RIP Bonhomme Richard

Damn that sucks. I think we had her in port a few times in my years at NWS Earle.
 
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April 11, 2020 - China's Type 075 LHD catches on fire during fitting out. China puts out the fire in one day and work continues with no impact to schedule, ship starts sea trial August 5, 2020:

mcrP3R6.png



July 12, 2020 - USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6 catches fire during re-fit. Burns for 4 days. Total loss. No conclusion to investigation in sight.

9UVNDXW.png


Utter humiliation for the United States and US Navy. Complete embarrassment for the US ship-building industry.

From saving the combat-ready and at-sea Samuel B. Roberts without the loss of a single sailor, to writing off an entire LHD which didn't contain a single piece of ordnance or drop of fuel, while safely berthed next to 40,000 DC-trained sailors and the West Coast's finest fire companies.

Let's be realistic about this. We are losing the war with China, bigtime.
 
April 11, 2020 - China's Type 075 LHD catches on fire during fitting out. China puts out the fire in one day and work continues with no impact to schedule, ship starts sea trial August 5, 2020:

mcrP3R6.png



July 12, 2020 - USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6 catches fire during re-fit. Burns for 4 days. Total loss. No conclusion to investigation in sight.

9UVNDXW.png


Utter humiliation for the United States and US Navy. Complete embarrassment for the US ship-building industry.

From saving the combat-ready and at-sea Samuel B. Roberts without the loss of a single sailor, to writing off an entire LHD which didn't contain a single piece of ordnance or drop of fuel, while safely berthed next to 40,000 DC-trained sailors and the West Coast's finest fire companies.

Let's be realistic about this. We are losing the war with China, bigtime.



errr
"lost it" already...

Me thinks due to corporate chimerica
 
I happened to be in the beach area the day it started, drove nearby and saw it. Covered the sky with dark smoke. For 2 days. :(
 
April 11, 2020 - China's Type 075 LHD catches on fire during fitting out. China puts out the fire in one day and work continues with no impact to schedule, ship starts sea trial August 5, 2020:

mcrP3R6.png



July 12, 2020 - USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6 catches fire during re-fit. Burns for 4 days. Total loss. No conclusion to investigation in sight.

9UVNDXW.png


Utter humiliation for the United States and US Navy. Complete embarrassment for the US ship-building industry.

From saving the combat-ready and at-sea Samuel B. Roberts without the loss of a single sailor, to writing off an entire LHD which didn't contain a single piece of ordnance or drop of fuel, while safely berthed next to 40,000 DC-trained sailors and the West Coast's finest fire companies.

Let's be realistic about this. We are losing the war with China, bigtime.

We actually are preparing for war with them. Problem is, PedoJoe is deep under the covers with the Chicoms. The Chicoms are thrilled to death PedoJoe is in. I don't think Americans can comprehend or even care what the ChiComs have in mind for the USA. Our career politicians, especially the Dems, won't even discuss what to do about China until it's too late.
 
July 12, 2020 - USS Bonhomme Richard LHD-6 catches fire during re-fit. Burns for 4 days. Total loss. No conclusion to investigation in sight.

9UVNDXW.png


Utter humiliation for the United States and US Navy. Complete embarrassment for the US ship-building industry.

From saving the combat-ready and at-sea Samuel B. Roberts without the loss of a single sailor, to writing off an entire LHD which didn't contain a single piece of ordnance or drop of fuel, while safely berthed next to 40,000 DC-trained sailors and the West Coast's finest fire companies.

Let's be realistic about this. We are losing the war with China, bigtime.


Shitty comparison - fully manned up and trained ship with DC conditions set and ready vs a ship in a major availability with reduced manning and proficiency. Also flooding & structural damage vs fire. Shouldn't have happened, but within about 10 minutes of the fire starting there really wasn't much to be done that would have avoided severe damage at a minimum.
 
Shitty comparison - fully manned up and trained ship with DC conditions set and ready vs a ship in a major availability with reduced manning and proficiency. Also flooding & structural damage vs fire. Shouldn't have happened, but within about 10 minutes of the fire starting there really wasn't much to be done that would have avoided severe damage at a minimum.

