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US Navy litoral combat ships having engineering failures 10

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spsalso

spsalso

Electrical
Jun 27, 2021
943
The Independence class can only go at high speeds on a nice day:


The Freedom class is being scrapped. And it's not because they're old and worn out and there's a far better ship to replace them:




We can't leave these kids along for a minute!


spsalso
 
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Nowhere in that article does it say that Austal is designing the cutters. By that, I take it that they are constructing them, and there is no reason that a shipyard in Mobile should not be able to compete with one in Panama City, especially when the Eastern shipyard is still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Michael. These cutters will not be just for use in US coastal waters, but rather all around the Pacific islands. Haven't you heard of the Chinese threat in the Pacific?
 
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I don't know if they are any good, but they look great. The article says design and construction. [ponder]

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik
 
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I missed that. But still, since they already have the design, why not just continue to use it? Doesn't the Coast Guard own the design?
 
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I dunno... maybe the new interior designer on staff would like to see... [ponder]

So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik
 
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To me, it implies that the Coast Guard is responsible for stabilising the design, schedule, and cost estimate before proceeding further.
Click to expand...

Note that the GAO uses "stability" instead of completeness, so it wasn't necessarily that the design was continually changing, but rather, the design was incomplete or incompletely analyzed or validated. And yes, the CG was responsible, but they gave the shipbuilder authorization to start production, even though parts of the design were incomplete or grossly immature, thereby risking massive rework or rebuild if the design needed to be changed because of noncompliance to requirements discovered later.

This is pretty common in high profile projects where the customer "bets on the come" to maintain an already slipped schedule. A previous company I worked at did the same, and had to suck up the spectacle of having to re-design a critical mask layer on our flagship microprocessor, all because they damned the torpedoes and refused to wait for the design rule check before starting fabrication. As it was, it cost them way more than the day it would have taken to run the design rule check.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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We see this in the tug industry. The customer gives the yard a basic arrangement. That's the hull construction and machinery locations. Everything else gets left to "shipyard spec" which basically leaves it to the fitters and electricians to figure out how to make the boat complete.
 
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Design build. Often a disaster in construction of buildings, and probably more so in complicated pieces of machinery like ships.
 
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Whenever stability is mentioned in nautical things I usually presume its to do with the centre of floatation is way way to close to the Centre of Gravity which means the thing is unstable and likely to capsize.

But in this case I agree its to do with the process.

To be fair that report could have been written about every single project that British Aerospace has done for the last 50 years. And most military contracts.

Just as they near finishing it then some officer will want the new latest system fitted to it. And its a must have otherwise they will be obsolete before they even get wet.

 
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Some background The "Medium Endurance Cutter" are two classes mainly consisting of the 270-foot (82 m) Famous- and 210-foot (64 m) Reliance-class cutters. These classes are reliable ships at this point, but are defiantly at the age where they will be spending time in shipyards repairing age related wear. Few commercial ships stay in service as long as the reliance class cutters (Built 1962–1968).

Coast Guard Acquisitions: Opportunities Exist to Reduce Risk for the Offshore Patrol Cutter Program The source (GAO) uses the term this way "Proceeding towards OPC 3 construction before stabilizing the design". I read this as they started the construction with some of the design "preliminary". and are ready to start construction of the third cutter, with some of the design still preliminary.

Given the adders related to the cost of making changes at design, vs the cost of changes once everything is put together, (can be more than 1000:1) I hope as a tax payer the shipyard absorbs the costs of building on preliminary drawings 3D Model.
 
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The root cause is protectionism in form of the Jones act.
 
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TugboatEng said:
No steel building experience...
Click to expand...

That's not quite accurate...

From your own article:

Austal has in the past focused on aluminum ship programs, including the Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship and the Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transport. OPC would be the first major contract for the yard’s steel shipbuilding line, after winning contracts for one floating dry dock and two towing and salvage ships in the last year.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
UG/NX Museum:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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Did you miss the part about this being the first contract for the steel building line?
 
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