osted 09/10/07 21:39
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Third Time Could Be the Charm for LPD Program
By CHRISTOPHER P. CAVAS
PASCAGOULA, Miss. — With the U.S. Navy still smarting from the unsatisfactory delivery of two amphibious ships, Northrop Grumman has put a special emphasis on making sure the third ship avoids the pitfalls of its predecessors.
If early returns are any indication, the shipbuilder and the Navy might be third time lucky.
The USS Mesa Verde (LPD 19) carried out its initial builder’s trials in mid-August in the Gulf of Mexico. The ship returned Aug. 16 to Northrop’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula flying two brooms — a traditional “clean sweep” symbol representing success for both the Navy and Northrop Grumman.
But while the shipbuilder might be expected to trumpet its success, the ultimate goal is to please the customer. And the customer, at least at this stage, seems happy.
The Mesa Verde “sets a new standard for the LPD class as far as being a complete ship,” said Capt. Beth Dexter, the Navy’s supervisor of shipbuilding in Pascagoula. “My Navy team is proud to present it.”
The San Antonio-class LPD 17 program has been in trouble since late 1998, when the initial construction contract was awarded to Avondale Industries in New Orleans. Avondale beat out Litton Ingalls primarily because it planned to use a new computer program to design the ships — the first time a Navy ship was designed in its entirety using computer tools. But the program didn’t work, the Navy kept making design changes, costs escalated and major delays ensued.
Litton Ingalls bought Avondale in 1999 thinking it could fix the program — which it couldn’t — and in late 2000 the shipyards were acquired by Northrop Grumman.
On the customer side, a succession of Navy program managers and acquisition executives struggled — unsuccessfully in most cases — to hold down the design churn and manage costs, which have more than doubled from the $750 million per ship the Navy forecast in the late 1990s. The Navy now estimates the acquisition cost for the ninth ship, LPD 25, will be $1.8 billion.
All those problems and more affected the first two ships of the class. The USS San Antonio (LPD 17) was delivered in mid-2005 in an incomplete state. The Navy accepted the ship knowing it had numerous construction defects, many of which would need to be fixed for extra cost after the shipyard’s obligation period ended. The USS New Orleans (LPD 18) was delivered last December, also with incomplete spaces, and neither ship has yet to deploy.
Navy leaders remain irked by the problems on the first ships. An inspection of the San Antonio in April listed a host of issues, and in June Navy Secretary Donald Winter sent a scathing letter to Northrop Chairman Ron Sugar restating his dissatisfaction with the ships.
That’s a lot of baggage to shed, acknowledged Phil Teel, head of the Northrop Grumman Ship Systems Ingalls and Avondale shipyards in an Aug. 21 interview at Ingalls.
“We heard the Navy at all levels,” Teel said. “We heard the operational Navy even before we heard the acquisition Navy. And we hope that [LPD] 19 responds to that. Because that’s really the only way we can respond, by building ships that they’re proud to take. And I think they’ll be proud to take 19.”
Improvements in building the LPDs will be seen on the follow-on ships as well, Teel said.
“We’ll see the same if not slightly better in 20. And then 21,” he added. “We’re investing a significant amount of our time, money, human capital, intellectual capital in making this ship class the best it can possibly be.”
Walking the Ships
Northrop managers and employees still feel sharp pangs and express a certain awkwardness when asked about the problems on LPD 17, and clearly don’t like the reputation the ship class has received. There’s a determination evident at both Ingalls and Avondale to make the ships better and turn the story around.
The Mesa Verde certainly seems better than the San Antonio when the first ship was delivered. The ship is clean, most fittings are in place on the bulkheads, and electrical wiring — a particularly sore point on the San Antonio — appears neat, tidy and professional.
Northrop’s managers are proud of the relatively small number of “trial cards” issued on LPD 19 after the builder’s trials. The cards indicate items that need attention — ranging from indicator lights and small fittings to major ship systems — and new ships typically come back with thousands of them.
