Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Los Angeles class subs vulnerable to iPod Denial-Of-Service attack

At least when the navigator is zoned out listening to tunez when he should be paying attention to nearby ships:

The Los Angeles-class sub [U.S.S. Hartford] collided with New Orleans in the Strait of Hormuz. New Orleans, which was on its maiden deployment, suffered a 16-by-18-foot gash in its hull that ripped open a fuel tank and two ballast tanks and required $2.3 million in repairs.

Cmdr. Ryan Brookhart was relieved of command of Hartford on April 14, 2009, due to loss of confidence. A Judge Advocate General Manual investigation found an informal atmosphere, crew complacency, a “weak” command and inferior submariner skills led to the “avoidable” accident. Specifically, the navigator was listening to his iPod during a critical evolution, watchstanders were known to sleep on the job, and stereo speakers were rigged for music in the radio room. [Emphasis mine - Borepatch]

It's never good for the C.O. when your ship runs into another one. And that $2.3M? Just a down payment: the total cost to repair the two ships is almost $87M. Oops. Maybe we can call it a "stimulus" ...

And no word on which song was playing on the iPod. Maybe this one.

5 comments:

  1. You're serious? Some folks there will be lucky to be in charge of a garbage scow on its way to Saipan after this.

    Jim

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  2. And I'll bet you he was texting while driving that sub, too!

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  3. Couple of things here:

    One, from the original comments on The Stupid Shall Be Punished, the Strait of Hormuz is a royal PITA to get through at periscope depth--lots of ship traffic, waves, etc.

    Two--generally speaking, they put the newest 'can't do anything else' dudes on helms & planes. It's a bottom-rung nub job. My ex-husband was actually pretty darned good at it, and got disgruntled to be kept to something low-level for so long.

    Also, that sort of thing isn't as uncommon as we'd all like it to be. ;) When the ex was on the USS Boise, they had to do a 'surge' deployment to Iraq in '03 because the sub whose turn it was--the Oklahoma City--tried to surface underneath a Norwegian oil tanker on its way back from a Med run. The OKC lost.

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  4. OK, here you go, comments on the issue by men who know what the heck they're talking about: http://bubbleheads.blogspot.com/2010/04/by-popular-demand.html

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  5. I totally wasn't expecting that video.

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