Brand New Navy Ship Dissolving

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**AustonT**

Sort of a cluster feth of "get what you pay for" "blame the victim" and "epic stupidity"
http://m.gizmodo.com/5814840/builder-blames-navy-as-brand+new-warship-disintegrates

The Navy's newest warship is slowly disappearing, one molecule at a time.

This isn't a sequel to the 1984 sci-fi flick The Philadelphia Experiment, in which a Navy destroyer-escort vanishes through a time portal in Pennsylvania only to reappear in Nevada, 40 years later.

No, this time the disintegration is real. And so is the resulting tension between the Navy and the disappearing warship's upstart builder.

The afflicted vessel is USS Independence, the second in the sailing branch's fleet of fast, reconfigurable Littoral Combat Ships. Eventually, these ships are supposed to be the "workhorses" of tomorrow's Navy.

As Bloomberg reported, the Navy has discovered "aggressive" corrosion around Independence's engines. The problem is so bad that the barely year-old ship will have to be laid up in a San Diego drydock so workers can replace whole chunks of her hull.

In contrast to the first LCS, the steel-hulled USS Freedom, Independence is made mostly of aluminum. And that's one root of the ship's ailment.

Corrosion is a $23-billion-a-year problem in the equipment-heavy U.S. military. But Independence's decay isn't a case of mere oxidation, which can usually be prevented by careful maintenance and cleaning. No, the 418-foot-long warship is basically dissolving, due to one whopper of a design flaw.

There are technical terms for this kind of disintegration. Austal USA, Independence's Alabama-based builder, calls it "galvanic corrosion." Civilian scientists know it as "electrolysis."It's what occurs when "two dissimilar metals, after being in electrical contact with one another, corrode at different rates," Austal explained in a statement.

"That suggests to me the metal is completely gone, not rusted," naval analyst Raymond Pritchett wrote of Independence's problem.

Independence's corrosion is concentrated in her water jets - basically, shipboard versions of airplane engines - where steel "impeller housings" come in contact with the surrounding aluminum structure. Electrical charges possibly originating in the ship's combat systems apparently sparked the electrolysis.

It's not clear why Austal and the Navy didn't see this coming. Austal has built hundreds of aluminum ferries for civilian customers. The Navy, for its part, has operated mixed aluminum-and-steel warships in the past.

But Independence - the Navy's first triple-hull combatant - could be a special case for both the builder and the operator. For all Austal's chops building civilian ferries, the Australian company is new to the warship business. Austal set up shop near Mobile in 1999. Today, the shipyard has contracts to build 10 LCS plus several catamaran transports for the Navy.

From the Navy's point of view, Independence and the other Littoral Combat Ships are unique. As in, uniquely cheap. Each vessel is supposed to cost just $400 million, compared to more than a billion bucks for a larger, all-steel Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

Lots of things - major weapons, for one - have been left off the LCS in order to keep the price down. The list of deleted items includes something called a "Cathodic Protection System," which is designed to prevent electrolysis.

Independence will get the protection system installed at the first opportunity, and future LCS will include it from the beginning, according to Pritchett.

But instead of simply filing the corrosion issue under "lessons learned," Austal seems determined to blame its customer. "Galvanic corrosion has not been a factor on any Austal-built and fully-maintained vessel," Austal stressed, implying that Independence hasn't been "fully maintained" by a negligent Navy.

That's an, ahem, interesting approach to customer relations for America's newest warship-builder.

And things could get worse, as more LCS enter the fleet. "I suspect there will be other public problems revealed over time that will require relatively simple, albeit costly, solutions," Pritchett wrote. Will Austal also blame the Navy the next time a glitch appears in the ships it builds?

Kudos to USN procurement and design.

**Ribon Fox**

Well...what can you say except "WTF!"
Now you would have thought that some one would have done some tests to see if changing the steel hull design to an ally one would course any problems like this. Besides whos bright idea was it to build a warship out of aluminum? Thats like building a tank with bog roll for armour.
Some ones head is for the chopping bord me thinks on this grand cock ups.

