We complain
about the incomplete and, in some cases, damaged ships that the Navy accepts
from the builders and we wonder why they don’t enforce any warranty repair
actions (turns out that most shipbuilding contracts don’t have any
warranties!). We also wonder why every
other country’s ships are better built than ours.
Well, the
better built part is easy to explain – they aren’t! We just are more aware of our ship’s problems
because we have much more open information sources for our ships. Other countries have the same problems but
they just aren’t publicized.
Anyway,
here’s a bit of news that addresses both the warranty and the quality of build
issues. Germany
Here’s some
of the problems as reported by Naval Today website. (1)
- software and hardware issues
- problems with the frigate’s
operations room
- listing problem - they list 1.3
degrees to starboard
- overweight
Here’s an
amusing bit of related information.
“According to the German Navy, the
new frigates will require only half the crew necessary to operate the
Bremen-class frigates. They will be able to stay at sea for up to 24 months and
thereby reduce the transit times for the crews. The crews will swap in regular
intervals directly in the areas of operations which means that the ships will
have to make fewer port visits.” (1)
Does that
sound like the failed LCS program? I
anticipate that the German Navy will find the same thing we did – that minimally
manned crews can’t perform well, will be overworked and undertrained, and ship
maintenance will suffer. Well, good luck
to them.
 |
| F125 Frigate |
Back to the
main point … Hats off to the Germans
for sending a defective ship back to the builder. Maybe their example will inspire the U.S.
Navy to do the same.
It is also
worth noting that this disposes of the myth that other countries build better
ships than we do. A lot of observers
want the U.S.
________________________________
(1)Naval
Today website, “Germany 22-Dec-2017 ,
