New Navy Technology’s Mortal Enemy – The Sea?

New Navy Technology’s Mortal Enemy – The Sea?

The US Navy has been in pursuit of a highly modular, capable, light fast attack vessel for years. Right now they have put forth two new classes of vessels to fill this multi-purpose role, the Freedom class and the Independence class.

One expects some problems to arise from this revolutionary and technologically advanced ship, which can substitute mission modules in order to switch from a variety of tasks: anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations, logistical operations, minesweeping, and landing assault support. These are among other things that haven’t yet even been conceptualized. However, the problem which came up for the prototype USS Independence is one which is making chemists, physicists, and pretty much anyone with an ounce of electrical knowledge scratch their heads and ask, “Why?”

Since its launch 18 months ago, the USS Independence has come down with a severe case of corrosion. You see, the hull construction is a composite structure with some components utilizing steel, and other components using aluminum. If you expose an item made up of both steel and aluminum to an environment containing an electrolyte, such as seawater, it produces galvanic corrosion.

Functionally, this is how a galvanic wet cell battery, such as you would find in your car, operates. They built, for all intents and purposes, a gigantic floating battery.

The manufacturer of this vessel, Austal Ltd, released a statement saying that ship corrosion was nothing new, and claims that, despite over 250 years of verifiable evidence to the contrary, galvanic corrosion is not the cause of the current ship issues. The Navy also calls the issues manageable, and feel confident that they will resolve the corrosion problem.

What Austal is leaving out, however, is the active anti-union efforts they employed to cut corners on the ships construction. The court filing detailed out many tactics employed by the firm, including threats to fire any employee attempting to unionize, threats to shut down and move overseas if a union vote were upheld, direct payment for anti-union support, as well as holding the vote on Austal property under management supervision and not at a neutral site with third-party supervision. The Sheet Metal Workers International Association have the reputation for solving issues before they become problems as part of their apprenticeship and training programs. This might have addressed the corrosion problem before the ship ever set sail.

The other vessel developed for the program, the all-steel USS Freedom, suffered its own problems of corrosion and cracking. The US Navy is facing a major problem, with the order for 55 vessels between these two classes of ships hanging in the balance. If they cannot resolve them promptly, it bodes badly for the future of shore defense of the United States, with the Oliver Hazard Perry, Osprey, and Avenger classes of vessels all reaching the end of their operational lives.

I wouldn't say corrosion is a given on new contruction such as these boats. We use dissimilar metals in salt water service all the time. Proper insulation between disimilar metals is vital as well as the placement of sacrificial anodes. In my industry all new designs take this into account (unless the designer is 250 years old). Corrosion is well documented and we know all the tricks to keep it at bay. How else do you think these big metal structures out in the ocean last so long. We use many exotic steels and metals while building these thing. Inconel, Hastaloy, Chrome-Moly, Stainless Steels as well as Carbon Steels all get along nicely.

Of course we are talking about a government project and government projects are the laughing stock of the industrial world. The saying "good enough for government work" is a common insult.

I can't believe the article blames non-union workers for this. That was a design issue and not a construction issue. In all phases of construction, non-union always outperforms union. Especially when cost and time are concerned. Quality is also better on most cases because the worker's job isn't protected if he fucks up. Doesn't the author of this article even have a remote understanding of Federal training requirements for all industrial workers (they are the same for union and non-union). The training level has to be the same so that whole paragraph is false. Besides SMWIA uses the very same NACE (National Assiociation of Corrosion Engineers) as every one else friggin does.
Yeah, to blame this on non-union workers is a new low for MSM (main stream media).
The misinformation of today abonds.

Sounds to me that the Navy needs to use someone other than Austal Ltd from now on. But of course, the govt goes with the lowest bidder. So I guess we get what we pay for.

Dennis324 wrote:Sounds to me that the Navy needs to use someone other than Austal Ltd from now on. But of course, the govt goes with the lowest bidder. So I guess we get what we pay for.

Exact problem, I've been stuck with some lousy equipment on a couple occasions (ie my current work truck) because the government went with the lowest bidder, with painfully little attention to the quality of the product.

Bryant wrote:
Exact problem, I've been stuck with some lousy equipment on a couple occasions (ie my current work truck) because the government went with the lowest bidder, with painfully little attention to the quality of the product.

Knowing this, you still feel ok giving government more control???

Marconius wrote:

Bryant wrote:
Exact problem, I've been stuck with some lousy equipment on a couple occasions (ie my current work truck) because the government went with the lowest bidder, with painfully little attention to the quality of the product.

Knowing this, you still feel ok giving government more control???

The reason for the lousy truck is because we are legally required to purchase from the lowest bidder. The government didn't tell the manufacturer to only include a key lock on the driver side door (the passenger side door can only be unlocked from the inside), the manufacturer stripped the vehicle down to make it cheaper than their competition knowing that its the bid price, not quality, that the purchasing agency has to go by (with limited exceptions).