| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| USS Zumwalt Sidelined in Panama Following New Engineering Casualty |
| 2016-11-23 |
| USS Zumwalt (DDG-1000) is pier side following an engineering casualty the ship suffered transiting the Panama Canal, U.S. Navy officials told USNI News on Monday. The guided missile destroyer will undergo repairs at a former U.S. naval station until its fit to complete its journey to Naval Station San Diego, Calif., U.S. 3rd Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Ryan Perry told USNI News. The ship was in the midst of a southbound transit through the canal when it suffered the casualty, Under orders from U.S. 3rd Fleet commander Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, Zumwalt is now stopped for repairs at the former U.S. Naval Station Rodman, he said. “The timeline for repairs is being determined now, in direct coordination with Naval Sea Systems and Naval Surface Forces,” he said. “The schedule for the ship will remain flexible to enable testing and evaluation in order to ensure the ship’s safe transit to her new homeport in San Diego.” A defense official told USNI News on Tuesday the repairs could take up to ten days. The ship lost propulsion in its port shaft during the transit and the crew saw water intrusion in two of the four bearings that connect to Zumwalt’s port and starboard Advanced Induction Motors (AIMs) to the drive shafts, a defense official told USNI News on Tuesday. The AIMs are the massive electrical motors that are driven by the ship’s gas turbines and in turn electrically power the ship’s systems and drive the shafts. Both of the shafts locked during the passage and the transit had to be completed with tugs. The ship made minor contact with lock walls in the canal resulting in minor cosmetic damage. Following the transit, the Navy determined the ship couldn’t continue to its new homeport at Naval Station San Diego without additional repairs. The latest casualty follows an incident in September following the ship’s transit from shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Maine to Naval Station Norfolk, Va. in which the crew discovered “a seawater leak in the propulsion motor drive lube oil auxiliary system for one of the ship’s shafts,” the Navy told USNI News at the time. A service official told USNI News the most recent incident is similar. The service has narrowed down the likely problem to lube oil coolers leaking. The service replaced all four lube oil coolers following the September casualty. Following its Oct. 15 commissioning, Zumwalt suffered additional unspecified engineering trouble around the time arrived at Naval Station Mayport, Fla. and spent extra time repairing and testing the propulsion system, USNI News understands. Zumwalt entered the Panama Canal following a successful port visit to Colombia last week – a visit which the service intended to skip if it thought the engineering problems would continue, several defense officials told USNI News. The ship’s engineering plant – the Integrated Power System (IPS) – is arguably the most complex and unique in the service. Installing and testing the system — that provides ship additional power margins to power high energy weapons and sensors — was a primary reason the ship delivered months late to the service. Before the casualty, the ship was set to arrive in San Diego by the end of the year and start weapon system activation period before joining the fleet as an operational warship sometime in 2018. Zumwalt is the first of three in the $22-billion class. Michael Monsoor (DDG-1001) and Lyndon B. Johnson (DDG-1002) are currently under construction at BIW. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #17 Joining France's Charles De Gaulle as part of the UN Navy? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2016-11-23 21:57 |
| #16 ahip was just commissioned in past month or so current CO of the ship is James A Kirk. |
| Posted by: lord garth 2016-11-23 17:18 |
| #15 Back to oil-fired boilers, eh? Or revive the coal industry. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2016-11-23 12:42 |
| #14 I'm not in the military but the corporate world, but the problem may be similar. You get engineers that pull miracle after miracle to keep things going until eventually that is simply expected by folks at the top as average performance when clearly it is not sustainable. One budget cut and serious problems appear. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-11-23 11:37 |
| #13 The regular sailors are by and large the ones paying the price. And they will pay more when op-tempo goes up, and when the shooting starts. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2016-11-23 11:20 |
| #12 Boats build by bean counters and not sailors; previous employer go the job to build 4 (count 'em, 4) doors for the DDG 1000 superstructure, because of our experience in composites ( read; stealth) the overhead to get qualified for this was far beyond anything needed to build aircraft and was the biggest line item in the entire project's budget. Add in the reliance on software to detail engineering casualties in an effort to reduce manning... well I have yet to see a computer hammer a soft plug into a burst pipe or man a fire team hose.... between this POS and the Clittoral Combat boats we are living in lala land..... |
| Posted by: USN, Ret. 2016-11-23 11:06 |
| #11 Build/Shipyard quality issue? Bath vs NN vs MS? Say it with me. U N I O N... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2016-11-23 10:32 |
| #10 calling Phil Swift! |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-11-23 10:22 |
| #9 Build/Shipyard quality issue? Bath vs NN vs MS? |
| Posted by: Injun Bucket8891 2016-11-23 09:26 |
| #8 The problem here seems to what the guy over at 'Cdr. Salamader' refers to as "transformational change" rather than just improvement. i.e., trying to jump three steps going up the stairway, instead of going one step at a time. |
| Posted by: ed in texas 2016-11-23 08:53 |
| #7 It's like buying a several thousand dollar tractor with only half the required horsepower and nobody cares cuz it is BAU! The plague is in all aspects of life greed and stupidity they allow it everyone gets an award mentality! It is also legal in the idiot world to build things in that fashion just ask them! |
| Posted by: Goober Wittlesbach5685 2016-11-23 08:52 |
| #6 And yet, the Nimitzs, Virginias, Ticos, Arleigh Burkes seem to work pretty well, as do the Ohios and Pappys AOz. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2016-11-23 08:24 |
| #5 AA, ok, let's narrow it down abit. How do you feel about the LCS/DDG 1000 series build programs and the ships it has produced? Not the sailors themselves. I'm heavily invested in this - my son is currently on a DDG. His thoughts (admittedly from a very junior perspective) on the these programs cannot be published here. |
| Posted by: GORT 2016-11-23 07:54 |
| #4 Well, we seem to have an answer to the Professor's eternal question. -- Where's the graft in that? Oh, that's where. I would say that the fleet aka the ships, is not is great shape. The flag ranks? I don't know what's up there after 8 yrs of this regime. The regular sailors are by and large the ones paying the price. |
| Posted by: AlanC 2016-11-23 07:39 |
| #3 The latest casualty follows an incident in September following the ship’s transit from shipbuilder General Dynamics Bath Iron Works, Maine to Naval Station Norfolk, Va. in which the crew discovered “a seawater leak in the propulsion motor drive lube oil auxiliary system for one of the ship’s shafts,” the Navy told USNI News at the time. And this from July 30, 2011... This month, a bipartisan group of seven U.S. senators demanded that the Pentagon explain why Freedom, the first of the new littoral combat ships, suffered a small but worrisome crack in its hull and had to return to its homeport of San Diego for repairs. The group, led by Arizona Republican and former naval aviator John McCain, also asked why an even newer, different version of the ship named Independence developed “aggressive” corrosion in its propulsion system. The Navy continues to lack a single ship that is operationally effective or reliable,” McCain told Greenert. And don't forget, that the reason the Iranians captured and humiliated our sailors very recently was because their ship broke down and drifted into their waters. |
| Posted by: George Spawn of the Lichtensteiners5521 2016-11-23 06:38 |
| #2 Newc, I am a veteran of twenty years Naval service and the indifference of the sea as to how smart anyone is can be quite upsetting. Especially when that seawater reaches your upper lip. Machinery breaks down, people are injured or die at sea. Well, what I'm trying to say is, the real piece of $#!+ is using your keyboard. Better clean it up before eating your b00gers. Thank you. |
| Posted by: AlmostAnonymous5839 2016-11-23 05:53 |
| #1 This fleet is a piece of sh!t |
| Posted by: newc 2016-11-23 00:23 |