JOEL PAGE / REUTERS
David Axe, Daily Beast: The U.S. Navy’s Expensive New Warships Are Breaking Down at Sea
The U.S. Navy is set to roll out a new, sleek, fast high-tech destroyer—but the ship keeps suffering from engineering glitches.
September was supposed to be a triumphant month for Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy’s high-tech new destroyer. The 600-foot-long, missile-armed stealth warship—its hull and superstructure sharply sloped to help it avoid radar-detection—was in Norfolk, Virginia, undergoing last-minute tests before her planned official commissioning on Oct. 15.
Once in service, Zumwalt will be the Navy’s most sophisticated destroyer. But only if she actually works.
On Sept. 19, Zumwalt suffered what the Navy calls an “engineering casualty.” In plain language, that means the $4 billion ship broke down. And she wasn’t alone. Across the world’s leading navy, new warships are breaking down at alarming rates.
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WNU Editor: A sobering look at the U.S. Navy's newest ships.
3 comments:
True. The problem is every program from any other countries have the same kind of glitches with new program...but they and we don't talk about that.
"engineering casualty" is the operative word. I served in the US Navy and never once did the phrase "engineering casualty" enter our vocabulary. (And not because everything always worked) We just had different and more colorful ways to say it. This new push for almost total automation is THE fatal flaw in our current fiasco of ship-building. Too complex, too fragile and too expensive.
That and trying to reinvent the wheel in major onboard systems - e.g: the catapults.
Over engineering is a real problem, they need a power plant that is simple to maintain and repair for that they should look back to simpler power systems from the past, they are usually very cost effective as well.
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