[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 108 (Tuesday, July 19, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H5157-H5158]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONGRATULATING THE ELECTRIC BOAT WORKFORCE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Connecticut (Mr. Courtney) for 5 minutes.
Mr. COURTNEY. Mr. Speaker, in March of 2009, the USS Hartford, a 17-
year-old Los Angeles-class submarine, was steaming into port in the
Strait of Hormuz. Visibility was low, and they were riding at ocean
surface level when, out of the blue, they were struck by the USS San
Antonio, an LPD amphibious ship. When it violently collided with the
Hartford, the Hartford rolled 85 degrees, throwing sailors, anything
that wasn't tied down, flying into the air.
The good news is that the collision did not result in a breach of the
submarine. There was no leak through the pressure hull. But the bad
news is that the sail of the submarine was badly torn 20 to 25 degrees.
The ship limped home to its home port in Groton, Connecticut, which
was a tough voyage going across the Atlantic, again riding at the
surface, which, as many people who know submariners know, is the worst
place to ride a submarine. But it made it back to port.
And then the challenge was before the shipyard about how to repair a
ship that was 17 years old, that was built with totally different
technology, hand-drawn prints, a workforce that had largely retired,
and parts that really weren't in existence anymore. But the folks at
Electric Boat, 450 strong, came together as a team and, calling back
some of their retirees, were able, over a period of 18 months, to
perform the most ultimate body shop repair job of a Los Angeles-class
submarine.
And I'm happy to report to this House that the USS Hartford is now
back underway, performing its missions, and will extend the life of,
again, a submarine that this country invested close to $1 billion 20
years ago when it was first constructed. Again, the replacement costs,
if this work had not been done, would be close to $2 billion. What the
folks at EB were able to do, again, at a cost of about 5 percent of
that, was to get the USS Hartford operating and at great savings to the
U.S. taxpayer.
And I want to share this story because it demonstrates that when you
invest in people, nuclear welders today, as Admiral Kevin McCoy
testified before the House Armed Services Committee last week, have a
value to the U.S. workforce almost as great as a surgeon in terms of
the skills that they have.
{time} 1040
When you invest in people, when you have those skills and when you
have the kind of teamwork that we see at EB, this country can succeed
in ways that no other country in the world can even touch us. The
complexity of a nuclear submarine matches anything that a space shuttle
entails in terms of the challenges to support human life in an
environment where human life cannot exist. And the capabilities of one
of these vessels, again, defy almost human imagination.
So congratulations to the workforce at Electric Boat for showing
again that the United States of America is capable of almost taking on
any challenge when it has the right combination of investment, skill
and talent, something which, as we look at our challenges that we face
as a Nation today, is something that we can both take inspiration from,
but also learn valuable lessons about where the right priorities of
this government should be. And investing in education, workforce skills
again is the best investment to grow this economy and solve America's
problem.
Mr. Speaker, I will include in the Record an article from The New
London Day written by Jennifer McDermott, which again documents this
amazing story of technological success.
[From TheDay.com, July 17, 2011]
Electric Boat Gets USS Hartford Back to Sea
(By Jennifer McDermott)
Repairs to damaged sub total $120 million
Groton, CT.--Repairing a severely damaged 17-year-old
submarine with the technology Electric Boat uses to build
modern subs was like reconstructing a Ford Model T in a Lexus
shop.
The Navy contracted with EB for about $120 million worth of
repairs to the USS Hartford after the Los Angeles-class
submarine collided with a Navy amphibious ship in the Strait
of Hormuz in 2009.
The Navy wanted the submarine back at sea as soon as
possible--ideally, in one year.
The repair team at EB knew the Hartford (SSN 768) had
rolled about 85 degrees and
[[Page H5158]]
damaged its sail, hull and port bow plane. But the
destruction turned out to be far worse than expected.
The sail leaned 15 to 20 degrees to the starboard side.
Seventy-five percent of it was torn off. It would have to be
removed to patch the hull.
There would be no saving the sub if the Hartford did not
keep its shape when welders cut into the hull to remove the
damaged section, or after they patched it.
And the team discovered after the submarine was taken out
of the water that the bow plane had caved in to the ballast
tank. The masts and antennas weren't working because
hydraulic fluid had shot through the system after the
collision and damaged many valves.
``In my 38 years here, we have never worked on something of
this magnitude, repairwise,'' said Stanley J. Gwudz, the
director of ship's management who likened the repairs to
reconstructing a Model T.
This type of repair is ``about as complex as they come,''
said Rear Adm. David M. Duryea, deputy commander for undersea
warfare.
