American warship breaks down, needs a tow.

smalltime · Dec 12, 2015

USS Milwaukee breaks down at sea

I know very little about ship building, so I have a few questions for those that do.

#1 Why are the Canadians building boats for the US Navy?

#2 Shouldn't you test the engines too see that they aren't shedding shavings BEFORE you put to sea?

What say you?

upnorth5axis · Dec 12, 2015

smalltime said:
USS Milwaukee breaks down at sea

I know very little about ship building, so I have a few questions for those that do.

#1 Why are the Canadians building boats for the US Navy?

The ships are built in Marinette Wisconsin. The last I looked that was part of the US

SND · Dec 12, 2015

Definitely not made in Canada, I don't think we've built a navy ship in over 20yrs and they're just finally about ready to start building some more(10-15 if it doesn't get canceled entirely...), which meant entirely rebuilding 2 shipyards over the last 4yrs or so, plus some other fabrication places required.

Propulsion and other issues on new ships (US and others) have happened quite a few times and other stuff to sort out. Pretty sure its part of doing the sea trials and commissioning them, usually takes months, to years on some new designs that are full of problems(or bad work...). Sure would seem this sort of stuff should happen a lot less today with all the technology, procedures and what not, but somehow it just seems to happen more and more with every project.

You guys in the US have a hard enough time building them as it is, and somehow the Canadian government thought they could do the same starting from scratch with near zero experienced people left, and somehow do it for less $ than it costs in the US... they're just now starting to realize that it ain't gonna happen short of finding a lot more money, or reducing the number ordered.

SteveBausch · Dec 12, 2015

Navy is usually strict about command; wouldn't be surprised if commander is relieved.

Commander is usually present during ship's build, if first commander of new ship.

John McCain is NOT happy about this, it seems.

MCritchley · Dec 12, 2015

Hopefully it's just FOD in the oil system left in by the Rolls Royce assembly team.

Some time ago I built small turbines. We would put a very strong magnet on the oil drain plug. Sometimes we found burrs or other bits after the first run.

smalltime · Dec 12, 2015

upnorth5axis said:
The ships are built in Marinette Wisconsin. The last I looked that was part of the US

Sorry, There was another story that listed the shipbuilder as Canadian.

I will try to find the article.

atomarc · Dec 12, 2015

Pretty ironic...the name 'Milwaukee' must be jinxed when it comes to ships. At low tide you can still see the bones of this ship sticking out of the sand.

Wreck of the Milwaukee | Field Notes | The Journal

Stuart

jim rozen · Dec 13, 2015

Am I the only one here who thinks the term "plug and play" probably should not be used to
describe warship features?

Sometimes reliability trumps versatility.

moonlight machine · Dec 13, 2015

It's the navy's answer to the f35 raptor, billions over budget and years behind schedule. Built in Wisconsin at a company owned by the Italian government. Probably makes it easy to control access to all that "top secret" shit when it is built at a foreign owned company.

Heavey Metal · Dec 13, 2015

British turbines french standby diesel power and Italian gensets.

No wonder the filters stopped up.

smalltime · Dec 13, 2015

British turbines french standby diesel power and Italian gensets.

I thought that there were laws regarding the manufacture of munitions and equipment that made it illegal to rely on outside sources, did that law get repealed?

WTF?

steve-l · Dec 13, 2015

smalltime said:
I thought that there were laws regarding the manufacture of munitions and equipment that made it illegal to rely on outside sources, did that law get repealed?

WTF?

You're way behind the times. Many years ago a NATO treaty was signed to promote common weapon systems and cross consumption of common logistics. This allows and actually promotes inter-NATO acquisitions and support. When this occurred the Federal Stock Number (FSN)changed to the National Stock Number (NSN) by adding 3 digits behind the item class code.

Georgineer · Dec 13, 2015

steve-l said:
... the Federal Stock Number (FSN)changed to the National Stock Number (NSN) ...

That would be the NATO Stock Number. It's not national but international, just like the Unified thread standard.

George

tdmidget · Dec 13, 2015

It's worse than you know. The other version of the Littoral Combat Ship is built in Mobile by an Australian builder. Both classes are under armed and quite vulnerable. When transiting the Panama canal they are too low for the "mules" to control them and they hit the lock walls.

Asquith · Dec 13, 2015

It's entirely predictable, with this forum, that blame will be laid on this maker or that, in the absence of any actual knowledge, or even any attempt to find out more. No matter which maker, as long as they're foreign. If anyone’s interested in engineering here, they might do better to wonder why a US-designed warship has to be towed to safety despite having four independent engines and four propulsion systems.

In passing, the diesel propulsion engines aren't all that French. They're made by Fairbanks Morse.

Heavey Metal · Dec 13, 2015

Naval Engines | Fairbanks Morse Engine

S.E.M.T. Pielstick.

Evidently second cousin to a peugeot

Mark Rand · Dec 13, 2015

Heavey Metal said:
British turbines french standby diesel power and Italian gensets.

No wonder the filters stopped up.

American fitters and commissioning engineers?

swwi · Dec 13, 2015

My son in law worked at Marinette for a year. Some of the workers have been known to come work in some stage of drunkenness. He had no problem with the American supervisors, BUT the Italian managers-owners were a piece of work, to put it nicely! Pompous attitude at best and that is where the problems originate.

SeymourDumore · Dec 13, 2015

tdmidget said:
It's worse than you know. The other version of the Littoral Combat Ship is built in Mobile by an Australian builder. Both classes are under armed and quite vulnerable. When transiting the Panama canal they are too low for the "mules" to control them and they hit the lock walls.

OK, I am not a military buff of any kind
and not overly involved with the LCS project other than making some components for tooling and support equipment for a local shop who does directly work with the project.

Anyhow, these things are quite impressive.
The reason ( as I understand it ) for Austal being the primary contractor for the construction is that they are the designers of the Trimaran hull, which in the case of the these boats
are also made of all Aluminum.
These things are capable of a sustained cruising speed of 51MPh, while having only a 14ft draft ( which brings in the question of problems in navigating through the Panama Canal ??? )

As these images show, they are not exactly what you'd call fishing boats: USS Independence (LCS-2) - Littoral Combat Ship / Corvette - History, Specs and Pictures - Navy Ships

moonlight machine · Dec 13, 2015

All well and good, it's a warship and all, is that little pop gun on the bow all its armament? Or are the helicopters supposed to spew all the hate? How many can it carry?

American warship breaks down, needs a tow.

Banned

Hot Rolled

Diamond

Stainless

Stainless

Banned

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Banned

Banned

Titanium

Stainless

Diamond

Diamond

Banned

Diamond

Plastic

Diamond

Diamond

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