Jenkkilaivastolla on huolto-ongelmia muuallakin kuin LCS-ohjelmassa:
Over a Fifth of Navy Ships Aren’t Ready to Fight
More than a fifth of the Navy isn’t ready to sail or fight, at a time when demand on the fleet is off the charts. And the number of unready ships is likely to rise as Navy officers try to fix their chronic readiness woes.
According to statistics released by Rep. Randy Forbes, the Virginia Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Readiness Subcommittee, 22 percent of Navy ships didn’t pass their inspections in 2011. In 2007, just 8 percent of ships were rated as carrying junk equipment or insufficient spare parts. And more than half the Navy’s deployed aircraft — the F/A-18 Hornets, the jamming EA-18G Growlers, the P-3C Orion surveillance plane — aren’t ready for combat.
The Navy’s surface fleet goes into the water banged up. Its aircraft carriers, frigates, destroyers spend nearly 40 percent of their deployment time with “at least one major equipment or systems failure,” according to a chart Forbes released at a hearing on Tuesday. That can include “anti-air defenses, radar, satellite communications, or engines.”
Tässä eräs ääriesimerkki. 2008 pidetyssä tarkistuksessa Burke-luokan hävittäjä, USS Stout (valm. 1994) omasi seuraavia ongelmia:
Stout
Last deployment: July-December 2007
* Aegis AN/SPY-1D power output was reduced by about 75 percent.
* Two of three Mk 99 missile illuminators were inoperable.
* Aft vertical launch system magazine unusable due to fuel tank leakage.
* Close-In Weapon System was inoperable.
* Neither of two triple torpedo tube mounts could be quickly trained to firing position.
* The Mk 45 5-inch gun couldn’t fire due to corrosion in the gun cradle.
* Search-and-rescue swimmer gear would not permit operations in water colder than 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
* An intermittent problem with the Mk 39 Gyro Data Converter, causing unreliable data to be fed to the Aegis weapon control system and gun fire control system, had been reported in March 2006 but still not repaired.
* Food service was degraded: The ship’s walk-in freezer and nine of 13 reach-in reefers had problems; neither single tank dishwasher worked, nor did all three waste disposal units. Only one of four steam kettles was operating.
* 26 of 77 watertight closures inspected were not watertight.
* The ship scored an UNSAT .51 for the anti-air warfare demonstration.
* Only three gas turbines were in operation, precluding the ability to conduct a full-power demonstration.
* The flight deck status lighting system was inoperable due to corrosion.
* The deck demonstration received a .50 score, UNSAT.
* The aviation demonstration received a score of .59, UNSAT.
Eli suurin osa asejärjestelmistä käytännössä toimintakyvyttömiä. Tietysti monilla muillakin laivastoilla on varmasti samanlaisia tai pahempiakin ongelmia, USN on vain avoimempi vaikeuksiensa suhteen kuin joku Kiina tai Venäjä.