Friday, October 18, 2019

Who Should Be Held Accountable For The Most Expensive Warship In The World Being 'Broken'?

Tug boats maneuver Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), into the James River during the ship’s Turn Ship evolution on June 11, 2016. US Navy photo.

Forbes: The Most Expensive Ship In The World Is Broken. The U.S. Navy Secretary Should Be Held Accountable.

Later this month, tugs will pull the most expensive ship ever built in the world, the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78), away from the Huntington Ingalls Industries shipyard in Virginia. But America’s brand-new, $13 billion aircraft carrier will emerge from a 15-month refit, or “post-shakedown availability,” broken and unable to fight. This is unacceptable, and it is high time for the Secretary of the Navy, Richard V. Spencer, to hold his service accountable.

But he can’t.

At the USS Ford, the extent of America’s massive systems engineering failure is impossible to understate. The aircraft carrier does not work. As of October 9, only two of eleven advanced weapons elevators actually function, making it impossible for the carrier to safely receive and store weapons. Compounding the problem, the Secretary of the Navy made a high-profile bet with President Donald J. Trump, that, if the USS Ford left the shipyard without functional elevators, the President could fire him.

Read more ....

WNU editor: Government officials being held accountable for mistakes and incompetence within their departments is (unfortunately) a principle no longer practised by government.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Journalism is dead. Nowhere in this Forbes story do they rationally explain why the ammunition elevaters do not work. It's all about the Navy Secretary's bet with Trump. Journalism is dead.

Anonymous said...

I've been meaning to post this for awhile.

The US Navy filed 1 or 2 apparently cutting edge patents recently and people have questioned why. Why give you potential adversaries a heads up. Another thing is that if they want it for their military they are not going to pay royalties for the patent.

British companies did pay German companies royalties after WW1, but basically they belonged to the same civilization or socio-economic bloc. That and the British companies while having the upper hand wanted to continue to do business in Germany.

As an aside America used to cheat on patent to in the early 19th century. They stopped. They stopped, because they wanted to join the club and have other people, Europeans, respect their patents. Does anyone seriously expect the Chinese military to respect a US Navy patent?

So why?

This is to protect the USG against their prime contractors. Tech data right is a big deal. Also it is accepted wisdom when the USG goes up against the contractor over a contract usually the government loses.

Lawyers and contracting officers are a BFD as Slow Joe would put it. There are stories of problems with equipment, expensive equipment, military mechanics finding a fix and then the government having to tear out three fix, because the prime contractor did not authorize it. Of course the contractor will turn around and then charge for the fix that the military mechanics devised.

Putin being trained as a lawyer would very much understand the problem and probably LHAO.

Anonymous said...


I agree with Anon 11:35 AM.

I believe journalists should be or could be trained like librarians, but that would actually be work.


Bob Huntley said...

Anon

So they, the USA, decided when to end their theft of patents and expect everyone else to follow? How many people would you think it is appropriate to murder in order to teach, say China, the lesson?

As for the aircraft carrier issues, they should talk to Pence he will know. Most likely he will say, "it is the gods will" or bust a gut trying to sidestep the question.

Anonymous said...

Journalism is not a profession by any means.

A "Journalist" can be anyone who writes for any publication. A "journalist" can be a PHD or a high school dropout.

Journalism has no governing professional association.

Journalism has no certification process for practitioners.

Journalism has no code of ethics.

Journalism is at best a pseudo-profession that has been taken over by propagandists.




Anonymous said...

Say you want to be a professional, top notch librarian.

First, you get a master's degree in say psychology or engineering.

Second, you get a master's degree in Library Science.

Why?

The library collection is divided into fields. Okay. It is thought to adequately CURATE a COLLECTION of SOME FIELD YOU SHOULD HAVE SOME SIGNIFICANT MASTERY of THAT FIELD.

There are journalists who have degrees in the areas they report on. It seems that many do not including big movers and shakers. These movers and shakers seem more ignorant than your average plumber, businessman, accountant, engineer, etc.

Bob Huntley said...

My comment was valid. You call we a troll and then you troll out your normal BS. You would have been happier if I had just posted ...?