Littoral Class Combat Ship

 I don't get it.

They are high speed combat ships.  However they breakdown because of a gear that connects the diesel engines to the gas engines in them?  And that is my laymens understanding and probably off.

But you have a basic hull there.  And you paid a lot of money for it.  You would think that all of the money went into welding the hull?

But the issue with the gear in the transmission?

Is it like how when all wheel drive cars first came out the tech wasn't quite right?

The engineers in this issue would say, "We had to do this this way because... and we had to do that that way because of..."

So they are retiring 9? of them after being in service for 7 years?  And my numbers might be off.

But they cost 500 million apiece to make.  And the maintenance for the 9 of them would be 3.6 billion over the next how many years?  That is the same as the cost of 7 of them brand new?

It is a shallow water hull.  And it is modular design?

One would believe that you could modify a current battleship not of littoral class and put a desired module on it for less than what this design would be?

So it looks like it has two different types of engines in it?

How come it just doesn't have one engine?

Conjecture:  The second power boost engine comes on when you need to go fast and synchronizes the prop shaft transmission at that time.  And that is the gear that fails?

Can you imagine if your car had two engines?  And when you need to go the fastest you are already likely going pretty fast already, at the maximum speed of the one engine.  And you have to throw it in that "Gear" for the second engine?

Am I the only one that can hear that chunk chunk chunking metal sound?

Am I right that the U.S.S. Milwaukee had to be towed back on its first voyage?

So would you have to come to a complete stop and then everyone agree that you need to restart with both engines on because you are being pursued by a faster bigger boat?

I don't get it.

You I see this.  And I see the millions upon millions in grants given every single year.  And I just scratch my head.

""Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." Sir Walter Scott.

'Oh What A Tangled Web We Weave' Saying - Meaning & Context (nosweatshakespeare.com)

© 2022 Thomas Paul Murphy