LPD machinery issue could affect other ships - Navy News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Navy Times

LPD machinery issue could affect other ships

The amphibious transport dock New York has suffered a mechanical failure and can’t get underway, Navy Times has learned. Engineers are investigating whether the ship’s problems will affect its San Antonio-class siblings, several of which have struggled since joining the fleet.

Inspectors discovered problems with the bearings on the New York’s diesel engines during an assessment while the ship was at sea, but it was able to return to its dock at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., under its own power, said Lt. Cmdr. Herb Josey, a spokesman for Naval Surface Force Atlantic.

Bearings hold a ship’s engines and vital propulsion gear in place. The broken ones aboard the New York are still under warranty and will be repaired by its builder, Northrop Grumman, Josey said.

Northrop Grumman spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell-Jones issued this statement: “Northrop Grumman is supporting the Navy in their analysis of this situation, however we defer any additional comment on commissioned ships to the Navy.”

The New York — which enjoys international fame for the 7.5 tons of steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center built into its bow stem — was commissioned with national fanfare Nov. 7 in its namesake city. Since then it has been doing at-sea tests and inspections, including the week-long “diesel baseline assessment” that revealed its failed bearings, Josey said.

Although Navy inspectors have noted an improvement in recent San Antonio-class gators, including the New York, the early ships in the class were plagued with technical woes and bad luck. After months of delays and millions dollars before the San Antonio’s first deployment, it was laid up for a month in Bahrain with debilitating lube oil problems. Sailors aboard the second ship, New Orleans, told Navy Times about adversarial relationships with shipbuilders in the yard, who turned in shoddy work and even stole their tools.

The New Orleans also had to spend weeks getting repaired in Bahrain last year after a collision in the Strait of Hormuz with the fast-attack submarine Hartford.

New York sailors told Navy Times in November before the ship’s commissioning they were working out their own bugs in their new ship; for example, New York’s helmsmen had gotten used to piloting it manually because its fiber-optic control network tended to blink out.