Built at a cost of more than $4 billion, the high-tech USS Zumwalt only made it to the Panama Canal while on its first journey to its homeport in San Diego. A malfunction left the warship in need of tugboats so that it could reach the closest port, where it remains under maintenance.
Passing southbound through the Panama Canal on Monday evening, the USS Zumwalt crew discovered water seeping into two of the four ship’s bearings connecting the port and starboard Advanced Induction Motors, or AIMs, to the drive shafts, according to US Naval Institute News citing a defense official.
The AIMs are part of what makes the Zumwalt the most high-tech, and most expensive, destroyer in the US Navy’s history. They generate up to 78 megawatts, allowing the 610-foot, 15,000-ton ship’s propulsion to rely entirely on electrical power.
However, Zumwalt was at the mercy of tugboats Monday night. They towed the ship to a former US naval station in Panama, where it is still being worked on. The problem may not be fixed for another 10 days, a defense official told USNI.
The unusually angular warship, shaped to evade radar detection, endured “minor cosmetic damage” when it collided with canal walls, the Portland Press Herald reported. It was on its way to San Diego, where it would join the US 3rd Fleet and be ready for action in 2018 after some weapons systems are installed.
Third Fleet spokesman, Commander Ryan Perry, issued a statement late Monday, Defense News reported.
“Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, commander, US Third Fleet, has directed USS Zumwalt (DDG 1000) to remain at ex-Naval Station Rodman in Panama to address engineering issues that occurred while transiting the Panama Canal,” the statement read. “The timeline for repairs is being determined now, in direct coordination with Naval Sea Systems and Naval Surface Forces. The schedule for the ship will remain flexible to enable testing and evaluation in order to ensure the ship’s safe transit to her new homeport in San Diego.”
This is the second major break down for the Zumwalt. In late September, just two weeks after leaving Bath, Maine, where it was constructed, it sprung a leak in its auxiliary motor drive oil system, Popular Mechanics reported.
Two other “stealth” destroyer ships in Zumwalt’s class are currently under construction.
https://www.rt.com/usa/367866-uss-zumwalt-stealth-break-down/
This is Oblah blah’s legacy right here. Naval Ships that don’t work, military aircraft that won’t fly, generals and admirals that can’t command and an insurance fiasco that doesn’t deliver health care. Total incompetence coupled with complete arrogance gives you these results.
And the people in power in this country want to use this crap fighting a war with Russia?
The Corporate government here just might win by causing the Russians to laugh themselves to death.
We’re scheduled to LOSE WW3, and we have the military hardware to prove it…. but there’s still a lot of money to be made by building this crap, regardless of whether or not it works.
Engineers are jumping head-first into the digital world, eager to exploit all of the possibilities that it offers, but every new invention isn’t necessarily an improvement. All of the digital technology they’ve put into cars to make it impossible for you to fix them yourself only makes the machine less reliable, and more prone to failure.
It’s hard enough to keep a computer functioning properly on a desk, but these idiots are trying to extend the fragile technology into cars, and military machines, that are subject to extremes of temperature, vibration, and moisture. Not very bright, if you ask me, but probably a lot of fun for engineers to experiment with.
Yes, there is a definite trend of “technology for technology’s sake” (“Hey, I know! Let’s use drones to deliver pizza! Let’s connect toasters to the Internet! Wheeeeee!”) and cars are one of the more egregious examples.
“We’re scheduled to LOSE WW3,…”
Unchallenged.
I suppose this is what we get when the “defense” industry prioritizes the hunting and killing of illiterate, sandal-wearing tribesmen over the development of weapons could be used against a real military threat.
Well, no matter. With the exception of weapons like ICBMs and the nuclear detterent, none of America’s military capability is really important or useful for genuine national defense. It’s only used for overseas military aggression, plus a certain amount of domestic repression. So it’s probably better that this crap doesn’t work. As long as we can deter a nuclear attack or a blockade of our shipping lanes, we have enough military strength.
Come on people, heads up,
They only have to create stealth tugboats to make it all stealthy again.
Knowing our federal government. . . order another dozen of them.
Escalating ‘planned obsolescence’.
More contracts created.