Monday, April 21, 2008

Arleigh Burke - "NOT READY TO FIGHT"

"The success or failure of any command-wide inspection can be placed directly at the entrance to the CPO mess. There are all kinds of challenges, and reasons for failure. But it’s been proven that the experience that resides in the mess can tilt the results of any inspection toward success if the chiefs are engaged on the deck plates.”

MCPON Campa explaining that the CPO mess is accountable for the failure of USS STOUT to successfully complete InSurv. I think there will be much discussion about this. The CO/XO/CMC triad will be closely scrutinized in the coming days. There was certainly a breakdown at that level. There's no other way to account for the magnitude of failure - monumental. We failed the Sailors of this ship. We can do better. We have to.

Most of the missiles couldn’t be fired, and neither could any of the big guns. The Aegis radars key to the ships’ fighting abilities didn’t work right.

The flight decks were inoperable.

Most of the lifesaving gear failed inspection.

Corrosion was rampant, and lube oil leaked all over.

The verdict: “unfit for sustained combat operations.”

Those results turned up by an inspection by the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey — commonly known as an InSurv.

No comments: