US Navy Virginia Class Nuclear Attack Submarines

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Naval Today said:

Having completed its second scheduled deployment to the Western Pacific, U.S. Navy’s Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Texas (SSN 775) returned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, March 9.

During deployment, the boat steamed over 27,000 miles and conducted four port-call visits in two foreign countries while conducting missions.

Cmdr. Todd Nethercott, commanding officer of USS Texas, said:

“The ship and crew performed exceedingly well. Few Sailors aboard two years ago could even fathom that Texas would be pulling in today after having completed a highly successful Western Pacific deployment.”

USS Texas had been in dry dock for 26 months before she deployed, which made guidance from senior crew members crucial.

Master Chief Machinist’s Mate Daniel Kloepfer, chief of the boat aboard USS Texas, said:

“There is nothing better than taking a shipyard crew and training them into sharp, proficient, steely-eyed killers of the deep. While the first-term sailors brought an abundance of energy and enthusiasm to the boat, the seasoned Sailors brought the experience and the knowledge necessary to change Texas from a ship into a warship.”

During their deployment, 11 Sailors and three officers earned their submarine warfare qualifications and now wear the submarine warfare insignia, or dolphins. Additionally, 11 Sailors were advanced in rank.

A number of objectives were accomplished during the submarine’s deployment, including participation in two exercises with the air, surface and subsurface components of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force.

USS Texas set a new submerged endurance record for the ship while conducting missions vital to national security. Also, the culinary team was recognized as one of four finalists for the Captain Edward F. Ney award for culinary excellence.

Commissioned September 9, 2006, USS Texas is the second of the Navy’s Virginia-class fast-attack submarines and the fourth warship to be named after the U.S. state of Texas. Measuring 377 feet (115m) long and weighing more than 7,900 tons, the submarine is capable of executing anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface ship warfare, and shallow water operations.

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When the newest attack submarine returned from sea trials in March 2013, the submarine brass were giddy.

The Minnesota had done well and the boat was being delivered well ahead of schedule and on budget: the Holy Grail for big defense acquisitions projects, like the $2.7 billion for each Virginia-class sub.

“The tenth ship of the Virginia-class, Minnesota is scheduled to be delivered approximately one year earlier than its contract delivery date,” a Navy release read. “Starting in August of 2008 with USS New Hampshire (SSN 778), the last five boats have been delivered early, and all Virginia-class submarines currently under construction are scheduled to be delivered prior to their contract delivery dates.”

But when inspectors discovered shoddy pipe fittings welded into a hard-to-access part of the steam propulsion system, all the extra time banked from early delivery was wiped out and then some. Suddenly, one of the Navy’s golden-child programs was facing delays and expensive, unplanned repairs because of a quality control problem that is now the focus of Justice Department-led investigation.

Experts said even the worst case scenario for these faulty parts — a ruptured pipe — wouldn’t be catastrophic for the crew. What’s more concerning is the lost operational time for at least three brand new attack subs at a time that demand for them is mounting around the world.

The lousy fittings bedeviling Minnesota were also installed in subs John Warner and North Dakota, and officials say the repairs will “greatly expand” the work and length of time in the yards.

In February, former NATO commander retired Adm. James Stavridis told lawmakers that Russian undersea activity is about 70 percent to 80 percent of Cold War levels, and that more U.S. attack boats are needed to shadow them.

Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command, also told lawmakers in February that the Navy was only meeting 62 percent of the requests he had made for attack submarine missions.

“As far as Virginia-class submarines — it's the best thing we have,” Harris told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “I can't get enough of them and I can't get enough of them fast enough.”

Spokespeople for General Dynamics Electric Boat and Huntington Ingalls Industries declined to comment for this article, citing the ongoing investigation. Naval Sea Systems Command, which oversees submarine building, was unable to say whether faulty pipe joints have been found on more than three submarines.

From the start, Minnesota's early delivery seemed auspicious. The brass hailed shipbuilders and the plankowner crew in May 2013, after it completed sea trials.

"Minnesota's sea trials are a testament to the success of the Virginia-class program's ability to deliver high-quality and extremely capable boats early and on cost," said then-head of Submarine Group 2 Rear Adm. Ken Perry.

