Navy's Green Laundry Initiative Weakened A $15 Billion Carrier - The "Green"er Laundry Caused the Fire on the USS Ford
Posted by freedomforall 1 day, 3 hours ago to Government
Yet another (left biased and likely corrupt) irrational decision made by left-leaning government employees.
Excerpt:
"The $15 billion USS Ford was forced to cut short its deployment due to a 30-hour laundry fire that did millions of dollars in damage. And it has been revealed that even while it remained on station in the Gulf, Ford could not generate combat sorties for two days due to the raging 30-hour laundry fire that drove some 600 sailors out of their sleeping quarters. Thirty hours to get a laundry fire under control raises a couple of questions. Why would a laundry catch on fire, and why did it take the firefighters and damage-control personnel of the USS Ford so long to put out the laundry fire? Sadly, the answers can be found in some wrongheaded decisions the Navy made in its effort to be viewed as being “green.”
Design for the Ford-class carrier began in March 1996, and finally, more than $15 billion later, the USS Ford was fully certified for combat in April 2023. Due to a misguided green initiative, instead of installing inherently super energy-efficient steam-based laundries, the Ford-class carriers have standardized on more expensive, more complex, inherently fire-prone, ozone-based systems."
Excerpt:
"The $15 billion USS Ford was forced to cut short its deployment due to a 30-hour laundry fire that did millions of dollars in damage. And it has been revealed that even while it remained on station in the Gulf, Ford could not generate combat sorties for two days due to the raging 30-hour laundry fire that drove some 600 sailors out of their sleeping quarters. Thirty hours to get a laundry fire under control raises a couple of questions. Why would a laundry catch on fire, and why did it take the firefighters and damage-control personnel of the USS Ford so long to put out the laundry fire? Sadly, the answers can be found in some wrongheaded decisions the Navy made in its effort to be viewed as being “green.”
Design for the Ford-class carrier began in March 1996, and finally, more than $15 billion later, the USS Ford was fully certified for combat in April 2023. Due to a misguided green initiative, instead of installing inherently super energy-efficient steam-based laundries, the Ford-class carriers have standardized on more expensive, more complex, inherently fire-prone, ozone-based systems."
That old bromide is part of Navy culture. One would think that every sailor knows the inherent danger of spontaneous combustion caused by drying paint and piles of fabrics.
The absolute absurdity of infusing garments & fabrics with Ozone should be a court martial offense, and the imbecile that approved it should be charges with willful destruction of Navy property as well as interfering with ship movement.
Basically, anything and everything until some Green idiot gets the death penalty. How else are they going to learn the lesson and not attempt something that stupid ever again!
The fire could certainly have been managed better, but this implied that Ozone laundry eliminates/significantly reduces water usage, and it does not.
This may be a "green thing". However, I would NOT want steam from the engine room going to the laundry at all. This water is chemically controlled for corrosion et al, not just water, and has no business being cross connected to a stupid use like laundry. In a submarine, such piping would have to go through both reactor compartment bullheads. Those penetrations would cost more than the whole stupid laundry.
Maybe the ozone thing sucks and is wasteful, but this article does not defend it well. Fundamentally the ozone eliminates soap, not water.
Idiocy on the part of the Navy is wide and deep. If anyone cared about cost, green or warfighting, they would have deployed the hybrid electric drive system we developed and tested almost 20 years ago on DDG51. It saved ~$3M/yr fuel cost (depot not delivered), increased time on station considerable, and offered ~3MW of additional electrical power to the ship, that is needed for the AMDR and laser weapons. We had to sell it all over the navy, and because the part that buys equipment doesn't buy fuel, no one cared. So, we went to Congress and got $ to fund it. (today, we'd just do it ourselves) Then after we teamed with our competitor, pooled $, designed, built and tested it, the Navy put it out to competition, and selected a cheap commercial system. That system was too big to fit both shafts, had massive EMI issues, and when tested at sea, it failed miserably, not able to control in any sea state, just tripping offline over and over. Seven (7) were built, and they sit in the Philadelphia shipyard gathering dust. Our system was ~$10M/ship, saved $3M/yr, paying itself off in three years, and resolved power issues. We have ours back and use it for testing various stuff. The Navy are idiots, but are completely eclipsed by the Army in utter stupidity.
As long as they aren't audited, punished, and corrected for stupidity/corruption the situation will only continue and get worse.
Government has never been competitive in anything except, perhaps, when competing against other incompetent governments.
The system will be turn back into a mess again. It always does, but not right away.
Great changes.
https://www.secnav.navy.mil/rda/Docum...
The HED decision was a douche 2-star trying to make a point. He did, and cost the navy $100M's and capability. His douche name is VADM (later) McCoy. He is an arrogant puke, and should have his retirement forfeit.