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USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) on fire

Some of the media reports show how little they know about ship's; from being glad it isn't a nuke to the San Diego fire chief saying it could burn down to the waterline.
That's an understatement

OMFG the level of mental retardation in the media would hit astronomical levels if that was a CVN on fire. The fucking fire chief should be ashamed of saying so utterly stupid in public.
 
News says still burning.

Sad to watch, I think it may be the death of a great ship.

When we drove through Norfolk two weeks ago there was an LHD in port there that looked like it was being maintained. Think if I remember right it was the Kearsarge. Had my kids check the number via Google. Guessing they will expedites its readiness.
 
You enjoyed it, I take it?


I bet there are gayer vids with bored Jarheads.

Matter of fact Pendleton had a problem with Marine porn, not all of it straight, for a moment in time.

Never a good idea to be super bored and make a video.
 
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.....whether or not they were even responsible

Well, the CO is always responsible so he's done.

We shall see where else the inevitable inquiry goes to find negligence.

I have some guesses but I'll keep them to myself since I wasn't there nor am I privy to things like ship/shipyard standing orders, SOPs, or even exactly what started the fire in the first place.
 
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I’m sitting here, right now, at Pt. Loma, and it reeks like a mother....
 
For it to be THAT out of control for THAT long it had to have turned into a Delta fire at some point, and if they were fighting with foam and water that's why their efforts were ineffective and it kept burning. That's a guess, but even a ruptured tank in a void space could be smothered, and to burn that long I would guess that somewhere it was making it's own O2...

Holes in superstructure and deck consistent with Bravo that lit off a Delta fire.

No idea, but that's best guess.
 
If what they're saying about the heat intensity is true, I'd say it's toast (no pun intended). Being a former metallurgical student and welding engineer There's going to be massive metal fatigue.
If you look close at the twitter images, the superstructure looks bent. Definitely the guardrails have collapsed and melted towards the main structure. If it's been cooking at 1000 deg+ for 3 days, I imagine the metal fatigue damage is quite severe. Again, I'll wait for more data to come in, but it is not looking good.
It may well be faster to drag a boat out of mothballs, retrofit it, and replace her with the newer design they've been talking about - a smaller "fast" carrier. Something more akin to the HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Regardless, if not a complete scrap, I suspect this ship will be out of action for a minimum 4 years. Stuff I've been reading here and there says it's a 10 year gap now to get the full capability back. If Biden gets elected it will never be replaced, but we'll have "Free" healthcare and a lot of "green" shit shoved down our throats.
 
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Strange that China recently had a fire on a similar type ship.
 
If what they're saying about the heat intensity is true, I'd say it's toast (no pun intended). Being a former metallurgical student and welding engineer There's going to be massive metal fatigue.

For sure the entire island structure (which I'm almost sure is made of aluminum) will have to be razed and rebuilt. Below the flight deck, who knows...….

What a complete and utter shitshow.

Heads are going to roll and I bet it won't be long before that hits the news.
 
Doesn't look good to me.
If its't stored fuel ever catches it's over with.
Where are all of the Thermites to destroy sensitive equip stored or do they even do that anymore?

I see a New artificial reef coming.
 
Doesn't look good to me.
If its't stored fuel ever catches it's over with.
Where are all of the Thermites to destroy sensitive equip stored or do they even do that anymore?

I see a New artificial reef coming.

All aviation fuel is offloaded before a maintenance period and the tanks inerted. Ship's fuel (basically #2 diesel) tanks are all the way at the bottom of the ship

I don't ever recall seeing any thermal charges even in the radio room of the frigate I served in. We did have sledgehammers to destroy radio and crypto equipment and canvas bags with built in weights to dump cyphers, manuals, codebooks, etc overboard.
 
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A lot of folks around here are of the opinion that she's pretty much toast. <shrug> Anything is repairable, given enough time and money.

That being said...It'll likely come down to someone at a very high level, to determine if she's worth salvaging or not...it's not war time, and LPD-17's are starting to roll out these days. May be better/easier just to add another 17 to the contract.
 
I think the holes are on the O5 or O6 level in the superstructure. The flight deck looks intact.
That's correct. The angle of the first picture I'd posted looked a bit like flight deck; but the twitter pics showed the area between the front/rear islands. However, that you can see the reinforcement beams under the flight deck means, to me, the flight deck may be there but is structurally kaput.

This is absolutely tragic. The B-2 that crashed was bad from a strategic standpoint, as was the Miami, but this is an order of magnitude worse from my armchair Sec Nav position.

Some good news though...again, on the surface of things and what little we know at this moment:
 
For sure the entire island structure (which I'm almost sure is made of aluminum) will have to be razed and rebuilt. Below the flight deck, who knows...….

What a complete and utter shitshow.

Heads are going to roll and I bet it won't be long before that hits the news.


Trumps fault.......
 
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Trumps fault.......
Duhhhh...of course it is!!!

I heard a figure from somebody I know who said that under obummer, that 70% of F-18's in fleet had no working engines!!!! Most training was strictly simulator. Obama killed the military and the lax attitudes are going to be years to flush out. It was hard enough under Ronnie to flush 4 years of Carter out; Trump has barely had 3 years to clean this up and he's been fighting for his life the whole time - that he's accomplished as much as he has, is hard to believe.
 
