Construction Oversight of US Navy and US Coast Guard Vessels
By Louis J Lemos, a retired Marine Consultant and concerned taxpayer with no connection or financial interest in ABS.
Within the marine engineering profession, it is a known fact that very few vessels designed and built for the US Navy and the US Coast Guard would qualify for classification by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). Apart from the fact that the intended purpose and operational mission of these vessels may preclude compliance with "Classification Certification", as such, there is no excuse for said vessels to become pawns in the hands of unscrupulous shipbuilding contractors charging and over-charging for their mistakes. However, the recent and current history of problems with cost over-runs and delayed deliveries associated with new vessel construction by private contractors for these two services have been well documented. It appears that the best efforts by both services to exercise new construction oversight in protecting the best interests of the US Government have not been very successful.
Despite the assumed engineering expertise within both branches of government, neither one seems to understand what is required in properly monitoring new ship construction being performed by private contractors, and in protecting the best interests of the US Government in the process. Whereas ABS is recognized worldwide for its marine engineering expertise, and as a highly qualified member of the International Association of Classification Societies whose membership body is responsible for approving original design, construction and ultimate certification of seaworthiness of millions of tons of new merchant vessels around the globe. Without such certification, no insurance company in the world will insure such vessels. Within the private sector participants involved in new ship design and construction are individually and collectively responsible for their respective participation and mistakes. The magnitude of this responsibility and its subsequent consequences, helps to keep them all on their toes while the costs of failure can be monumental. Conversely, design and construction failures in new construction and associated cost-over-runs of naval vessels are simply charged off to the taxpayers, with apparently no lessons learned and no one held responsible for such wasteful expenditure of public funds To change this sad state of affairs and to introduce a level of professional responsibility within those persons of all rank and grade, both military and civilian, involved in new government ship construction, initially, all new construction should be monitored and inspected by ABS Marine Surveyors, for at least two years. Meanwhile, employees of both services should be properly trained at the ABS Academy, in Houston, Texas, in the art of new ship construction oversight.
During this training period the General Accountability Office, as an arm of Congress, should be authorized to establish "Ship Construction Quality Assurance Contracts", on a "Ship-by-Ship" basis, under the professional acumen of the American Bureau of Shipping, which in turn would be reporting to the Contract Auditing Agency and advising the two services accordingly. Within this context, the function of the ABS Surveyors would not be to enforce Classification Society Rules and Standards as such, but to ensure that the Contractors comply with the plans and specifications provided by the US Navy and the US Coast Guard. Additionally, to ensure the highest degree of seaworthiness and quality construction, the original ship construction plans should be reviewed by the ABS for comment and approval prior to being submitted for construction bids. This requirement should also apply to "Post-Award Design Changes", that often occur especially during construction of a new class of vessels.
COV - 1 - Since the end of World War II the U.S. Navy, Military Sealift Command has depended upon the well known expertise of ABS Surveyors to monitor new construction and repairs of non-combatant vessels of the U.S. Navy, Military Sealift Command. This professional support by highly qualified personnel has resulted in overall seaworthiness of said vessels and the safety of their crews, while simultaneously avoiding the unjustifiable waste of public funds. By assigning such construction and repair oversight as proposed herein, to all U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard combatant surface vessels, even though they can not be "insured", their seaworthiness, potential longevity and safety of their crews is greatly enhanced and the investment of public funds better protected.
COV - 2 - The validity of the proposed construction oversight concept can be proven by assigning construction monitoring and inspection of two vessels of the same class, simultaneously, one to a regular Navy person and the other to an ABS Surveyor. Both projects to be observed and documented by an independent referee, whose subsequent detailed reports of findings for both vessels can be evaluated for degree of contract compliance, discrepancies, lost-time, mistakes and re-work, cost-over-runs, and ultimately, dock trials and sea trials. With this one time, two-ship test run, there will be much to learn by all participants including Command-level personnel, for a relatively low-cost investment.
Further information on ABS training is obtainable from:
ABS Academy USA, ABS Plaza, 16855 Northchase Drive Houston, Texas 77060.
Phone: 1-281-877-6852 Email: [email protected]