Posted on 05/11/2012 10:41:41 PM PDT by Olog-hai
Bristling with cutting-edge technology and carrying an awesome array of weaponry, the Royal Navys new destroyer HMS Dauntless is said to be one of the worlds most sophisticated and powerful warships.
But the £1 billion ($1.61 billion) vessel was left helpless and strandedwhen a £10 ($16) fuse apparently blew.
Dauntless was left without power and plunged into darkness.
According to one source on board, the ship was drifting for several minutes before the fault was corrected.
No official cause for the problem has been given, but Navy insiders suggested that the fuse blew because a complicated water-cooling system had not been adjusted to take account of the fact that the destroyer had entered an area of higher sea and air temperatures.
Dauntless is the first of the Navys six new Type 45 destroyers to operate in tropical waters.
The incident is a huge embarrassment to the Ministry of Defense and Dauntless commander, Captain Will Warrender, particularly as his 190-strong crew had spent the previous week training sailors from Senegal, Gambia and Morocco on how to board suspect vessels.
Dauntless was the second of the six new Type 45 destroyers to be commissioned.
The total cost of the project to the Navy was £6.5 billion£1.5 billion more than the original estimate.
In 2007, the Commons Defense Select Committee expressed its disappointment that the Ministry of Defense and defense contractor BAE Systems had failed to control rising costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The purpose of shakedown cruises.
That particular fuse had better be well protected and they better have a hundred extra backups.
Just stick a penny or a nickel in the slot. Should fix it right up for the rest of the cruise! LOL!
I’m truly dumbfounded that the loss of a single fuse could cripple the entire ship. There’s either more to this story, or someone in their naval design bureau needs a good, hard kick in the seat of the pants.
Just hope the “off” switch is well protected.
I’m reminded, btw, of a Swiss tank design in the 70s/80s that had a similarly embarrassing electronic problem. The Panzer 68 had several instances where systems shared circuits. This included the heater sharing circuits with the main gun’s fire controls. So, when a crew tried to warm up on a frosty alpine morning at the firing range, the main gun had a tendency to fire of its own accord shortly thereafter.
Lucas (The Prince of Darkness) Electric strikes again.
(Or building the thing to damn short in the first place)
All that is needed is to create jobs.
So what if it shakes when they do the laundry.
Still more employees needed for the repair!
They used a penny for arming the british nukes, didn’t they?
I knew pennies were useful for something! BTW, I vastly prefer fuses to circuit breakers, the problem with them is tampering, like using a penny to energize an overloaded circuit. All the military systems I'm familiar with use GFI circuit breakers to allow resets in the case of a temporary fault.
I still think it looks like an ithyphallic AEGIS.
Best reply ever!
“but Navy insiders suggested that the fuse blew because a complicated water-cooling system had not been adjusted to take account of the fact that the destroyer had entered an area of higher sea and air temperatures. “
So... instead of ruining $30 million dollars worth of cooling system equipment, or $60 million dollars worth of engine, a $16 fuse blows.
Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to work?
The only missing part is that SOMEONE wasn't doing their job.
The fuse blew and disabled the ship so that it's 'complicated cooling system' wasn't destroyed. The FUSE was doing it's job.
Whoever and whatever was responsible for adjusting the system due to changes in the sea water temp and air temp, was not.
It’s not supposed to shut the whole ship down. Does your car’s engine stop running when your air conditioner fuse blows?
Penny in the slot is "too big to fail."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.