Iowa hull life. How much left?

[Anon]

Question for Rusty BB.

How much servicable hull/boiler life does each of the Iowas have left?

Thanx.

[Dreadnought]

Originally Posted by M21Sniper

Question for Rusty BB.

How much servicable hull/boiler life does each of the Iowas have left?

Thanx.

Snipe his last post claimed that Jersey was the worst hull wise A small golf ball sized hole in her. As for boilers your guess as good as mine but if retubed then a long time. Be interested in knowing myself.

[gunnut]

What determines the hull life of a war ship?

[RAL's_pal?]

All the deep pits in the Jersey's hull were clad welded long ago. A boiler is not that complicated of a mechanism. It's the things that work in conjunction with the boilers like the main feed pumps and fuel oil service pumps that needed a lot of maintenance as far as I can remember.

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by RAL's_pal?

All the deep pits in the Jersey's hull were clad welded long ago. A boiler is not that complicated of a mechanism. It's the things that work in conjunction with the boilers like the main feed pumps and fuel oil service pumps that needed a lot of maintenance as far as I can remember.

Yes, Salty, they were clad welded after her first deployment that was two years longer than her cathodic hull protection system was designed for (I know, I issued the drawing). But when we dry docked her for decommissioning I personally inspected her hull again and pits were starting to form with that one large one I mentioned earlier. That's because the skippers of that ship kept having the hull scrubbed down with heavy rotary wire brushes wielded by divers right down to the primer for their fuel efficiency records. Also the New Jersey was the only one of the four that did NOT receive the Impressed Current Cathodic Protection System and still relied on the passive protective system of zinc anodes. Ironically, the ICCPS drawings were based upon New Jersey (I personally drew them) but she was to get it installed at her next availability - which turned out to be her decommissioning instead of upgrade.

A SLEP (Service Life Extension Program) was in the works for the Iowa class Battleships but the end of the Cold War brought an end to the Battleships (and a few shipyards). Part of SLEP was WIP (Warfighting Improvement Program). WIP included removing the Tomahawk ABLs, adding another upper level deck and installing 96 VLS cells. The design agent who developed that drawing was going to throw them out but somehow I got in the way between them and the trash can. They are about 30 inches away from me right now.

When we brought the BBs back out, starting in 1982 with the New Jersey going back into service in December of that year, the plan of SLEP and WIP was to keep them at sea until at least 2010. It could have been done but the anti-defense people on the hill won out. Funny thing about it. One of them was the SECDEF himself and he just shot his hunting partner.

[RAL's_pal?]

Too bad I didn't know you back then. I was one of those dimwits with the tan hats and clipboard (c383.1) who had a specific area of grids to coordinate x26, x11, and put in requests for inspector before x71 took over. Yes, the memories of the welder's sparks cutting into the blue vinyl scupper hoses from the BB to the bottom of the drydock, so raw sewage could seep all over the drydock floor.

[TopHatter]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

Yes, Salty

Salty? SALTY? Sodium Chloride? NaCl?

Sooo...our mystery person is revealed.

[RAL's_pal?]

Yeah, yeah, cut the crap joepetemax

[TopHatter]

Originally Posted by RAL's_pal?

Yeah, yeah, cut the crap joepetemax

No sense of humor in his old age

[Anon]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

When we brought the BBs back out, starting in 1982 with the New Jersey going back into service in December of that year, the plan of SLEP and WIP was to keep them at sea until at least 2010. It could have been done but the anti-defense people on the hill won out. Funny thing about it. One of them was the SECDEF himself and he just shot his hunting partner.

Add him to the list with the F-14 and BBs then.

I hate Dick.

D.Cheyney's new motto: "See Dick.....RUN!!!!"

[Anon]

So hey, can i get an answer as to how much hull life remains in the Iowas assuming all reasonably needed work is done?

[RustyBattleship]

Originally Posted by M21Sniper

So hey, can i get an answer as to how much hull life remains in the Iowas assuming all reasonably needed work is done?

The maximum service life extension expectation was 30 more years with 25 being the average. When modernized in the 80s, they put on less than 10 years of wear and tear before being decommissioned again. So if we brought them back out today, particularly the Wisconsin and Missouri (it CAN be taken back from Hawaii), we could still get another 20 years out of them.

[RAL's_pal?]

And the bad news is that to bring them out, all the piping would have to be tested and although most joints and fittings are now covered with non-nasty stuff, any new areas to be inspected most likely are covered with the nasty stuff. You also have to get a large number of bodies to man the engineering spaces and auxilliary spaces. People talk about wanting to be "gunnies" on BB's but it take many more "snipes" to make the thing go. Lastly, any structural mods would involve running into the nasty stuff on piping and bulkheads.

[gunnut]

So what determines how much life a warship gets?

And what how does SLEP add years to a hull?

[Anon]

Originally Posted by RustyBattleship

The maximum service life extension expectation was 30 more years with 25 being the average. When modernized in the 80s, they put on less than 10 years of wear and tear before being decommissioned again. So if we brought them back out today, particularly the Wisconsin and Missouri (it CAN be taken back from Hawaii), we could still get another 20 years out of them.

OK, thanx Mr. Landgraff.