That Was Foreseeable; BHR Ed.

The Navy decided to scrap the amphibious assault ship that burned for nearly five days earlier this year, concluding after months of investigations that trying to rebuild and restore the ship would take too much money and too much industrial base capacity.

The July 12 fire aboard USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) began in the lower vehicle storage area but ravaged the island, the mast and the flight deck as it burned its way through the inside of the big-deck amphib. The ship remained watertight throughout the ordeal and hasn’t been moved from its spot on the pier at Naval Base San Diego, but between the fire itself and the days-long firefighting effort, about 60-percnet of the ship was ruined and would have had to be rebuilt or replaced, Rear Adm. Eric Ver Hage, the commander of Navy Regional Maintenance Center and the director of surface ship maintenance and modernization, told reporters [yesterday] in a phone call.

Three main options were considered: rebuild and restore the ship to its original function of moving Marines and their gear around for amphibious warfare; rebuild the ship to a new configuration for a new mission, such as a submarine or surface ship tender or a hospital ship; or decommission and scrap the ship.

Ver Hage said restoring Bonhomme Richard to its original form would have cost between $2.5 billion and $3.2 billion and taken five to seven years. That work would have taken place in the Gulf Coast, he said.

Rebuilding the ship for a new purpose would have cost “in excess of a billion dollars” and also taken about five to seven years. Though cheaper than rebuilding to the original configuration, Ver Hage said it would be cheaper to just design and build a new tender or hospital ship from scratch.

Decommissioning the ship – and the inactivation, harvesting of parts, towing and scrapping the hull – will cost about $30 million and take just nine to 12 months.

I sort of call bullshit on the options. The destroyer tenders have been gone for a very long time (it was a stupid move to scrap them). The two sub tenders (USS Emory S. Land and USS Frank Cable) are both over forty years old. Other than Trump trying to gin up support in Alabama last summer by proposing to shower the state with shipbuilding contracts, I know of no serious proposal to replace the USNS Mercy and the USNS Comfort, let alone build a new fleet of tenders.

But that the Navy was not going to scrap the BHR was likely never seriously in doubt.

USS Bonnehomme Richard

Last month's fire is being investigated as an act of arson and they have a suspect.

It's way too early to know whether or not the Navy will repair the ship or scrap her. The USS Belknap was repaired with possibly worse damage.

BHR Fire Continues

Two tweets of interest:

Out of an abundance of caution the pier and ship were cleared of personnel due to an initial shift in the ship’s list. Personnel are now pier side. We will continue to monitor as the ship settles. pic.twitter.com/WC1XWTERFu

— Naval Surface Forces (@SurfaceWarriors) July 16, 2020

As of 06:00 a.m. Pacific time July 16, firefighting teams are on board USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) continuing operations. The total personnel treated for minor injuries remains 63, 40 Sailors and 23 civilians.Will continue to provide updates via our social media platforms. pic.twitter.com/lIlaSRls1b

— Naval Surface Forces (@SurfaceWarriors) July 16, 2020

Nice that they highlighted the ship's motto of "I have not yet begun to fight", but four days into the fire, that's ironic at best.

The story seems to have fallen out of the news cycle.

As USNI reports, fires during maintenance availabilites are not uncommon.

Also, this from my other blog.

BHR, That Will Not Buff Out

An overhead shot of the BHR flight deck. It looks as though it was hit by a Kamikaze.

The fire is still burning.

BHR Continues to Burn

As you can see here, the superstructure, where a lot of the command and control stuff probably his, is fully alight.

This is a schematic of the LHD-1 Class:

(Credit)

The Navy has said that the fire started in "Deep-V" storage, which is probably #18 on the schematic. Everything above that is likely gone: Sick Bay, Officer's Country, all of the command and control spaces, staff quarters, etc, etc. The spooks may regard all of the crypto stuff as being compromised, which will require Fleet-wide replacement whatever encodes that. (I have no idea how that stuff works.)

On the personnel side, figure that everyone with orders to the BHR is now in limbo.

BHR Fire

Most of the sailors injured in a massive fire aboard the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard Sunday suffered from smoke inhalation, Rear Adm. Philip Sobeck, commander of Expeditionary Strike Group 3, told reporters Sunday evening in San Diego, where the ship had been burning for nearly 12 hours.
...
While the precise cause remained unknown Sunday night, Sobeck said there was “nothing toxic” in the ship, and that the black smoke billowing from the amphib all day was caused by office and berthing items burning.

The fire is believed to have started below those spaces, in the lower cargo hold of the ship, known as the “Deep V,” Sobeck said.

It is a “huge open area where you store a lot of (Marine Corps) equipment and everything else,” he said. “That’s where we believe it was started.”

"Nothing toxic"...suure.

I've not seen any reports that the fire is out. The longer it burns, the more likely that the ship will end up being scrapped, like the USS Miami was.

Edited to add: She's still burning.

She was finishing up a major overhaul that cost a quarter-billion.

Fire, Fire, Fire On Board the USS Bonhomme Richard

In port at the San Diego Naval Base.

I don't have any other details, yet. There are casualties, the number keeps changing.