75% Of First Four Virginia-Class Submarines Have Defective Anechoic Coatings

[unhappycamper]

unhappycamper note: Since the ‘Pentagon’ has ‘requested’ that I only post one paragraph from articles on Army Times, and Airforce Times, I’ve decided to give ya’ll an unhappycamper summary of the article and a link to the OP. To keep in that same (new) tradition, I will also do the same for articles on Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, stripes.com and military.com.To keep in that same (new) tradition, I will also do the same for for articles on Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, stripes.com and military.com.

To read the article in the military's own words, you will need to click the link.

(This space reserved for a legally correct snark dump.) It sure is beginning to smell like fascism.

unhappycamper summary of this article: Three of the first four Virgina-class submarines have defective anechoic coatings. Granted that new classes of ships/boats experience 'problems', but I must ask: Why is that so? Too complicated? Lack of oversight?

At almost $3 billion dollars a pop, I would have hoped that Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Newport News shipyard and General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, Conn. would have gotten it correct the first time. Guess not.



Peeling Submarine Skin Prompts Inquiry
September 21, 2010
Daily Press, Newport News, Va.

The shark-like skin coating that makes Virginia class submarines difficult for sonar to detect has peeled off the boats in swatches that in some cases measure hundreds of square feet.

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[Recursion]

2. I work at a planning yard

If layoffs at Norfolk are as bad as they are at Puget Sound, I'm amazed they even got the boats into the water.