Australia Needs Some Experienced Submarine Sailors How About It Yanks?

[Sonnabend]

And the reason you can't find people to man it is...............?

..any number of reasons. Private sector more attractive. The constant drumbeat of lefties like you telling everyone that we don't need a military any more and so discouraging people from enlisting.

A Prime Minister more interested in Cate Blanchett than in doing something about the problem.(Incidentally, LP, Gore helped shill for Rudd, so in effect this is partly your fault)

[LogansPapa]

Any of those problems in my country - where we have real ‘Boomers’?

US Navy personnel not clawing to get aboard submarines here?

You’re kidding yourself.

[Sonnabend]

Any of those problems in my country - where we have real ‘Boomers’?

The Collins class isn't a boomer.

US Navy personnel not clawing to get aboard submarines here?

Different dynamic.

You’re kidding yourself.

[LogansPapa]

The Collins class isn't a boomer.:

Another one for the N/S column.

Different dynamic.

It is indeed - in the USN's it's known as "having sac".

[LogansPapa]

Collins Class nightmares continue

PM - Tuesday, 25 February , 2003 00:00:00
Reporter: Edmond Roy

MARK COLVIN: An ABC investigation has revealed that Australia's much maligned Collins Class submarines are in worse shape than previously thought.

The ABC's investigative unit has found that the Navy's most expensive fleet is riddled with structural flaws.

The revelations call the subs' intelligence gathering abilities into question, just as Australia prepares for a possible conflict with Iraq.

Edmond Roy reports.

EDMOND ROY: Having spent six billion dollars on what was perceived to be state-of-the-art submarines, the Defence Department had to spend a few hundred million dollars more to keep up appearances.

Andrew Fowler of the ABC's Investigative Unit discovered that while the money has been spent, the problems have not been fixed.

ANDREW FOWLER: What we discovered was that there were constraints on the diving depth of all submarines in place last year, for about six months up until Christmas, they were unable to go to their maximum dive limits because of concerns about whether or not they would hold up at that level.

EDMOND ROY: At the heart of the matter is the submarine's ability to dive to a certain depth without getting into trouble. Investigations have revealed that at least two of the Collins Class submarines have welding problems in the bull nose joint in its hull.

The then Defence Minister, John Moore.

JOHN MOORE: From what I've been told, there are problems without a doubt with the welding, but if you spent enough money on it and replace enough of the welding, I think it will probably be highly serviceable. But in the current state and the projected state, that'll be doubtful.

EDMOND ROY: For a fleet meant to pick up intelligence from our immediate neighbourhood with its capacity for quietness, this is a big blow.

Andrew Fowler.

ANDREW FOWLER: The Government has spent in excess of half a billion dollars in my estimation trying to fix these submarines, and will have to spend a lot more money, we're not sure how much more, getting them up to a, up to an operational standard.

EDMOND ROY: Can we call this a cover-up?

ANDREW FOWLER: I don't know you can call it a cover-up, what you can say is though, the system of operation appears not to work, seeing as we know what the problems are, what the problems have been for years, to still have these problems with the Collins Class submarines suggests that the system isn't working in Defence, the Defence system isn't working, the Government aren't in control of this system.

EDMOND ROY: So who is in control? It appears no one is, with the ABC's investigation revealing a culture of buck passing well and truly entrenched.

ANDREW FOWLER: It's really a departmental problem is what Moore is suggesting, as I say, implicitly, not explicitly, but that's certainly where he's coming from and as a person who says, 'look I come from private enterprise' is what he says, 'I hold people accountable, they are rewarded if they are successful, if they're not they're held accountable,' and he says 'part of the problem with the Collins Class submarine so far over the years has been that nobody's been held accountable' until he put somebody in, as I say, who was accountable. Now he's saying that system's changed and there's an implied criticism of the Government.

MARK COLVIN: Andrew Fowler of the ABC's Investigative Unit.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s792451.htm

[LogansPapa]

Navy forced to reduce subs' diving depth
July 23, 2005 - 6:19AM

A near tragedy has forced the navy to permanently reduce the diving depth of its fleet of six Collins-class submarines.

The accident happened on HMAS Dechaineux when 55 sailors were 20 seconds from sinking to the bottom of the ocean two years ago when the submarine was flooded off the coast of Perth.

The incident on February 12, 2003 was more serious than the navy has publicly admitted, News Ltd newspapers reported.

It began when water flooded into the submarine's lower engine room after a seawater hose failed as the Dechaineux was at its deepest diving depth.

Dechaineux crew members managed to stop the flood and rescue Seaman Geordie Bunting from the engine room.

Sources told the newspaper that had the flood continued for another 20 seconds, the submarine would have been too heavy to climb back to the surface.

The navy responded to the crisis by ordering the fleet back to port and conducting exhaustive tests on the hose that failed.

But it was never able to find a fault with the hoses, which are still used.
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Instead, the navy has reduced the diving depth of the submarine and, as a result, eased the pressure placed on seawater hoses.

The depth at which the accident occurred, and the maximum depth to which the submarine fleet is now capable of diving, are classified information

http://www.theage.com.au/news/Nation...539174654.html

[LogansPapa]

Lets see: Very slow - very loud - and can't go deep, yep - I wouldn't want to sign up either.

[Sonnabend]

2003 then 2005...mm, I guess you're slowly getting there.

Soon you'll be posting articles from this year...WOW, what an accomplishment that will be for you.

[LogansPapa]

A program that was started in the early 1980’ still not safe enough to attract qualified personnel? Now there’s something to have some national pride over.:p