U.S. Boats Delayed Because Of Many Manufacturing Defects

strategy page ^ | 09-06-09 | staff

[em2vn]

A manufacturing problem with the U.S. Navy's new Virginia class SSNs (nuclear attack subs) has delayed the commissioning of a new boat, the USS New Mexico. The ceremony will be delayed from November 21st, to sometime in January or February. The problem has to do with bolts that were not manufactured to specifications. These bolts hold together the track system that is used to move torpedoes and other weapons around the "weapons room". The poorly manufactured bolts will hold the tracks together under peacetime conditions. But in the stress of combat (like depth charges or violent maneuvers) they are likely to fail. The navy not only wants to get the proper bolts, but also is inspecting hundreds of other bolts in the weapons room, and perhaps other items as well. This anxiety is because the bolt situation is not the first manufacturing problem the Virginias have encountered lately.

[Ole Okie]

Do the $12 mil include that lethal looking weepon? If he fires that, the pram will be propelled backwards at terminal velocity (whatever that may be).

[_Jim]

Never forget that your ship/aircraft/weapon was built by the lowest bidder.

And a lot of the 'winning' designs were the result of competitions between Aerospace companies/contractors, in a lot of cases are the result of decades, if not centuries worth of experience on the part of the design staff, and also that so-called 'lowest bidder' contract might turn out to be a cost-plus contract on new technology/development stuff ...

I think it is unfair to simply label equipment deisgned for out fighting military as 'built by the lowest bidder'. Some competance is also expected by those bidding on such contracts, especially on the higher-performance or performance-critical platforms (think aircraft, satellites).

[magslinger]

Everything you say is true. The US aquires some of the finest weapon systems in the world and it is unfair to refer to them as being made by the lowest bidder, but when you are in the field and run up against the technical limitations of aforementioned system, fair ain’t in it.