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German Navy Experiences 'LCS Syndrome' In Spades As New Frigate Fails Sea Trials (arstechnica.com)
schwit1 shares a report from Ars Technica, highlighting the problems the Germany Navy is facing right now. It has no working submarines due to a chronic repair parts shortage, and its newest ships face problems so severe that the first of the class failed its sea trials and was returned to the shipbuilders in December. From the report: The Baden-Wurttemberg class frigates were ordered to replace the 1980s-era Bremen class ships, all but two of which have been retired already. At 149 meters (488 feet) long with a displacement of 7,200 metric tons (about 7,900 U.S. tons), the Baden-Wurttembergs are about the size of destroyers and are intended to reduce the size of the crew required to operate them. Like the Zumwalt, the frigates are intended to have improved land attack capabilities -- a mission capability largely missing from the Deutsche Marine's other post-unification ships. The new frigate was supposed to be a master of all trades -- carrying Marines to deploy to fight ashore, providing gunfire support, hunting enemy ships and submarines, and capable of being deployed on far-flung missions for up to two years away from a home port. As with the U.S. Navy's LCS ships, the German Navy planned to alternate crews -- sending a fresh crew to meet the ship on deployment to relieve the standing crew.
Instead, the Baden-Wurttemberg now bears the undesirable distinction of being the first ship the German Navy has ever refused to accept after delivery. In fact, the future of the whole class of German frigates is now in doubt because of the huge number of problems experienced with the first ship during sea trials. So the Baden-Wurttemberg won't be shooting its guns at anything for the foreseeable future (and neither will the Zumwalt for the moment, since the U.S. Navy cancelled orders for their $800,000-per-shot projectiles). System integration issues are a major chunk of the Baden-Wurrenberg's problems. About 90 percent of the ship's systems are so new that they've never been deployed on a warship in fact -- they've never been tested together as part of what the U.S. Navy would call "a system of systems." And all of that new hardware and software have not played well together -- particularly with the ship's command and control computer system, the Atlas Naval Combat System (ANCS). schwit1 adds: "Perhaps most inexcusable, the ship doesn't even float right. It has a permanent list to starboard."
Instead, the Baden-Wurttemberg now bears the undesirable distinction of being the first ship the German Navy has ever refused to accept after delivery. In fact, the future of the whole class of German frigates is now in doubt because of the huge number of problems experienced with the first ship during sea trials. So the Baden-Wurttemberg won't be shooting its guns at anything for the foreseeable future (and neither will the Zumwalt for the moment, since the U.S. Navy cancelled orders for their $800,000-per-shot projectiles). System integration issues are a major chunk of the Baden-Wurrenberg's problems. About 90 percent of the ship's systems are so new that they've never been deployed on a warship in fact -- they've never been tested together as part of what the U.S. Navy would call "a system of systems." And all of that new hardware and software have not played well together -- particularly with the ship's command and control computer system, the Atlas Naval Combat System (ANCS). schwit1 adds: "Perhaps most inexcusable, the ship doesn't even float right. It has a permanent list to starboard."
Re "It's the integration and fielding that's difficult."
The Dreadnought https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... generation faced such generational change issues. How did the UK change so quickly and have so few issues?
The UK gov supported a very good engineering company with the best leadership and top experts.
The private sector made their parts on time and ensured all the parts delivered worked for their nations navy.
Most of the better bands have the ability to do that "integration and fielding" as they have experts who can do that job.
Want good parts? Pay for the parts from domestic experts and only hire the best domestic staff to work on mil projects.
Stop using political trade deals with other less skilled nations boat builders to create a low cost navy.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
ECO's.... The bread and butter of arms makers.
Oh? You want the toilets to flush? Well why didn't you say so before in your specifications? We can make that happen for only the small price of $$$$, sign here.
Oh? What? You want the ship to turn right AND left? Again, I'm sorry, but that's not part of the original specification. We can make that happen though, just cough up some more cash and sign here... And, just to make sure, you don't want it to turn both ways at the same time right? Well, we need some $$ to make sure that last ECO covers one way at a time turning...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Going into World War 1, just about every power had at least some major equipment that was horrendously inadequate or impractical in some way. And/or just plain outdated. If we're as close to World War 3 starting as many people think we are, that's the situation now, between the new equipment like these faulty ships, the F-35, etc.
At least they get something in the water. Canada issued contracts for new ships years ago and the shipyards still haven't started welding metal yet. It's another case of trying to keep the yards in business over building the proper ships for the Navy. We should have had the basic ship (hull, structures, engines, etc) built in a country that specializes in ship building such as South Korea and then brought them back to kit them out with all of the specialized equipment (RADAR, SONAR, weapons, communications, etc). We could have had ships in service by now.
A ship that lists is usually indicative of engines not being placed quite right, as they are easily the heaviest thing below the waterline. The fix for a cruise ship with this condition is usually to fill a compartment with ballast, often concrete. Generally there are some small compartments left unassigned for exactly this purpose. Fill one partly or completely to balance the ship and compensate for inevitable measurement errors in placing the engines. The rest are then available for storage, because it doesn't matter all that much exactly which three tanks (out of four) are available, only that you have three.
I don't know if a Navy would be accepting of such ad hoc fixes, but the engines being misaligned slightly is so common that the fix is engineered right into passenger ships.
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
Absolutely not. I love parades. I think the idea of the latest military hardware rolling down the street while members of the armed forces are forced to salute a guy who dodged the draft with four deferments, including one for bone spurs in his foot and who compared avoiding STDs to his "own personal Vietnam" is exactly what this country needs right now.
In fact, he was classified 1-A in 1968, but re-classified as 4-F in 1972 after his dad bribed some New York draft board officials.
Plus, military parades are always super-gay and gay stuff cheers everybody up.
You are welcome on my lawn.