SSN-711 Sub may not be worth saving, analyst says

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From: Waspscpo@aol.com
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 1:58 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: Sub may not be worth saving, analyst says
By William H. McMichael
 NavyTimes staff writer
28 February 2005
Repair or decommission? That’s the Navy’s dilemma with the damaged submarine San Francisco.

The Navy hasn’t made up its mind, save to temporarily repair the bow, crushed in a Jan. 8 undersea crash with an uncharted mountain and coral reef, and sail it from Guam back to Hawaii this summer for a thorough assessment. But two respected naval analysts say the cost of repairs would be prohibitive and one of them — Norman Polmar — says the deck is stacked against the sub.

“I don’t think she can be repaired,” Polmar said.

The Los Angeles-class attack sub was moving at more than 35 mph when it struck the mountain. “Not only did it destroy the front end, it raises questions about the integrity of the pressure hull,” Polmar said. “I would want experts to go X-ray the entire pressure hull and all the piping.” That, added to subsequent repairs, would be prohibitively expensive, he said.

In addition, said analyst Scott Truver, money for repairs, whether drawn from the Navy shipbuilding and conversion account or from operations and maintenance funding, “is real, real hard to come by this year.”

The belt-tightening is reflected in a proposed 2006 budget in which the Navy is asking for only four new ships, he said.

And, Truver noted, the San Francisco will turn 24 years old this year. All U.S. nuclear subs are decommissioned at an average age of 26 or 27 years, he said.

So while a $253 million refueling overhaul completed in 2002 added at least a decade to San Francisco’s potential service life, recent history says it likely won’t get there.

Polmar also noted that the sub’s sonar system, a major component of that overhaul, was destroyed in the undersea collision.

The temporary repairs in a Guam dry dock, being overseen by specialists from the nuclear-capable Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, will take about three months, said Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, spokesman for the Pacific Fleet Submarine Force in Hawaii.
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(ret)