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However, that you can see the reinforcement beams under the flight deck means, to me, the flight deck may be there but is structurally kaput.

If this picture is what you're talking about, those trusses aren't structural. The ceiling panels/cableways/lights/etc hang from them.

1594759315074.png
 
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Anything is fixable.
Given the time, the welder, and lots of rod, a weldor can stitch up anything from the Grand Canyon to a broken heart....
It just might take a few shifts...and lots of new steel
 
If this picture is what you're talking about, those trusses aren't structural. The ceiling panels/cableways/lights/etc hang from them.

View attachment 7374408
No, I think it's just the top surface of the deck the more I look at it. That liquid-asphalt like layer. No doubt it got hot as hell there.
1594760309926.png
 
No, I think it's just the top surface of the deck the more I look at it. That liquid-asphalt like layer. No doubt it got hot as hell there.
View attachment 7374415

Oh that. I think that might be AFFF. Or maybe that section of flight deck is toast from the fire just below.

Holy shit.....
 
I don't think it's AFFF, because it doesn't look foamy and that pattern seems to correspond to beams and other steel. You can also see that pattern all over the deck, some places worse (more prevalent and defined) than others. Granted, maybe the stuff burned off that way, but it sure looks like some type of damage. Bad bad. Maybe I'm a nut, but this truly worries me.

I know one thing, when the shit really hits the fan, it's going to sling a long ways (or should anyway).
 
.....whether or not they were even responsible or had the ability to do something.

Sometimes heads must roll and its usually a junior to save a senior.


Odds are high that the Ben Franklin's Skipper will get canned to a staff puke job someplace remote.

Won't be his fault, some E-3 shit the pot. He'll be an E-2. If the world is right he'll be a civilian.
 
Anything is fixable.
Given the time, the welder, and lots of rod, a weldor can stitch up anything from the Grand Canyon to a broken heart....
It just might take a few shifts...and lots of new steel


Doubt it, the metal would have had heat damage that would make it too soft to be used.
 
For sure the entire island structure (which I'm almost sure is made of aluminum) will have to be razed and rebuilt. Below the flight deck, who knows...….

What a complete and utter shitshow.

Heads are going to roll and I bet it won't be long before that hits the news.

Nothing is aluminum it is a warship. It is made of steel.

Aluminum melts at 1200 ish F. The whole boat would have fell apart if it was made of aluminum.

I can't be aluminum because aluminum can only bend once.
 
@pmclaine. I know you were joking Trump's fault. However, if one reads comments under the stories on fire people are blaming Trump. I'll grant his Sec Def's have sucked, but Trump's not to blame.
 
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I think the Brits have a carrier they are not using - maybe they will lend-lease it to us while this ship gets "fixed"
 
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Nothing is aluminum it is a warship. It is made of steel.

Aluminum melts at 1200 ish F. The whole boat would have fell apart if it was made of aluminum.

I can't be aluminum because aluminum can only bend once.
https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/11/...in-shipbuilding-after-cracks-in-aluminum.html
Interesting articles.
 
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Nothing is aluminum it is a warship. It is made of steel.

Aluminum melts at 1200 ish F. The whole boat would have fell apart if it was made of aluminum.

I can't be aluminum because aluminum can only bend once.

The entire superstructure of virtually all US Navy combatants from the early sixties to the late 80s (Belknap-class cruisers and derivatives, all the nuclear powered cruisers, Charles F Adams-class destroyers, Knox-class frigates, Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, Spruance-class destroyers, and Ticonderoga-class cruisers) were made out of aluminum. The Littoral Combat Ships all have aluminum superstructures. The only major combatants with a steel hull and superstructure in the US Navy are the Arleigh Burke class destroyers.
 
Maybe an antifa act? I'm wondering, do re-fit contractors working in Navy yards have to have background checks/security clearances? I'm guessing not because I did work at JBLM and never had to do anything but show my ID and insurance card.
 
A clearance? No, I don't think so. But a background check? Absolutely.
 
The entire superstructure of virtually all US Navy combatants from the early sixties to the late 80s (Belknap-class cruisers and derivatives, all the nuclear powered cruisers, Charles F Adams-class destroyers, Knox-class frigates, Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates, Spruance-class destroyers, and Ticonderoga-class cruisers) were made out of aluminum. The Littoral Combat Ships all have aluminum superstructures. The only major combatants with a steel hull and superstructure in the US Navy are the Arleigh Burke class destroyers.

Your post had me look up the Belknap as I went aboard circa 1988 for the Bush/Gorbachev talks in Malta.

Googling I came across this......Bridge audio recording of the Porter/Otowasun collision...




Sounds like 4 minutes of cluster fuck.
 
Hard to believe they saved the Belknap after its collision with the Kennedy........

1594823573031.png


How many of these fuckers do you crash a year?


Need a bigger ocean?

Interesting that the Navy decision was a return to steel super structure after this....



 
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Thanks Bytor. Those pics are not looking good for BhR!