**ShumaGorath**

How did you find a kotaku article from june 2011..? That ships probably completely gone by now. But yeah, with this and the Littoral Combat ships issues being pointless in general the navies been having a hard time lately.

**George Spiggott**

The list of deleted items includes something called a "Cathodic Protection System"...

I think the chances of a ship taking a hit in the cathodes must be pretty slim. It seems pretty reasonable to save cash by leaving them off.

**notprop**

WTF indeed.

If I know about galvanic corrosion and take steps to separate metal in building construction how the feth can a ship builder miss this?

No wonder these ships are less than half the price of the equivalents, they're temporary!

Automatically Appended Next Post:

George Spiggott wrote:
The list of deleted items includes something called a "Cathodic Protection System"...
I think the chances of a ship taking a hit in the cathodes must be pretty slim. It seems pretty reasonable to save cash by leaving them off.

I got hit in the cathodes once, I was lucky to have children after!

**mega_bassist**

Wow. Galvanic corrosion is one of the first things I learned about in school...and that was collision repair, not ship design. Whoever designed that is a flippin' idiot.

**AustonT**

Building an aluminum hulled warship is nothing new. Remember the Falklands war? HMS Sheffield was an aluminum hulled frigate...by no small coincidence Sheffield burned to the waterline and sank because that same hull caught on fire. But just as an FYI the concept itself is not new...I'm pretty sure other USN ships have aluminum hulls or major hull components; I just don't know them off the top of my head.

As a fun aside the other LCS USS Freedom which is steel hulled and a completely different design cracked below the waterline during sea keeping trials.
These ships are kind of a mess for the USN; but at least they are relatively inexpensive right?

**LordofHats**

Yet another thing that makes me question the US military industry : /

**AustonT**

ShumaGorath wrote:How did you find a kotaku article from june 2011..?

I followed some links from another Gizmodo page about the Kodak film nuclear reactor. I didn't exactly represent it as breaking news.

**ShumaGorath**

AustonT wrote:
ShumaGorath wrote:How did you find a kotaku article from june 2011..?

I followed some links from another Gizmodo page about the Kodak film nuclear reactor. I didn't exactly represent it as breaking news.

Just wondering

. The disintegration isn't even a big part of the LCS programs woes at this point. It's not going to be around much longer.

**Kilkrazy**

Brand New.

**AustonT**

It's cool I didn't figure you were taking shots or anything it IS an old article...but isn't it better than politics. EVERYONE can agree to bash on idiot designs.

**ShumaGorath**

AustonT wrote:It's cool I didn't figure you were taking shots or anything it IS an old article...but isn't it better than politics. EVERYONE can agree to bash on idiot designs.

Careful though, you never know when fraz will start to talk about how much money lawyers stand to make if they cut this program. He's under every rock and behind every tree.

**treadhead1944**

Did the Navy try Liquid Green Stuff? Or hot water? Might work

**Kid_Kyoto**

I am shocked to hear that sometimes radical new designs have problems that need correcting.

I thought everything worked perfectly from day one.

**AustonT**

Kid_Kyoto wrote:I am shocked to hear that sometimes radical new designs have problems that need correcting.

I thought everything worked perfectly from day one.

Eh...electrolysis isn't new to the Navy...and shouldn't be to Austal or anyone else building ships. I expect major problems in lead ships, lots of them. Just not ones that were easily avoidable...and well known.

**Ouze**

AustonT wrote:Building an aluminum hulled warship is nothing new. Remember the Falklands war? HMS Sheffield was an aluminum hulled frigate...by no small coincidence Sheffield burned to the waterline and sank because that same hull caught on fire.

I'd never even heard of an aluminum hulled warship before.

The things you know.

**Alexzandvar**

Funny, people love to hate lobbyists until something like this pops up and then people ask why the guys who made it are such gak at there jobs.

