Comments on: Virginia Class Subs: A rosy shipbuilding story…or was is all a dream?

By: Post-Shakedown for SSN-780, As Virginia Class Peels

Post-Shakedown for SSN-780, As Virginia Class Peels — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 05:50:11 +0000

[...] just beginning to shift from 1 sub per year to 2 submarines per year, recent news concerning problematic systems on board, and revelations that the Virginia Class’ sound-absorbing external tiles have been [...]

By: LPD-17 and the rage of J. Michael Gilmore

LPD-17 and the rage of J. Michael Gilmore — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 01:08:58 +0000

[...] Michael Gilmore was the one who first raised the red flag about the Virginia Class–and it’s issues with troublesome subsystems. The Program [...]

By: Virginia-class Sub Managers have a truth problem:

Virginia-class Sub Managers have a truth problem: — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 02:58:09 +0000

[...] legacy, and selling the Virginia-class as the program that could overcome Rickover’s legacy of overpriced, behind-schedule sub building,the Virginia-class Program Office could do well rediscovering Rickover’s irascible commitment [...]

By: Dear Virginia-class Program Office: Get yer story straight

Dear Virginia-class Program Office: Get yer story straight — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 05:04:58 +0000

By: Virginia Class: When does hull coating separation endanger the boat?

Virginia Class: When does hull coating separation endanger the boat? — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:42:47 +0000

[...] the Pentagon’s top weapons tester at DOT&E released a scathing report on the Virginia Class sub’s tendency to shed it’s sound-dampening hull coating, Alan [...]

By: George Reiss

George Reiss — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 18:10:24 +0000

Reading the supposed deficiencies of the Virginia class “boats,” I was happy to see that there was no apparent problem with the Radio gear! (ex Radioman 2c, SubRon 22, USS Howard W Gilmore, AS 16. (1944-45)

Go Navy!

By: Craig Hooper

Craig Hooper — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 07:03:42 +0000

Oh man, you should see the pictures..I mean, I see the advantage of getting away from tiles, but these failures are pretty amazing…

By: Ernie

Ernie — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 05:09:49 +0000

I was the field engineer in charge of SHT installation for the first complete SHT (USS Batfish) and several SSN 688 until I retired. I never had any major failures. Maybe one or two tiles lost. It is beyond my understanding and a sad saga that later subs are losing tiles or mold in place.

By: Moose

Moose — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:36:19 +0000

Maintenance and readiness are Effed fleetwide, I wouldn’t single out the Virginias as a special case

Hull coatings debonding is not new, SSNs have been loosing tiles nearly every time out since we first started coating hulls. The Virginias don’t use tiles, they went for a sort of seamless whole-hull coating that they hoped would not come off. Unfortunately it has only made the problem worse, as soon as some of the coating debonds instead of going away it stays and starts pulling more off. We need a new glue, have for years but it hasn’t been a priority.

By: Craig Hooper

Craig Hooper — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 02:05:46 +0000

Yeah, I know…I can’t give out a copy, but insidedefense.com has it on their site.

But the quote comes verbatim from the memo–a memo which includes a picture of a distressed Virginia hull and some turgid stuff about LPD-17…