I Feel the NEED for SPEED!

URR here.

Well, it's a good thing Goose and Mav aren't SWOs on USS Milwaukee, because they would be disappointed. Sam LaGrone and USNI News has the story.

USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) is set to leave Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story as early as Wednesday under propulsion restrictions for shock trials in Mayport, Fla., several sources told USNI News.

Sources told USNI News the ship would proceed underway under its own power with a set of restrictions on its propulsion plant designed to prevent stress on the gearing system that ties the ships diesel engines together with its gas turbines and routes the output to the ship’s waterjets.

Under the restrictions that will limit Milwaukee’s speed, the ship will arrive at Mayport by the end of the month to conduct shock trials to prove the ship’s systems can operate in combat conditions. The remaining work to make the ship fully operational will be completed in Florida, USNI News understands.

Would LOVE to see the parameters and results of the shock testing.  Not the Navy's version of what happened, but what actually happened.   As for the engineering casualty in December, the explanation seems to center around software, which is not good news.  The vulnerability of US Navy HM&E control systems to cyber intrusion is a matter of some concern.  

Instead the high speed clutches were ground severely for approximately two-and-a-half seconds spraying chunks of the clutch plates and contaminating the lube oil system of the propulsion plant, sources told USNI News.

Four days after the emergency stop, the lube oil systems in both Milwaukee’s combining gears lost pressure and the ship was unable to proceed on its own power.

The Navy and shipbuilder Lockheed Martin consider a flaw in the ship’s software as the prime culprit for why the clutches didn’t immediately disengage from the MT30s, sources told USNI News.

That is two in two months.  But at least Fort Worth's engineering casualty was not the same problem.  Dunno if that is good news or bad....

 

Comments

[Byron Audler]

I hope the PLAN is wasting all it's time trying to mess with the LCS instead of a real ship...

[timactual]

Being abysmally ignorant about all things nautical, I am going to assume that the ability to get underway and resume normal operation after the explosion is part of the shock test. So how are they going to factor in an evidently compromised propulsion system?

[Jjak]

I wonder if it will just sink or be crippled beyond repair and let us be done with this misery.

[Casey]

timactual asks "So how are they going to factor in an evidently compromised propulsion system?"

Oh, the usual way. Smoke & mirrors, cheerleading the LCS, poo-pooing the critics; the usual.

[Mel]

Actually, I would say if software is the problem that's the good news. It's way easier to correct software than to have to go back and modify hardware. Hardware requires much more engineering, time and expense to correct. Then you'd have to retrofit any previous production.

[ultimaratioregis]

@Mel,

If the software of the control system can be made to destroy the hardware, that is a far bigger problem than a mechanical redesign.

[Mel]

@URR, I respectfully disagree. Improperly written software frequently has the potential to be catastrophic, in all sorts of ways, including destruction of mechanical hardware, electronics, and larger systems, be it in ships, airplanes, automobiles, medical hardware or even your cell phone (cf. recent "Error 53" bug that bricked iPhones that had had the fingerprint reader repaired by a third party). That's why so much time is spent testing in labs with actual hardware, controlled field/flight tests, etc. In spite of all that sometimes problems do get through. It would be much more expensive/time consuming to have to go back and re-design the clutch/drive line and retrofit those changes as opposed to changing software to make them operate properly. This is greatly over-simplified, but I've experienced similar events in a number of instances.

[ultimaratioregis]

@Mel,

It isn't a matter of improperly written software. It is a matter of an adversary taking control of HM&E and being able to do catastrophic damage with very little effort and without being detected. ICS vulnerability, not just on Navy ships, is a massive and looming problem.