Perhaps the foremost impact from the shoddy parts will be the the loss of sophisticated surveillance assets, one defense analyst said.

“The attack boat fleet, it’s shrinking, and as a consequence, the Navy has to routinely decline missions for intel gathering and surveillance,” said Loren Thompson, an analyst with the Arlington, Virginia-based think tank Lexington Institute. “It needs to be fixed correctly and fixed fast. The majority of mission days for attack submarines are dedicated to intelligence gathering and any slow-down in the transition of submarines from the yards to the active fleet is going to impact U.S. readiness around the globe.”

The fact that the issue is impacting what has been the Navy’s banner program is surprising, Thompson added.

“The Virginia-class is the Navy's most successful program,” Thompson said. “I’ve followed complex technological systems and the things that can go wrong with them for most of my career. The Virginia-class to this point has been amazingly problem-free. And this may not turn out to be a huge problem in the end but with a program like the Virginia, any problem is going to get a lot of attention.”

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Brumby said:

Shoddy pipes trip up one of Navy's top shipbuilding programs

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Equation said:

Minor stuff, just add the cost to the "change orders" (construction and architectural terminology for added unexpected cost but needed it).

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you are in a hurry, so no, it is a big deal, and the fact that at least two other boats are affected is disgraceful.

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strehl said:

USS Washington being "launched" at Newport News. I remember seeing films of WWII submarines launched sideways the way they do with the Lockheed version of the LCS.

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strehl said:

Keel laying for USS Indiana. Whoever is composing the soundtracks for these defense contractor videos will hopefully find himself working on a major motion picture.

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UPDATED with Carter statement & Electric Boat clarifications ELECTRIC BOAT, GROTON, CT:

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are fixing the biggest problem on one of the Pentagon’s top priorities, the Navy’s nuclear submarine fleet. As Defense Secretary Ashton Carter toured the Groton shipyard and talked up the importance of submarines,

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officials told reporters they’re fixing faulty welds in the nuclear-powered propulsion plants of three

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. As a result, the long-delayed USS Minnesota will finally leave the shipyard Friday.

“We’ve pretty much identified all of the issues that arose as a result of that vendor,” one

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said referring to pipe-maker Nuflo. Other officials were more cautious, since they’re still waiting on the results of some inspections. Electric Boat spokesman Tim Boulay said on the record that:“We are continuing to perform inspections and take appropriate actions to resolve the issues….A great deal of progress has been made.”

Secretary Carter expressed his confidence in the Navy and the shipyards during his visit. “It was a propulsion system weld issue,” the former physicist acknowledged when I asked him at a brief pierside press conference. “The effect of it is, yes, to delay the delivery of one of the new [Virginia-class] boats, and that obviously creates an operational impact that we have to fill and we’re going to fill as we promptly rectify the underlying problem” (i.e. the welds).

Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks pierside in front of the USS New Mexico at Sub Base New London, Connecticut.

The delay could have been much worse: While Minnesota has been in the shipyard two years, twice the normal maintenance availability after a shakedown cruise, it had been built and delivered 11 months ahead of schedule, canceling out most of the delay.

After placing the blame squarely on a subcontractor, the Electric Boat officials told us the question as to who will pay for the problem — the subcontractor, the shipyards, or the government — remains unsettled. The priority, they said, was to get it fixed fast and assign blame later.

The first sub to display the welding defect, the USS Minnesota, will finally leave the Groton yard this Friday. The welds are also being fixed on the future USS Colorado, in whose shadow Carter spoke today, and on a third sub being built at EB’s partner yard, Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia.

That’s good news not just for the Virginia — an

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— but for its 150 percent bigger sibling, the future nuclear missile sub known as the

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. The Ohio Replacement Program “is a huge, centrally important, obviously indispensable part of our national defense because the nuclear deterrent is the bedrock,” Carter told the shipyard workers. “This is one of those issues on which we are completely aligned with the

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,” Carter added (implicitly contrasting with a host of other issues). “I’m very grateful for that.”

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