Article: Can the world's mightiest naval fleet survive the perfect storm?

[Mrs. Peel 7,162]

Interesting article (with, may I say, a really nice use of short video clips that help bring the story to life).

The article highlights those 5 accidents the 7th Fleet had in 2017 (discussed on here previously), but also discusses how that fits into the overall context of Naval force readiness.  My own takeaway: when you see experts saying they need to "rebuild the Navy"... well, hmmm...  that should give us some pause, shouldn't it? 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/politics/us-navy-seventh-fleet-breaking-point/index.html

 

[Zeke 5,504]

1 minute ago, Mrs. Peel said:

Interesting article (with, may I say, a really nice use of short video clips that help bring the story to life).

The article highlights those 5 accidents the 7th Fleet had in 2017 (discussed on here previously), but also discusses how that fits into the overall context of Naval force readiness.  My own takeaway: when you see experts saying they need to "rebuild the Navy"... well, hmmm...  that should give us some pause, shouldn't it? 

http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/23/politics/us-navy-seventh-fleet-breaking-point/index.html

 

We tend to repair from the top down. We build from the bottom up.

jus sayen 

[bhunted 887]

Interesting. But the Naval Air Force is the mightiest.


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[voyager9 3,439]

IT boils down to operational tempo. You can’t expect a crew to deploy for 9 of every 12 months and work 60-hour weeks for weeks straight and not get rundown. You can’t run the equipment that hard without pulling it apart for maintenance once in a while. 

And this is peacetime. 

[Mrs. Peel 7,162]

On ‎11‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 8:32 PM, voyager9 said:

IT boils down to operational tempo. You can’t expect a crew to deploy for 9 of every 12 months and work 60-hour weeks for weeks straight and not get rundown. You can’t run the equipment that hard without pulling it apart for maintenance once in a while. 

And this is peacetime. 

Yeah, your comment makes perfect sense (even to this total novice). And it would appear the damage done was not merely to the ships/sailors either. Here's another article showing that "US military" plane crashes have claimed more victims this year too --- and most of this seemed to be during very "normal", routine operations. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/11/24/us-troops-killed-in-plane-crashes-skyrockets-in-2017.html

 

[Displaced Texan 11,765]

On 11/24/2017 at 8:32 PM, voyager9 said:

IT boils down to operational tempo. You can’t expect a crew to deploy for 9 of every 12 months and work 60-hour weeks for weeks straight and not get rundown. You can’t run the equipment that hard without pulling it apart for maintenance once in a while. 

And this is peacetime. 

Voyager hit it right on the nose. Op tempo is high, training and maintenance are low. I understand that morale is pretty low too. These things combine to make a very dangerous mix. 

Unfortunately, I don’t see it changing any time soon, with the volatile situations in NK. I think we will start to see the same things happen in the Atlantic/Med, with the Middle East being what it is. 

[voyager9 3,439]

8 minutes ago, Displaced Texan said:

Voyager hit it right on the nose. Op tempo is high, training and maintenance are low. I understand that morale is pretty low too. These things combine to make a very dangerous mix. 

Unfortunately, I don’t see it changing any time soon, with the volatile situations in NK. I think we will start to see the same things happen in the Atlantic/Med, with the Middle East being what it is. 

Build more ships. Unfortunately the big yards are booked with DDG/CVN and subs. given the “failure” of LCS, they’ll have to wait for FFG to get something the smaller yards can build. 

[Displaced Texan 11,765]

My last ‘usetafish’ (submariner jargon for ‘my last boat’), we were deployed about 300 days/year for my 4 year tour aboard her (this included local ops, and certification ops). Extremely stressful. When we were in port, maintenance was fast and furious. I imagine the surface fleet is doing much the same right now. 

There was little room for error.