Groundings and Collisions

For no particular reason or point, here’s a partial list of US Navy collisions and groundings in recent years.  I say, partial, because I’m sure there are more.  These are just the one’s I’ve been able to find documentation for.
 
Does this seem like a lot, a little, or just expected frequency for our operations?
 
 
Oct 1999 – USS Underwood ran aground in Egypt
Feb 2000 – USS Shreveport grounded in the Suez Canal
Feb 2000 – USNS Yukon collided with civilian ship
Jul 2000 – USS Denver collided with USNS Yukon
Aug 2000 – USS Detroit and USS Nicholson collided
Sep 2000 - USS La Moure County ran aground off Chile
Feb 2001 – USS Greeneville collided with Japanese trawler
Nov 2002 – USS Oklahoma collided with LNG tanker east of Gibraltar
Oct 2003 – USS Hartford ran aground in Sardinia
Jul 2004 – USS Kennedy collided with a dhow
Jan 2005 – USS San Francisco collided with seamount
Sep 2005 – USS Philadelphia collided with merchant ship in Persian Gulf
Jan 2007 – USS Newport News collided with Japanese tanker in Strait of Hormuz
Feb 2009 - USS Port Royal ran aground off Hawaii
Mar 2009 – USS Hartford and USS New Orleans collided
May 2012 – USS Essex and USNS Yukon collided
Oct 2012 - USS Montpelier and USS San Jacinto collided off Florida
Jan 2013 – USS Guardian ran aground in Philippines
Jan 2013 – USS Jacksonville collided with trawler in Persian Gulf
Feb 2014 – USS Taylor ran aground in Turkey
Aug 2016 – USS Louisiana and Military Sealift Command vessel Eagleview collided
Oct 2016 – USS Montgomery collided with a tug causing a hull crack in the LCS
May 2017 – USS Lake Champlain collided with South Korean fishing vessel
Jun 2017 - USS Fitzgerald collided with cargo ship
Aug 2017 - USS McCain collided with cargo ship
Jan 2017 - USS Antietam ran aground in Tokyo Bay, Japan
Jun 2019 – USS Billings collided with a moored freighter in Montreal
Oct 2021 – USS Connecticut collided with seamount in South China Sea

USS Connecticut, SSN-22, Collision and Repair Timeline

It has been 9 months since USS Connecticut, SSN-22, suffered an underwater collision with a sea mount in the South China Sea.  Let’s review the timetable with an eye towards what this tells us about our potential wartime battle damage repair capability and capacity.

 

 

2-Oct-2021        Collision with sea mount in South China Sea

8-Oct-2021        Arrived Guam for temporary repairs

4-Nov-2021       CO, XO, COB reported relieved

18-Nov-2021      Leaves Guam for temporary repair sea trial

12-Dec-2021      Arrives San Diego after surface transit from Guam

15-Dec-2021      Left San Diego, CA

20-Dec-2021      Arrived Puget Sound for thorough damage assessment

21-Dec-2021      Arrived Bremerton, WA for repairs

?-Feb-2023        Scheduled start of permanent repairs

 

The damage is expected to be repaired during a scheduled Extended Docking Selected Restricted Availability starting in February 2023.[2]

 

If – and that’s a very big ‘if’ – the repairs start on time in Feb 2023, it will have been 16 months since the collision.  That’s a pretty poor repair response for peacetime and would be atrocious during war. 

 

Here is what little we know about the extent of the damage.  Based on photos – because the Navy isn’t saying anything – the bow was sheared off (or removed as part of temporary repairs) and the sonar dome is gone, presumably resting at the bottom of the South China Sea.[2]  Reports suggest that the rudder is damaged, as well.

 

What will that cost to repair?  Here is a hint at the magnitude of the eventual repair bill.

 

Buried deep in the National Defense Authorization Act, two lines—crafted to prevent easy searching—authorize the Navy to receive an initial tranche of $50 million in repair funds—$10 million for a “spare Seawolf class bow dome” (page 1815) and $40 million for “USS Connecticut emergent repairs” (page 1850).[1]

 

That’s $50M just for the beginning of the repair bill, largely intended to cover long lead items.  A reasonable guess would put the final repair bill in the $300M-$400M range.

 

As a comparison, here is the cost and timing for a similar repair on the Los Angeles class submarine, USS San Francisco:

 

In 2005, the USS San Francisco, a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, also struck an underwater mountain, a crash that killed a sailor and injured 97 others. It took 3 1/2 years in Puget Sound to install a sonar dome from the decommissioned USS Honolulu onto the boat, in maintenance that in total cost $134 million.[3]

 

USS San Francisco

The USS McCain required 2 yrs and 2 months to complete repairs.  The USS Fitzgerald required 3 yrs to return to active duty and repair costs were reported as $327M[4].

 

We’re looking at a 2025-2026 time frame to return to active service.  That’s four or five years to effect repairs and that’s only if the repairs start on time which I strongly doubt will happen. 

 

This incident and the Navy’s near state of paralysis regarding the repairs tells us what we need to know about our ability to deal with wartime battle damage … we have no abililty!

 

Damage repair, whether due to combat or accidents, is critical for the maintenance of a strong fleet.  Our repair capacity is almost non-existent, repair timelines are terrible, and costs are enormous.  Our repair response is atrocious.  We have no ability to ‘surge’ a repair. 

 

‘Surge’ a repair?  Yes!  If you recall, the USS Yorktown, CV-5, was badly damaged at the Battle of the Coral Sea.  Repair estimates were for 90 days.  In a massive repair surge, Yorktown was repaired in 3 days and sailed to participate in the Battle of Midway.  The repair surge involved 1400 men and required rolling blackouts in Hawaii to supply the required power for the repair effort.

 

Connecticut’s repair surge is going to require something on the order of 4-5+ years.

 

Yikes!

 

We are not ready for war.

 

 

 

 

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[1]Forbes website, “Congress Authorizes Millions For Repairs Of USS Connecticut”, Craig Hooper, 20-Dec-2021,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighooper/2021/12/20/congress-authorizes-millions-for-uss-connecticut-ssn-22-repairs/?sh=24e12022656c

 

[2]Naval News website, “U.S. Navy Comments On USS Connecticut Submarine”, Peter Ong, 5-Jul-2022,

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/07/u-s-navy-comments-on-uss-connecticut-submarine/

 

[3]Yahoo News website, “USS Connecticut, damaged in crash with underwater mountain, arrives in Bremerton”, Josh Farley, 21-Dec-2021,

https://www.yahoo.com/news/uss-connecticut-damaged-crash-underwater-220043902.html

 

[4]USNI News website, “USS Fitzgerald Leaves Mississippi Drydock After More Than a Year of Repairs”, Sam LaGrone, 16-Apr-2019,

https://news.usni.org/2019/04/16/uss-fitzgerald-leaves-mississippi-drydock-after-more-than-a-year-of-repairs