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| -Land of the Free |
| Nearly 40% of U.S. Attack Submarines are Out of Commission |
| 2023-07-13 |
| [LI] As if the military recruiting disaster or the Biden Administration’s embrace of woke and transgender policies for the military wasn’t bad enough, now we find out that almost 40% of U.S. attack submarines, or SSNs, the kind that shoot Tomahawk missiles at land targets and torpedoes at all types of vessels at sea, and conduct intelligence collection missions, i.e. the kind critical for the defense of Taiwan, are out-of-commission and stuck in naval shipyards. |
| Posted by:NoMoreBS |
| #7 A nickname for US attack submarines was "long, black and never comes back" or as my older brother, a USN vet and former bubblehead told me: "So here you are on a two month patrol underwater (no liberty and all underwater) and the high command calls down and says 'Well, the sub that was going to relieve you fouled its propellers in a harbor so *oops* your cruise is extended until we can scrounge up another sub ...eventually'." |
| Posted by: magpie 2023-07-13 23:16 |
| #6 Submarine duty sucks! Imagine 70 days underwater. No running because rythmatic noise can be detected. No weights because dropping one could be detected. No music except through sound powered phones. Great food and air though. At time I left, a very knowledgeable DR. Explained that most retired enlisted lived from 5-7 years after retiring. With stents, pace makers, TVRs and bypass surgery this is probably not true anymore. Oh, 95% divorce rate! |
| Posted by: Old Salty 2023-07-13 12:56 |
| #5 Nuclear reactors run consistently and reliably until depot level maintenance is required. Then it takes a while. Ship crews usually can only sustain a deployment rotation for six out of 18 months deployed without family implosions. I would have expected 33% in the yard. I can see 40%. Some types of submarines used to be staffed with a gold and blue crew that would switch out to keep the asset deployed. I don’t know whether that is still done. I did not sail on subs. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2023-07-13 12:47 |
| #4 EB in Rotten Groton better get busy. Life a maintenance engineer told me at work: "The bean counters don't like preventative maintenance because it only shows up on their spreadsheets as a pure loss." The bean counters don't want overtime either ...NEW boats sold on contract make them smile, though. |
| Posted by: magpie 2023-07-13 11:38 |
| #3 Yes and yes |
| Posted by: Rightwing 2023-07-13 05:57 |
| #2 EB in Rotten Groton better get busy. Btw: Doesn't Pfizer have a location within a mile of there? |
| Posted by: NN2N1 2023-07-13 05:42 |
| #1 Any "defense of Taiwan" will be notional. It is very likely the deal has already been done. Not unlike the Biden withdrawl from AFG, prepare yourself for "acceptable losses." |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2023-07-13 03:33 |