Retirees share knowledge
Because EB and its relatively young work force are set up
for building today's Virginia-class submarines--not for major
repairs to the aging Los Angeles class--some former employees
came out of retirement to share their knowledge.
The trick was figuring out how to combine today's
technology with yesterday's hand-drawn designs, some of which
didn't match up. Daniel Vieira, the ship's manager for the
repair project, laughed when asked how such a feat was
accomplished.
``I lived it, and I'm not sure,'' Vieira said. ``It was
through a lot of pain. You know, you depend on a lot of
people with a lot of experience and training to come back to
you and say, `This is right. This isn't. We need to fix
this.' ''
The biggest problem was that the sail had crushed into the
pressure hull. It had been 20 years since anyone in the
shipyard had performed a major cut into a submarine's hull,
the pressure-tight shell of a submarine, while maintaining
the circularity of the ship.
``The pressure hull is sacred ground,'' Vieira said. ``It
keeps water out. Anytime you have anything that penetrates
the pressure hull, it's a big deal.''
The half-moon shaped patch to fix the hull measured more
than 150 square feet.
``It's very easy to get warping or misalignment or change
the geometry with all the welding, which would have
significant effects,'' Vieira said. ``The ship is shaped that
way for a reason.''
Welders and shipfitters at EB's Quonset Point facility
built a new sail using the modular construction techniques
developed for the Virginia class. Years ago they would have
had to fix the hull, then build the sail piece by piece on
the submarine.
The repairs could have taken years if each step were done
in sequence, instead of at the same time, Gwudz said.
Useful lessons learned
Few vendors still make parts for Los Angeles-class
submarines.
In the crash, the bow plane was forced back into its
locking mechanism, caving the structure into the ballast
tank. A 16-inch diameter shaft bent 4 inches, but a new shaft
wasn't available. So EB engineers incorporated the 4-inch
bend into the design. A new, fully functional bow plane was
built around the bent shaft to dive the sub.
The damaged valves were replaced.
Testing at sea in January showed the repairs to be
successful.
Gwudz could only recall one other repair job at EB where
the level of damage on a submarine came close to the severity
of the Hartford's. In the early 1980s, he said, a Los
Angeles-class submarine needed its masts fixed and a patch
underneath. The graving dock was secured for this
confidential job and Gwudz said he was never told how the
submarine sustained its damage.
EB can now use what it learned working on the Hartford to
repair other Los Angeles-class submarines more effectively,
Gwudz said. The USS Alexandria (SSN 757) is at EB for routine
maintenance.
Instead of taking a ventilation valve apart to see which of
the older parts are corroded, for example, Gwudz said they
will know to get new flappers or linkages because these parts
were corroded on the Hartford. That gives vendors more time
to make the parts so they are ready when EB needs them.
Robert Hamilton, an EB spokesman, said the Hartford repair
job ``used 50 Connecticut suppliers with a total spend of
$3.5 million.''
The project took more than one million man-hours and the
efforts of 450 people at its peak.
The $120 million price tag is less than 5 percent of what
it would have cost to replace the Hartford with a new
Virginia-class submarine.
``Everybody in the Navy had a lot of confidence in EB and
the NAVSEA team to execute the repairs,'' Duryea said,
referring to the Navy command responsible for overseeing the
construction and maintenance of the Navy's ships. ``Certainly
we knew it would be a challenge, but EB does a very good job
at executing complex work. This was just another example of
the fine work they were able to do.
``We needed this capability out in the fleet,'' Duryea
said. ``Hartford has a lot of good life left in her, and we
wanted to get her back to sea.''
Hartford at fault
EB originally built the Hartford at a cost of about $900
million.
The submarine returned to the Naval Submarine Base in
February, nearly two years after the March 2009 crash and 18
months after arriving at EB.
The submerged submarine and the USS New Orleans (LPD 18), a
San Diego-based amphibious ship, had both been heading into
port when the collision occurred.
The fuel tank ruptured on the New Orleans, creating a 16-
by-18-foot hole and spilling about 25,000 gallons of diesel
fuel. Two ballast tanks were damaged.
Navy investigators concluded the crew of the Hartford was
at fault. The sub's leadership was called ``ineffective and
negligent'' and sailors were accused of falling asleep on the
job, spending too much time away from their stations and
chatting informally while working.
Vieira could see a silver lining in the task of repairing
the Hartford. He said the repairs were an opportunity for
senior employees to impart their knowledge to the younger
ones so these newer employees will be able to help with work
on the Los Angeles class in the future.
Duryea agreed that there were technical lessons learned
but, he said, ``my only hope is we don't have to do these
types of repairs again.''
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