As budget time returns, CG details ship woes

[unhappycamper]

As budget time returns, CG details ship woes
By Philip Ewing - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 6, 2008 18:39:11 EST

Within days of the Coast Guard releasing its $9.3 billion fiscal 2009 budget request, which sets aside millions of dollars for new vessels, service officials set out to underscore the shoddy state of the current Coast Guard fleet with some maritime horror stories — tales of hull cracks, broken gear and lost propellers.

In speeches scheduled Friday and again Feb. 14 by Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Thad Allen about the state of the Coast Guard in general and its recapitalization program in particular, the lifesaving service seemed likely to renew its case that despite the embarrassments over its Deepwater modernization plan, the Coast Guard badly needs its new ships and aircraft.

First was the case of the 64-year-old cutter Acushnet — the Coast Guard’s oldest ship and as such, bearer of the informal title “Queen of the Fleet” — which, in December, lost its screw, said Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Brendan McPherson. The ship’s propeller separated completely from its shaft, a significant problem made worse because the ship’s age means it has no off-the-shelf spare parts, forcing the Coast Guard to custom-build a new propeller and all the other equipment needed to fix the ship. In its budget request, the service announced that it hopes to decommission the Acushnet by 2009.

Then there was the story of the 378-foot cutter Dallas, which had to delay its deployment from Charleston, S.C., last week because its equipment for making fresh water broke — the ship didn’t even get out of sight of land before it had to request parts to make repairs, McPherson said. That, in turn, delayed the deployment of the Coast Guard’s first armed MH-65C Dolphin helicopter, carried in the Dallas’ hangar for use against drug smugglers in the Caribbean.

And on Sunday, the 378-foot cutter Rush, one of the Dallas’ younger sister ships, turned back from a search-and-rescue mission off Alaska when water began seeping in through a corroded, two-foot crack in its hull — “never a good thing on a ship,” McPherson said. The Rush was expected to dock at Dutch Harbor as early as Wednesday and the cutter Jarvis, another 378-foot sister ship, was sent in its stead. Two other sister ships, the Morganthau and Chase, have had similar hull corrosion failures since 2005.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/02/coastguard_oldboats_080206w/



uhc comment: It appears the Deepwater program is biting them in the ass. Karma can do that --> http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=10906