**KingCracker**

Ouze wrote:
AustonT wrote:Building an aluminum hulled warship is nothing new. Remember the Falklands war? HMS Sheffield was an aluminum hulled frigate...by no small coincidence Sheffield burned to the waterline and sank because that same hull caught on fire.

I'd never even heard of an aluminum hulled warship before.

The things you know.

**AustonT**

A pretty big deal was made out of the loss of the Sheffield. Had she been steel hulled she likely would not have sank.

**Ouze**

treadhead1944 wrote:Did the Navy try Liquid Green Stuff? Or hot water? Might work

Also, I somehow missed this the first time - well done, good sir.

**Asherian Command**

Wow. Thats basic chemistry right there. Salt water + Aluminum = it boiling down.

**mega_bassist**

Asherian Command wrote:Wow. Thats basic chemistry right there. Salt water + Aluminum = it boiling down.

The problem isn't salt water, it's the two dissimilar metals being in contact with an electric current going through it. Steel and Aluminium don't really like each other very much, and the water is providing the current, causing the breakdown of the metals.

**PhantomViper**

mega_bassist wrote:
Asherian Command wrote:Wow. Thats basic chemistry right there. Salt water + Aluminum = it boiling down.

The problem isn't salt water, it's the two dissimilar metals being in contact with an electric current going through it. Steel and Aluminium don't really like each other very much, and the water is providing the current, causing the breakdown of the metals.

This^^

You learn this in what? 8th grade chemistry?

I think someone at Austal thought that their civil rights were being tyrannized and skipped those particular chemistry classes...

**treadhead1944**

Ouze wrote:
treadhead1944 wrote:Did the Navy try Liquid Green Stuff? Or hot water? Might work

Also, I somehow missed this the first time - well done, good sir.

Thank you sir.

So apparently the Navy doesn't know what every fat sob with a boat in Florida knows. Zinc is your friend.

**Harriticus**

Our own navy (Israel) was considering buying 2 of these but cancelled it due to budgetary reasons. I'm a bit happy they did now...

**AustonT**

Harriticus wrote:Our own navy (Israel) was considering buying 2 of these but cancelled it due to budgetary reasons. I'm a bit happy they did now...

Country of Origin flag US...clever Mossad trick?
Israels procurement from Germany's shipyards has benefited them greatly...they should probably stick to that. Our shipbuilder are kind of (totally) donkey-caves. If there is one place the US is overspending on procurement it's ships; NG and Electric Boat make the Navy pay through the nose...at shipyards the .gov built.

**Harriticus**

AustonT wrote:
Harriticus wrote:Our own navy (Israel) was considering buying 2 of these but cancelled it due to budgetary reasons. I'm a bit happy they did now...

Country of Origin flag US...clever Mossad trick?
Israels procurement from Germany's shipyards has benefited them greatly...they should probably stick to that. Our shipbuilder are kind of (totally) donkey-caves. If there is one place the US is overspending on procurement it's ships; NG and Electric Boat make the Navy pay through the nose...at shipyards the .gov built.

Well I dwell in the US currently, conduct top-secret Mossad sabotage operations.

As for Germany yes we've had better experiences for them, though we've never operated an American-made ship before. All our past ships have either been built domestically, British/French (though this halted by the 1970's), or captured from the Arabs. Of course after we moved from ordering the LCS we examined 2 custom-built MEKO A-100 Frigates from Germany's HDW, but this to got cancelled for budgetary reasons. Now the navy is probably going for 4 small Missile Boats built domestically for future surface needs. Though the South Koreans have offered to build some Corvettes at a discount, as they've been trying to get us to buy their stuff for ages.

Our navy has gone the route of the Germans in WW2 in an ironic twist. We keep ordering submarines, the surface fleet is small, has no confidence by the government, and is neglected, and our entire strategy and naval doctrine is based around subs.