Posted on 04/30/2022 10:18:16 AM PDT by FarCenter
In an interview with the US Naval Institute, the US Chief Of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral Mike Gilday, addressed the issue of US Navy ships returning to port covered in rust, saying that rust-free ships are critical for deterrence and naval readiness.
“On the appearance side, you have to be ready, you have to look like you mean business,” said the Vice Admiral Peter Daly of USNI. “Now that COVID has eased off and port calls are less restrictive, is there time to lay to and paint?”
The question comes after many photos of rust-worn American naval ships have hit the internet, with the latest being the USNS Alan Shepard, a Military Sealift Command supply ship named in honor of the first American in space, photographed in the Singapore Strait looking worn, tired, and streaked with rust.
Many have blamed COVID but the problem extends back before the coronavirus choked supply lines and squeezed US Navy operations. “The nonchalant attitude many are taking to the physical condition of the public-facing part of our Navy is, in a word, disgraceful,” said former surface warfare officer Commander Salamander back in 2019. “I’m not quite sure when our culture decided that doing less with worse was acceptable – where for your wants NOW, you will saddle future leaders who follow you with the Bondo, duct tape, and baling wire remediation you did to get by – but here we are.”
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
I want teflon coating for less friction. And tin foil hats all over it to evade radar.
But it’s a woke navy. That’s all that counts.
Try Wham-O, they have lots of plastic you guys can use for your new reef seeders.
And build it with organic free trade sustainable Sequoia redwood for rot resistance.
Finally, someone wants rust-free ships! I’ve been waiting for this day!
It’s the paint. You want environmentally friendly paint? You’re going to have more rust….
No rust? Then what are third class seamen supposed to do every day?
““Now that COVID has eased off and port calls are less restrictive, is there time to lay to and paint?””
Well I don’t know Admiral, IS THERE? If only we had some kind of senior officer who could order them to damn well make time.
Can anyone imagine Nimitz, Halsey, or King talking that way?
And put some sails on those ships. Just because they have engines, sails look way cooler.
It’s really amazing just how many parallels there are between the US and Rome just before it fell.
ROTFL. Been hittin’ da rum barrel again Skipper? LOL.
Has the navy been using contract workers for dockside maintenance and rust removal?
What, the Critical Race Theory trainers don’t do hull maintenance?
Admiral Halsey would call this guy “A stupid son of a bitch”.
Fiberglass hulls
I was a project manager on a couple of military contracts, not for the Navy, but the contracts have similar ridiculous components from the environozis. You can’t use cadmium or chromium. Any coatings must be EPA compliant, meaning they won’t prevent corrosion. We were shipping stuff that corroded in the process long before it got to its intended environment. They we were bringing it back and replacing the corroded parts with other parts that also corroded while being shipped. But we could not use any of the formerly standard coatings because...EPA. You can only repair things like connectors so many times before you have to replace things like circuit boards and harnesses. We knew what the problem was. We knew how to fix it but were not allowed to. I’d imagine after we lose the next war the environmental stranglehold will be fixed, or we’ll all die.
We’ve already been conquered.
I thought that they were aluminum these days?
But fiberglass might be good too. Less radar signature and enemy shells would go through and through without exploding.
If they were the Air Force, they would have specified titanium and damn the cost.
When I served, we had sailors whose job was “side cleaners”. They usually rotated that duty among guys from the deck division, so no one was stuck with it all the time. We’d go over the side on a stage or in a Bosun’s chair, scrub, scrape or chip away the rust-stained paint and remove any rust underneath it. Then a slather of red lead rustproofing and a topcoat of Haze Gray.
Performed at sea it can be a difficult and dangerous job, so a long deployment without docking or anchoring out in calm conditions may render it deferred maintenance.
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