USS Milwaukee Woes Continue

That explanation by the Navy stinks worse than the unholy alliance between the admirals and defense contractors. The idea that sloppy watchstanding created this debacle is ludicrous.

The original story from the Navy said that the combining gear failed "during an operational test of the port and starboard main propulsion diesel engines.” That isn't the type of operation where a couple of inexperienced new guys had responsibility for the propulsion system.

There are oil level indicators, oil pressure indicators, oil temperature indicators, and alarms for everything from coffee pot temperature to chow call. There is trend monitoring for both temperature and pressure.

That story about "debris" sounds like more of the same stuff that they blame for the Milwaukee casualty. The question remains whether the debris resulted from oil pressure loss or the lubrication failure was a result of some part of the gearbox or clutch failing.

There is a lot more to this story than we are reading and without a doubt it will not include a happy ending for the taxpayer.

And prolly never know what really did happen.

From our politico?

I don't think the Navy wants to be embarrassed so it's easier to blame someone on the bottom of the totem pole and hope it goes away.

As Marmot points out the absurdity of the " low oil" excuse, who will know enough to ask anything more ? ( I mean "who" that doesn't want egg on his face )

I wish it were just a matter of egg on someone's face but the underlying issues are far more serious than some admiral's ego. I think there are a few admiral to industry jobs riding on a quick and quiet resolution to the publicity aspects of this debacle. They must keep the cash flowing to Lockheed since the TWIC project obviously didn't provide enough for them.

I believe this falls under the category of "regulatory capture." The people who should be screaming the loudest and looking for heads to roll are the ones who stand the most to gain by not allowing the public to know. One would think that in this current atmosphere of military worship and concern for the "troops" that those responsible for allowing the LCS disaster to keep going should be the first heads on the block.

Imagine the headlines if that boat crapped out earlier when it was showing the flag at the edge of Chinese waters. If it drifted dead in the water across the line it would have become a floating version of the "Hainan Island incident" or the recent capture of American Navy sailor and their little boat ... that was claimed to have suffered a mechanical problem while running along the border.

They Launched another one this weekend.

http://siouxlandnews.com/news/local...x-city-ceremonial-ship-launching-in-wisconsin

It's quite a good thing.
Learning whether a set of issues is different or the same as the first one.