Yup, just one more example of everboob having his head so far up his ass he'd need to wipe his plexiglass belly button to see where he is.
 
Yup, just one more example of everboob having his head so far up his ass he'd need to wipe his plexiglass belly button to see where he is.

Wouldn't have bothered to reply if I hadn't seen the same sentiment many other places. Hopefully at least some folks have enough IQ points to actual listen and understand. Not going to try getting mr boob to listen.
 
Shitty comparison - fully manned up and trained ship with DC conditions set and ready vs a ship in a major availability with reduced manning and proficiency. Also flooding & structural damage vs fire. Shouldn't have happened, but
within about 10 minutes of the fire starting there really wasn't much to be done that would have avoided severe damage at a minimum.

The Type 075 was not 'fully manned up' and we have no idea about the DC conditions set. She hadn't conducted her sea trials. She was not commissioned. Fitting out is the exact same process as a re-fit, with the exact same deficiencies in readiness.

Now, we don't know the exact fitting state of the Type 075. For all we know, the Chinese could have lit a bunch of diesel fuel on fire in the hanger like a DC Trainer scenario, put it out, then painted over the smudge marks and declared victory.

Then, they could have instigated an incident on LHD-6.

The above scenario is not entirely outlandish, that is the exact kind of shit the Chicoms pull.


However, we have to go with the immediate information available, and that is that the Chinese handled their crisis much better than the Americans did. Barring official detailed reports, you cannot come to any other conclusion.

within about 10 minutes of the fire starting there really wasn't much to be done that would have avoided severe damage at a minimum.

Direct nonsense. You have no idea about that and neither does Tyler Rogoway and neither does USNI. Nobody does yet.

DC training says the direct opposite of what you just said. History says the direct opposite of what you just said.

Please do not come in here talking about things you don't understand or got from a 4th tier source.


Yup, just one more example of everboob having his head so far up his ass he'd need to wipe his plexiglass belly button to see where he is.

You're talking about me and my behavior again instead of the matter at hand. This is because airdales don't know their ass from a hole in the ground if it's below the hangar deck. Stick to pushing bombs around and sucking pilot's dicks please, Sailors are discussing shipboard damage control here.
 
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You're talking about me and my behavior again instead of the matter at hand. This is because airdales don't know their ass from a hole in the ground if it's below the hangar deck. Stick to pushing bombs around and sucking pilot's dicks please, Sailors are discussing shipboard damage control here.

No, I'm saying it's you that doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. You were once again comparing apples and oranges.
 
You're talking about me and my behavior again instead of the matter at hand. This is because airdales don't know their ass from a hole in the ground if it's below the hangar deck. Stick to pushing bombs around and sucking pilot's dicks please, Sailors are discussing shipboard damage control here.


Fuckin uber driver :flipoff2:
 
If that is the case we need to really rethink the way these things are built and what they are made of.

Precisely. That's not how it works at all. He doesn't know what he's talking about . SDCJ actually knows better than that.

The LHDs are made out of a combo of HSLA-100 and 80. They are made to take heat damage specifically, those are low alloy steels that require little post treatment and have a very wide temperature envelope. That's so that you can repair them in time for a future Midway. As everyone here knows, low-alloy steels that don't require pre-and post-treatment are more tolerant to heat damage etc. Not that the old HY-80 ships were weak, we made subs and carriers out of it.

Point being that it takes an enormous amount of heat and damage to structurally hurt them. My initial post is spot-on.

Barring specific information otherwise, LHD-6 burned for days because the USN has become institutionally-unaware of the dangers of fire-fighting. That ship did not have ordinance on it and burned for 4 days. That is totally unacceptable in ALL circumstances.

Where does my seemingly arrogant standard come from? The Navy. The Navy taught me that.

It wasn't even a failure of direct Command inasmuch as a failure across the Navy.

To all of the majority sailors who agree with me, I'm not blaming you. I'm blaming an Institutional concern.
 
