightly off topic, but I was just told that in both the Fitz and McCain accidents, the ships werent fully manning their bridge watchstations ie; their were no bridge wing lookouts posted. Now i cant confirm this. BUT if this is the case, then this is another huge example of how minimal manning is coming to bite us. I cant imagine steaming along without a full complement of Mk1 eyeballs on duty!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe reports laid out the various manning issues. Yes, they were undermanned and, worse, the watch stations were not qualified.
Delete