New Orleans on track to deploy, InSurv shows
Earlier test revealed problems with San Antonio-class ship
After a bruising inspection this summer, the amphibious transport dock New Orleans is almost combat-ready, according to the results of a new November inspection.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2008/12/navy_lpd_121408w/
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Dec 16, 2008 15:56:06 EST
The latest inspection, obtained by Navy Times, showed that the second ship of the San Antonio class could pass all the tests it couldn’t during its summer inspection. On Nov. 21 it ran its engines up to full power; switched them quickly into reverse and then back again; and showed it could find a target aircraft with its radar, according to the report from the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey, or InSurv.
The ship will be able to conduct sustained combat operations — the equivalent of a passing grade for an InSurv — once two of its three cargo ramps are repaired and its weapons elevators are checked out, according to the report.
In addition, New Orleans joined the Boxer Expeditionary Strike Group on exercises off San Diego in early December. Carrying elements of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, New Orleans launched and recovered helicopters; ballasted down its well deck; and deployed and recovered Marine assault vehicles and hovercraft.
As a result, New Orleans now appears on track to make its scheduled maiden deployment early next year with the Boxer ESG.
“One can infer that things are going considerably better there,” said retired Capt. Jan van Tol, who commanded three Navy warships — including the amphibious assault ship Essex — during his career before becoming an analyst with the Center for Budgetary and Strategic Assessments.
As with earlier reports, Navy Times showed New Orleans’ latest inspection to Van Tol, who said it showed that the ship was improving. That didn’t surprise him, he said, given the increased attention and repairs the Navy has rained on its first two San Antonios.
What did surprise van Tol, he said, was that some problems with the ship continued cropping up from inspection to inspection. Despite improvement, it’s still far from perfect:
• New Orleans’ solid waste processing was again graded “unsatisfactory” in the newest report, he pointed out, for many of the same reasons as the initial InSurv.
• Continued problems with the well-deck ventilation systems, along with the high number of work hours required to fix them, again shows “significant quality assurance issues” with the way the gear was installed, he said.
• Two dozen casualty reports, on equipment ranging from the auxiliary seawater service system to the air conditioning — which has long troubled New Orleans and its siblings — were active when the InSurv inspectors came aboard.
• Although the ship reached full power, inspectors rated that demonstration as “degraded.” Control-system faults, alarms and leaks marred the test.
Shipwide electrical problems and leaks have so far been common to the first two San Antonio-class amphibs. In late October, midway through its maiden deployment, the San Antonio had to stop for almost a month’s worth of emergency repairs in Bahrain because of leaks in its lube oil systems.