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I'm an Army brat with only a little understanding of things Navy, mostly from producing exhibits involving the USS NC Battleships and Sub. Amazing technology in their own right.

I'd hope that if this had happened underway in combat situations they would have acted on the fire on board in a very different manner to save the viability of the ship and as much life on board as possible. Including risking many more lives to put it out.

My impression is they were much more risk averse in terms of human losses in the act of fire suppression then what was seen in WWII, even in port, like Pearl Harbor. Seemed to want to let it burn out regardless of the losses of the ship and our prestige as THE Naval power. I hope that what ever Officer that made that decision is out panhandling for work soon if they are not already.
 
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I'd hope that if this had happened underway in combat situations they would have acted on the fire on board in a very different manner to save the viability of the ship and as much life on board as possible. Including risking many more lives to put it out.

It was in port for refit so all the hatches were open to allow power cables, vent plumbing and all sorts of other crap through. It was the perfect situation to have something like this get out of control. Under way they could have isolated the area and performed far more effective fire control operations without having to fight the entire ship acting as a chimney.
 
please excuse the complete noob question but, Do navy ships have sprinkler systems?
 
If that is the case we need to really rethink the way these things are built and what they are made of.

It's not what their made of, it's what's inside. Steel doesn't burn, but all the paper, cloth, oil, cardboard, etc is where the problem is. Controlling the amount and type of flammable material onboard is a re-occurring problem that was learned in WW2 and continue to occur frequently. Availabilties are especially bad because of the amount of additional material brought onboard. Problem is you have mutually incompatible requirements - can't function without things like paper, but also need to minimize the amount for fire prevention. For instance, a major source of flammables is berthings, specially bedding. Officially only Navy approved fire retardant linens are allowed, but the problem is that they're crappy itchy wool blankets, so everyone brings their own off the shelf stuff to sleep on. Certainly we could be draconian about the regs and reduce the fire hazard, but at what cost?

The basis of DC is rapid response to contain and isolate the fire. Once it spreads it becomes uncontrollable, as happened on Miami & BHR. Same thing with a house fire - once the fire gets going there will be major damage and you try to isolate what you can. On BHR it seems the fire started in a low central location that was difficult to isolate and had lots of flammable materials stored in the area. Unless it was caught when very small and put out, that entire space was going up, and once that happened it's going to cause significant damage. Shouldn't have burned out the ship, but was still going to be a bad day.
 
please excuse the complete noob question but, Do navy ships have sprinkler systems?

Yes and no. High fire risk area, such as machinery spaces, magazines, hanger deck, vehicle decks, etc do have some form of fixed firefighting system. Some are water sprinklers, some AFFF and some halon or similar inert gas. General spaces do not. However, when you're in a availability these systems are shut down for maintenance, though only after the hazards are removed and with mitigations such as portable fire hoses.
 
The LHDs are made out of a combo of HSLA-100 and 80. They are made to take heat damage specifically, those are low alloy steels that require little post treatment and have a very wide temperature envelope. That's so that you can repair them in time for a future Midway. As everyone here knows, low-alloy steels that don't require pre-and post-treatment are more tolerant to heat damage etc. Not that the old HY-80 ships were weak, we made subs and carriers out of it.

Point being that it takes an enormous amount of heat and damage to structurally hurt them. My initial post is spot-on.

Pretty much everything here is wrong.
 
It was in port for refit so all the hatches were open to allow power cables, vent plumbing and all sorts of other crap through. It was the perfect situation to have something like this get out of control. Under way they could have isolated the area and performed far more effective fire control operations without having to fight the entire ship acting as a chimney.

Also, underway you'd have a full crew on the ship with ~25% of the crew on watch at a minimum. Also, everything stowed more or less properly and most spaces visited frequently/manned. In port you have ~10% of the crew on duty, with most of the people spending the majority of their day near but not onboard the ship (depending on avail phase and other aspects). Now, you do have rovers who are supposed to specifically check on all the spaces, but it's significantly easier for a fire to start unoticed.
 
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