The LPD 17 returned from her trials with more than 18,000 cards. LPD 18 had over 17,000. The score for LPD 19: about 6,500.
“All of the ship was operational for the builder’s trials except for one of 26 video cameras,” said Kevin Jarvis, shipyard manager of the Ingalls facility. The one camera, he said, had a bad circuit, since replaced.
Northrop also claims the LPD’s Engineering Operating System (EOS), an automated system to control the ship’s machinery, which failed to function properly on the first ships, has been debugged.
“We had no big hiccups on the control system on trials,” Jarvis said.
Other advances on the first ships include completion of the aviation certifications, and all the ship’s internal elevators are operational.
All of the Mesa Verde’s 1,109 compartments are complete and — in an atypical circumstance — about three dozen spaces already are being turned over to the ship’s crew, in advance of the planned Sept. 28 delivery date. The move shifts responsibility for the space from the shipbuilder to sailors.
“I’m told that is very unusual,” said Cmdr. Shawn Lobree, the Mesa Verde’s commanding officer. “One of the ship directors told me he’s been here 40 years or so and he’s not aware of a ship that’s proceeded like that.”
The Mesa Verde is the first of the new LPDs to be built at Ingalls, while six of the new ships, including the next two, come together at the Avondale yard. Ingalls, in addition to the LPDs, cranks out assault ships and destroyers for the Navy and builds new Coast Guard cutters. For the 5,300 workers at Avondale, it’s all LPD, and the workers in New Orleans also seem eager to give the Navy and Marine Corps a ship all will be proud of.
Tommy “Cabbage” Barrett, ship director of the Green Bay (LPD 20), pointed out improvements as he walked a reporter through his ship on Aug. 20.
“We’re sealing up compartments in blocks as they’re completed to cut down on pass-through traffic and damage to items,” he said of his ship, which is 82 percent complete. He pointed to the flooring, where the Navy-specified latex “underlayment” caused problems on the first two ships.
“The latex bubbled up when it got wet,” he said. “We’ve switched to epoxy, which solved the problem.”
The non-skid covering on the weather decks also was an issue on the earlier ships, where a contractor failed to lay it down properly. That’s also been fixed, Barrett said.
On board the New York (LPD 21), which won’t enter the water until late this year, ship director Hank Corcoran also pointed out improvements.
“The wireway routing is a lot better,” Corcoran said, and pointed out that the shipyard continues to improve pre-installation outfitting such as insulation.
“We’re doing much more work in advance” of ship blocks being lowered into the ship, he said, noting that on the San Antonio, only about 10 percent of the insulation was complete at launch. On the New York, he said, that figure will be 75 percent.
Later ships will also benefit from a new consolidated planning tool, said Bob Merchent, head of the Avondale yard. The computerized tool will bring together engineering drawings, material, parts, the craftsmen needed to do the work, sequence of construction, schedule and budget into one place. The tool will first be used on the San Diego (LPD 22), Merchent said.
Navy LPD program officials declined repeated requests for an interview on the progress of the program.
“The LPD 17 Program Office is unable to do media interviews at this time,” Katie Dunnigan, a spokesperson for the Naval Sea Systems Command in Washington, said Aug. 27. Instead, she provided a written statement from Capt. Bill Galinis, the Navy’s LPD 17 program manager, commenting on the initial sea trials of the Mesa Verde.
“This was a very successful Builder’s Trial and the Navy/Northrop Grumman team did a tremendous job completing this ship and executing the Trial,” Galinis said in the statement. “There is work that remains, however, as we ready this ship for presentation.”
The LPD program will get an extra dose of scrutiny March 1 when the christening ceremony for the New York is held at Avondale. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani — vying respectively for the Democratic and Republican nominations — are expected to speak at the event and note that the ship’s bow contains several tons of metal from the fallen World Trade Center.
But when the dust settles the following day and the presidential campaign spotlight moves on, the Navy still will be keeping a watchful eye on the LPDs, waiting for the day — expected late next year — when the first ships begin to deploy. •
E-mail:
ccavas@defensenews.com.
