Posted on 10/11/2007 6:01:19 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Arleigh Burke-class destroyers 'buckling' under stress, admits USN
By Tara Copp
Serious structural defects have been identified throughout the United States Navy's fleet of Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Jane's can reveal.
The navy (USN) has admitted that many of the 51 ships currently in service are buckling under the stress of higher-than-anticipated loads at sea.
The impact of rough-sea slamming on the bow has led to warping of main transverse bulkhead beams and some of the cribbing, a source said.
Repairs and strengthening work is already being carried out on the latest Flight IIA ships as well as vessels from the earlier production batches.
In September, for example, one of the newest destroyers - USS Gridley (DDG 101) - was undergoing repairs for beam warping during post-shakedown availability (PSA) at BAE Systems' shipyard in San Diego, California. Weakened support beams were cut out, reinforced and replaced.
Specialised labour was required because the task involved strengthening beams in very tight spots above the Gridley's sonar equipment room.
But the problem is widespread; according to a presentation on 21 September by Rear Admiral Kevin McCoy, the chief engineer at Naval Sea Systems Command's Naval Systems Engineering Directorate, the navy approved a USD62 million "bow-strengthening backfit" to address "local buckling of deck transverse beams" and other structural damage in a number of destroyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at janes.com ...
Your light fiberglass boat rolls with the punch or is easily stopped in it tracks - trying to crash through with 8000 tons behind you is like running into a brick wall over and over again.
The design was outsourced to Sri Lanka.
Yah, while real Crusers and Battleships with 16inch steel belts and the ability to deliver pinpoint accuracy at 20 miles rot are sunk or turned to scrap.
The Navy Brass Hats are like the Kids of a Wealthy Parent who is inattentive.
They discovered the best way to get new toys is to break the toys they have or throw them away and cry. Then Mom or Dad buys them new toys just to shut them up...
Works every time and not just in the Navy..
W
If I told them young fellers once...... "White Oak for the keel, locust for the trunnels, spruce for the masts, pine for the decks." As usual they got it all backwards. Probably forgot to caulk the ceiling, as well.
I also warned'em against trying to make boats out of metal... bad idea. Passing fad.
It must be appropriations time again.
My father caught me slipping the clutch on our riding mower when I was young and I had to use the push mower for the rest of the year.
Not the same amount of horsepower from a mower to a gas turbine ship.
I think he was probably saying "Ma poor bairns". "Bairns" is Scottish dialect for "children".
That’s true. I was not trying to compare them with the HP ratings. My comparison was referring to the “playing these games when they are bored” aspect.
“Its Bushs fault.”
I’ve seen too much of this statement! It isn’t funny!
With modern welding techniques it is rarely the WELD that is the problem. When properly done, the weld itself is often stronger than rest of the metal.
It is more likely the rest of the particular structure was not properly designed.
All DDG51s were built at Ingals shipyard in Pascaguala MS or Bath Iron works Maine. Half and half.
This is a cruiser’s worth of firepower fitted into a destroyer’s hull...
Nope.
DDG51s are all steel hull and superstructure.
Lessons learned from Falklands war.
That is why the beam is 10 feet more than a CG47 and structure is lower.
The CG47s are a steel hull with aluminum supperstructure.
The FFG7s are all aluminum.
bump
The DDG51s have the same firepower as flt II CG47s.
The CG47s are 10,000 tons and have an aluminum supperstructure to lighten them up.
DDG51s were designed to be 7,500 tons and all steel. Lessons learned from Falklands loss of HMS Shefield.
Half are built at Bath.
Other half at Ingals.
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