Navy looking at $1B in unscheduled repairs

What the heck is going on with the Navy lately? They are looking at possibly over $1B in unscheduled repairs due to mishaps and accidents, and $850M of that is for four ships. I know the Navy has accidents, just like the Air Force and every other service. The only thing with Navy accidents is that they tend to cost a lot more to fix them.

The biggest was the fire aboard the USS Miami. That's potentially $450M in repairs.
There's another huge bill for the USS Porter, damaged in a collision in the Gulf. They paid $2M for cosmetic repairs to a foreign shipyard, but it still faces up to $125M for complete repairs.
USS Montpelier was damaged in a collision with the USS San Jacinto, and faces at least $41M in repairs, with another $10M to the San Jacinto.
USS Essex was damaged in a collision with the oiler Yukon.
USS Kearsarge, $10M for a new rudder.
USS Jacksonville surfaced under a merchant ship in the Arabian Gulf and destroyed her periscope.

Sort of scheduled repairs that have gone over or were moved up:
USS Eisenhower is undergoing an emergency resurfacing of the flight deck, and her redeployment pushes a scheduled year long drydock overhaul back.
USS Nimitz is unavailable for deployment due to a faulty reactor pump.
USS Roosevelt needed $128M in supplemental work, pushing her redelivery from last December until June 2013, with that being in jeopardy.

The big thing with all these repairs is that there's no budget for them. They've having to take money from wherever they can get it to pay for the repairs, or go hat in hand to Congress and ask for more money for them.

USN Mishaps and accidents

This is very sad. Millions of dollars are being err..wasted in this way.

reply to post by Zaphod58


It's dangerous working in enclosed spaces with limited visibility.
If a B-2 crashes that would more than even the score.
Do the Marines even have a billion dollars of equipment? (kidding haha )
The Army has wasted a trillion.?? That's not really accidents unless you count the wars as accidents, which I kind of do.

Partially having fun, but I'm also serious.

Hooah!?

reply to post by Dustytoad


That's one nice thing about the Air Force. With the exception of the B-2, if they lose something, it's in the $20-40M range. So unless they have a really bad year, they would have to try really hard to get up to even what those four ships are going to cost to repair.

reply to post by Zaphod58
They also spend millions and millions of dollars every year maintaining and doing minimum upgrades on their "mothball" fleets. The majority of the vessels haven't moved in many decades and I would think that the vast majority of them will still be sitting in the same berths many decades from now.

I rather see us spending our money repair our ships if that is the case, I just don't understand why we have an open check book every time a country needs help and we give them Billions of dollars, when we need it who has helped us?

If your looking to complain about the US Spending money maybe we should look at all the contries we are still paying for war damages to help rebuild, or we are paying them to stay in that country, example would be the Philipiens (sp), when the Air Forces contract with them us about up the Philipean goverment want alot more money to rent the air base out, the Air Forces was about ready to agree then the Volvano exploded and devisated that air strip and we said sorry we don't want it any more.

I've seen places were american dollars were spent in Germany to house American soilders, but we ended up just giving the Germans everything for nothing when we left.

As long is the money is spent in our Country lets not cheat the men and women who are serving our Country.

oh! boo hoo!
their nuclear death toys are breaking down!
how will they continue their drug importing operations and regional genocides/ crusades?

i guess they'll just have to man up and pay for it [or give peace a chance - Lol]

i need new tires for my truck, you don't hear me complaining [i'm complaining, you just don't hear it]

Hey Zaphod, you've been in and around the service recently if not current, right? Forgive me, I can't recall which that is for status and there are so many to either side of the discharge line on ATS.

I listened to my Father speak for years about "His Navy" which was 1968 through the end of the war. He spoke of Captains as special creatures just a step and cut above the mere mortal man and Flag Rank being the point where they take on a light glow of 'specialness' as well as a little slice of immortality or something. Of course, I'm exaggerating. Stories like his Captain of the mine sweep literally having the men rig SAILS of all things because the engines went down off the N. Vietnam coast were among those I could tell built into that inherent respect. At least in many cases, I think it was earned.

So, could it be that the overall culture of "Average is exceptional" have finally made it's ugly way into command levels of the US Navy? I'm not sure how else to account for some of the accidents and incidents in recent years, not to mention some of the other points you and others have raised for problems.

Surfacing under ships? Running into them? (I know.. at-sea replenishment is a nightmare operation ...but still? Crashing isn't THAT common?) Parking on TOP of reefs? It makes a guy wonder what we have for a combat force if our Navy should ever encounter another Navy which means to fight with real systems and ships?

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


I was a civilian working with the AF, and literally grew up on the flight line to start things.

But you're right, at one point if you were a Captain in the Navy, or a Colonel in the Air Force, you were the closest thing to God as most mere mortals were going to meet, unless you were lucky enough to meet an Admiral or General, and then you had met one of the Archangels. Now, not so much. We've gotten to the point where we coddle our enlisted, and give them "stress cards" in basic, which is pathetic. And it's starting to show. I remember when the worst accident I had seen in years was the USS Greenville, when she surfaced under the Ehime Maru, and sank her. Then after that it was minor accidents with the Greenville, and hardly anything else. Now it seems like every time you turn around there's another accident.

Its all fine and dandy however how much of the budget/repair cost is diverted to OTHER projects? Thats what I'm wondering as there are complex loopholes to route the funding to special projects in the DOD. Its mind boggling.