#NAVY BRIEFS MEDIA ON USS #BONHOMME RICHARD #FIRE
“The flames are out but the heat is still there,” Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck told reporters Thursday afternoon in San Diego. “We’re going space by space into every compartment checking for hotspots.”
That’s where the situation ...
stands after a fire that ravaged USS Bonhomme Richard for four days and into a fifth was finally declared out midday on 16 July. Tugs and helicopters that dumped water on the ship have been withdrawn and the smoke has stopped emanating from the ship berthed at the 32nd Street...
Naval Base. The ship is clearly listing to port, towards the pier, a shift from Wednesday when the list was to starboard.
After praising the efforts of sailors and civilian firefighters Sobeck was asked about the ship’s status and future.
“The ship can be repaired. Whether...
or not it will be repaired will be determined,” he said.
“Visibly you can see one of the challenges. Other than fire the tough thing to deal with is the free surface effect where water can go from either side of the ship. That brings challenges as to how the ship tends. ...
Overnight we had a starboard list and now visibly you can see a port list. We saw that surface effect. We can control it by dewatering and that’s what were in the progress of doing. The ship is stable now and she rests very comfortably. “Fire has gone throughout the ship”...
Sobeck added. “From bow to stern there was fire. From the main deck and above is where most of the damage is.”
Sobeck noted that 85 sailors had moved back on board the ship before the fire, although more than 160 were on board Sunday morning when the fire broke out. ...
Asked whether the crew had drilled for fire aboard the Bonhomme Richard, he replied, “I don’t have that information but it would be recently.” Asked about the smoke and stench from the fire that has permeated the air around San Diego, Sobeck and a Navy environmental specialist..
said it was likely from “insulation, padded walls, miles of cables and piping … along with paint.” Sobeck added that “paper, linens, mattresses would be burning. Decking material would also retain some of the heat. That’s what caused a lot of the billowing and grey smoke.” ...
Sobeck noted that at least three investigations would likely begin. The Navy Safety Center will investigate safety concerns and procedures. Naval Sea Systems Command will look at the effects of the ship’s design on the conflagration. ...
Heading the overall investigation, he said, would be commander U.S. Pacific Fleet.
The investigations, he said, will last “as long as it takes to get the answers we need.”
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
They spent WHAT?!*!!?&$%!? GAO is out with a devastating report on the facts behind the US Navy's disastrous #cruiser modernization program. Bottom line: $1.84 billion on 4 ships that were thrown away incomplete; $1.9 bil on 3 ships with limited life left gao.gov/products/gao-2…
Queens of the failed effort were COWPENS CG63, with $678+ mil down the drain, and VICKSBURG CG69, with $745 mil thrown away. Photos in the report detail some of what VICKSBURG looked like when work was cancelled
Only 2 have been completed: CHOSIN CG65, seen returning to San Diego in Feb after 6 years away, and GETTYSBURG CG64, who actually is now deployed with the TRUMAN carrier group and is seen 3 Dec at Rota, Spain. Work on one more, CAPE ST GEORGE CG70, has yet to be completed
More US Navy aircraft carriers are underway right now than at any point in quite some years - 8 of 11. Four are deployed: GERALD R FORD CVN78 in the Mediterranean Sea; DWIGHT D EISENHOWER CVN69 in the Red Sea; RONALD REAGAN CVN76 and CARL VINSON CVN70 in the western Pacific...
...GEORGE WASHINGTON CVN73 is working up off the US East Coast before heading next year to Japan; on the West Coast NIMITZ CVN68, THEODORE ROOSEVELT CVN71 and ABRAHAM LINCOLN CVN72 all are in various stages of training. The remaining 3 are in overhaul:
..JOHN C STENNIS CVN74 in the midst of her major mid-life RCOH refuling overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding; HARRY S TRUMAN CVN75 in the back half of a year-long overhaul at Norfolk Naval Shipyard; and GEORGE HW BUSH CVN77 is in pierside maintenance at Norfolk Naval Station
Construction of the first Multimission Surface Combatant for Saudi Arabia is proceeding at @FincantieriUS in Marinette WI as seen in these 17 Oct CavasShips photos. A much-modified version of Lockheed Martin's Freedom-class littoral combat ship, the 4 Saudi MMSCs are externally..
...similar but have many internal changes and will be more heavily armed. The Saudi ships wil be painted overall unlike US Navy Freedom-class which have painted hulls and nautral aluminum supertructures. LM is prime for this program lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products…
The bridge superstructure for the first Saudi MMSC already has a coat of primer. These sections are fabricated at Fincantieri Marine Group's Ace Marine facility in Green Bay
Important note about US aircraft carrier movements: so far the vast majority of what is being seen is normal, scheduled and not a direct response to current events. The GERALD R FORD CVN78 strike group has been operating for months in the Mediterranean Sea and is approaching..
..the scheduled conclusion of its cruise, to be relieved by the DWIGHT D EISENHOWER CVN69 group, who left the US East Coast 13/14 Oct. The RONALD REAGAN CVN76 is on a normal western Pacific deployment, scheduled to be relieved by the CARL VINSON CVN70, who left San Diego 12 Oct..
... The move of the FORD to the eastern part of the Med in response to the Hamas/Israel war is part of why that group is deployed - they respond to crises. Also of note: the BATAAN LHD5 Amphibious Ready Group was moved to the Persian Gulf in early August in response to ...
1/5 #Cruisers last week at Norfolk (all but the last on 12 Aug). Getting Set To Go: PHILIPPINE SEA CG58 having wrapped up pre-deployment exercises with the DWIGHT EISENHOWER CVN69 Strike Group, will deploy in a few weeks to European Command as the carrier's air defense escort.
2/5 Recouperating and Refitting: LEYTE GULF CG55, returned in April from a Mediterranean Sea deployment with the GEORGE H W BUSH CVN77 Strike Group, seen undergoing a pierside availability
3/5 Will Deploy Next Year: GETTYSBURG CG64, the only 1 of 7 cruisers inducted into the Cruiser Modernization Program to return to service, seen looking spiffy in the early stages of readiness. She should deploy in 2024 for the first time since 2014 (!)
From the just-concluded US Coast Guard briefing on missing submersible TITAN diving on TITANIC with 5 people aboard, conducted by RADM John Mauger of the 1st CG District in Boston: dive believed to have begun Sunday 18 June; last comms from craft were about 1 hour & 40 mins...
...into the dive. Understand craft has a 96-hour endurance. USCG was notified Sunday the craft was missing. Two USCG C-130s, a Canadian Coast Guard CC-130 and Canadian Navy CP-140 Aurora are also searching. Sonobuoys have been dropped from the aircraft and the expedition ship...
...POLAR PRINCE also has sonar, all with capability to search to the depth of 13,000 feet. Search is on the surface in case the craft came up and also in the water column. A New York Air National Guard C-130 will join this evening and additional ships and aircraft are en route