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New dates set for Makin Island delivery

The Navy and shipbuilder Northrop Grumman have settled on new goals for when the next big-deck amphib will be delivered and join the fleet, six months after the ship was delayed because of shoddy interior work.

Planners had originally scheduled the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, under construction in Pascagoula, Miss., to be delivered Nov. 14. But in April the company announced shipwide wiring problems that would require extensive rework, delay its progress and cost as much as $360 million. Northrop Grumman agreed to bear that charge, rather than pass it on to taxpayers.

The ship’s new schedule calls for builders’ trials to begin in late January, said Navy spokesman Lt. Clay Doss, with the new delivery date set for May 15. The Makin Island’s new commissioning date is set for Oct. 24 in San Diego, where the ship will make its homeport. It was christened Aug. 19, 2006.

Although the 42,000-ton Makin Island is technically the last Wasp-class gator, carrying hull number LHD 8 and bearing many external similarities to its siblings, internally it’s a completely new ship. The Makin Island is powered by gas turbines instead of steam boilers, has an all-electric auxiliary system and a shipwide control network new to big-deck gators.

The ship’s novel electric systems and networks made its internal cabling and wiring all the more critical, but Navy inspectors in April found that Northrop Grumman’s technicians had crushed the cables in some places, or not fully connected them. The company’s CEO, Ronald Sugar, explained that an inexperienced replacement work force, brought in after Hurricane Katrina, was responsible for the wiring problems.