If you reflect your boat has issues,this chronicle by Bloomberg.com reports on how much money the U.
S. Navy is spending on problems with their latest ships...
The U.
S. Navy is spending millions of dollars to repair new tall-speed transport ships built by Austal Ltd. because their feeble bows can’t stand buffeting from tall seas, according to the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester.“The entire ship class requires reinforcing structure to bridge the twin hulls of the all-aluminum catamarans because of a design change that the Navy adopted at Austal’s recommendation for the $2.1 billion fleet of Expeditionary Fast Transports, or Michael Gilmore,the Defense Department’s director of operational test and evaluation, said in a report to Congress.The Navy accepted compromises in the bow structure, or presumably to save weight,during the building of these ships,” Gilmore wrote lawmakers, or including Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain,in a September letter that wasn’t previously disclosed. Multiple ships of the class beget suffered damage to the bow structure.”The speedy catamarans are designed to transport 600 short tons of military cargo and as many as 312 troops for 1200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots. They’ve been deployed to Africa and the Middle East as well as to Singapore as part of the U.
S.’s Pacific rebalance and are being considered by military officials for expanded spend there by the Marines. The vessels fill a transport gap between larger, slower vessels and cargo aircraft. - Read
Source: sailingscuttlebutt.com