Superferry Suckers Hawai'i

The Navy finally acknowledged that the Superferry is a test prototype for their new high speed vessel...and not a very good one at that. From the Navy News

In the case of one ship the Navy is confident it wants — the aluminum-hulled trimaran that General Dynamics and shipbuilder Austal are offering as LCS 2 — Roughead said he remains a believer in the ship’s novel design and materials, even after yard problems and problems with an earlier civilian variant on the design.

The Navy acknowledged in February that some transverse support beams under the LCS 2’s flight deck had bowed in the shipyard, and that the Navy and Austal would review the cost and possible delays involved with repairs.

And another aluminum trimaran built by Austal, the Hawaii Superferry, stopped service until April 22 and is laid up in a shipyard with hull cracks near its auxiliary rudders, the Honolulu Advertiser reported.

Roughead said he didn’t think it was clear yet what had caused the Superferry to stop service, nor that it portended any problems for the Navy’s purchase. “I’ve heard it’s everything from discomfort caused by the weather to the fact that they’ve had some mechanical glitches, I don’t have the details on it. I do believe in what I’ve seen in LCS 2, a ship that I think a very exciting design for the Navy, and I’m anxious to get it to sea and put it through its paces.”

It seems the Navy is continuing the head-in-the-sand approach to physical reality that our own Dept of Transportation pioneered. They think a ship that can't stand up to civilian ferry service (and had to be escorted by the Coast Guard in case it sank) is good enough for their sailors. Another example of the current administration enriching their pals at the expense of our enlisted men and women.