unhappycamper note: Since the ‘Pentagon’ (Righthaven LLC?) has ‘requested’ that I only post one paragraph from articles on Army Times, and Airforce Times, I’ve decided to give ya’ll an unhappycamper summary of the article and a link to the OP. To keep in that same (new) tradition, I will also do the same for articles on Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, stripes.com and military.com.To keep in that same (new) tradition, I will also do the same for for articles on Navy Times, Marine Corps Times, stripes.com and military.com.
To read the article in the military's own words, you will need to click the link.
Read all about Fair Use here. It sure is beginning to smell like fascism.
unhappycamper summary of this article: So the special coatings peel off after use. I wonder if the fact that two separate shipyards work on these bad boys has anything to do with shoddy materials/construction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_class_submarine
The Virginia class is built through an industrial arrangement designed to keep both GD Electric Boat and Northrop Grumman Newport News (the only two U.S. shipyards capable of building nuclear-powered vessels) in the submarine-building business.<7> Under the present arrangement, the Newport News facility builds the stern, habitability and machinery spaces, torpedo room, sail and bow, while Electric Boat builds the engine room and control room. The facilities alternate work on the reactor plant as well as the final assembly, test, outfit and delivery.
O’Rourke wrote in 2004 that, "Compared to a one-yard strategy, approaches involving two yards may be more expensive but offer potential offsetting benefits."<8> Among the claims of "offsetting benefits" that O'Rourke attributes to supporters of a two-facility construction arrangement is that it "would permit the United States to continue building submarines at one yard even if the other yard is rendered incapable of building submarines permanently or for a sustained period of time by a catastrophic event of some kind", including an enemy attack.
The attack submarine Virginia departs the Naval Submarine Base New London in Groton, Conn., in August en route to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. The Navy acknowledges that there have been problems with the special coating that helps to make Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarines stealthy, but the Naval Sea Systems Command says there has been no measurable impact on performance.Navy scrambles after subs shed stealthy coatingThe Associated Press - The Associated Press
Posted : Sunday Oct 3, 2010 10:42:56 EDT
The most serious problems for the so-called anechoic coating have been limited to three of the first four subs in that class, the Navy said. The coating on the hull of the Virginia will be repaired during a regularly scheduled 14-month overhaul at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
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