The USS New York called in New York harbor over the weekend to help celebrate Veteran’s Week.  The ship is the fifth of the San Antonio class of amphibious transport dock ships.  The ship’s bow includes 7.5 tonnes of salvaged steel from the World Trade Center, which was attacked on 9/11/2001. The best news about the ship is that it appears that the she and her sister vessels may have, at long last, become fully operational.

The San Antonio Class ships have been plagued with operational problems as well as significant cost over-runs during construction. The USS San Antonio was scheduled for completion in 2002 but was delayed by problems in Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans. She was ultimately towed to the Northrop Grumman shipyard at Pascagoula, Mississippi, for completion. The USS San Antonio was finally commissioned in 2006 but was plagued by so many mechanical problems that the ship’s propulsion plants were not considered fit for duty until August 2011.  The ship, that was originally estimated to cost around $700 million when the project was approved, ended up costing $1.7 billion.  In 2008, Time Magazine referred to the ship as “The Navy’s Floating Fiasco.”

Sister ships had similar problems. The second ship of the series, USS New Orleans was delivered in 2007 but required an additional 400,000 man-hours of repairs before the ship could enter service in 2009.  A few months later the USS New Orleans was in a collision with the US navy submarine USS Hartford.  The Hartford was found to be at fault in the collision.

The third ship built by Avondale Shipyard, the USS Green Bay, which was delivered 45 months behind schedule in 2008, had its own range of problems including a failed steering gear in 2010, a new failure which had not occurred in the previous two ships.

The USS New York was commissioned in 2009, but shortly thereafter wiped her stern bearings and was out of service until June of 2012. Inspectors also discovered a bent crankshaft in one of New York’s four diesel engines. Similar problems had been reported on the USS Mesa Verde and USS Green Bay.

The ships built at Avondale Shipyard in New Orleans appear to have the biggest problems. As recently as August of 2012, more problems were discovered in the San Antonio class ships, USS Anchorage and USS Somerset.  The shipyard is now scheduled to close in 2014, following the delivery of the Somerset.

The good news in all of this captured in the November 1, 2013 headline in the Hampton Roads Pilot — “Once-troubled San Antonio shines on busy deployment.”   The big news is that the USS San Antonio finally put to sea and didn’t break down.  For this troubled class of ships, that is big news indeed.  We wish the USS New York and her sister vessels continued good fortune as well.