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Troubled amphib program appears on track

As the Navy gears up for the first deployment of the new San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock slated for next year, a senior service shipbuilding official is “cautiously optimistic” the once-beleaguered program is on track.

The first San Antonio-class amphib, which carries hull number LPD 17, will go through its operational evaluation in mid-February and is set to deploy sometime before the end of 2008, said Allison Stiller, the Navy’s deputy assistant secretary for shipbuilding.

The new gators are “not your grandfather’s amphib,” Stiller said. They’re designed to be stealthy; they include room for the MV-22 Osprey on the flight deck; they have space for two Landing Craft, Air Cushion hovercraft to deliver Marines and supplies; and they improve quality of life onboard for sailors and Marines with roomier quarters than existing amphibs.

On Dec. 15, the Navy commissioned the third ship, the Mesa Verde, in Panama City, Fla. It was the first ship in the class to be delivered without significant problems.

The San Antonio class faced difficulties beginning in late 1998, when the initial construction contract was awarded to Avondale Industries in New Orleans. Avondale beat out Litton Ingalls Shipbuilding primarily because it planned to use a new computer program to design the ships — the first time a Navy ship was designed entirety using computer tools. But the computer systems didn’t work, the Navy kept making design changes, costs escalated and major delays ensued.

Litton Ingalls bought Avondale in 1999, its owners mistakenly thinking they could fix the program, and in late 2000 the shipyards were acquired by Northrop Grumman.

Meanwhile, a succession of service program managers and acquisition executives struggled to hold down the design changes and manage costs, which have more than doubled from the $750 million per ship the Navy forecast in the late 1990s.

All those problems and more affected the first two ships of the class. The San Antonio was delivered, incomplete, in mid-2005. The Navy accepted the ship knowing it had numerous construction defects, many of which would need to be fixed at extra costs after the shipyard’s obligation period ended. The next ship, the New Orleans, was delivered in December 2007, also with incomplete spaces. To make things more challenging, Hurricane Katrina had wreaked havoc on the New Orleans-based Avondale shipyard in 2005.

Nevertheless, construction on the Mesa Verde, the third new ship, went more smoothly. The Mesa Verde was built at Northrop Grumman’s Ingalls shipyard in Pascagoula, Miss.

The average cost of a San Antonio-class gator now is $1.3 billion, according to Lt. Cmdr. John Schofield, spokesman for the Navy’s acquisition directorate.

The Mesa Verde “sets a new standard for the LPD class as far as being a complete ship,” Capt. Beth Dexter, the Navy’s supervisor of shipbuilding in Pascagoula, told Military Times in September. “My Navy team is proud to present it.”

Robert Work, a naval analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, said it looks like the LPD 17 program is pulling away from its “checkered past.” He said it appears the program is “getting back on track” and that it will be exciting to see the first ship as it enters the fleet.

American shipbuilders have historically had difficulties with lead ships, he said.

“Now that [LPD 17] has gotten over the production hump, the next step is deployment,” Work added.

With the advanced C4ISR and self-defense suites onboard LPD 17, Work said he expects sailors and Marines to be impressed by the ship’s capabilities.

“This will be a truly tremendous fleet asset,” he said.

Work said he has a feeling that the Navy may use the San Antonio-class hull for future amphibious ships.

Stiller told Navy Times that after Hurricane Katrina the Navy re-established new milestones to measure the new ships’ progress. So far, each ship under construction is meeting these marks, she said.

“I believe we are turning the corner,” Stiller said. In 2008, she said, she hopes the service and industry will be able to “not just meet but beat” these milestones.

Construction on the fourth ship, the Green Bay, is 88 percent complete, Schofield said. The ship is set to be delivered in August and commissioned in December 2008 or January 2009 in Long Beach, Calif. The next ship in the class, the New York, is scheduled to be christened in March.