The Truman aircraft carrier seems to have had a run of bad luck over the past six months. In December a Truman-based F-18 was shot down by the USS Gettysburg operating in the Red Sea. The crew were recovered uninjured. Two months later, this time in the Med, the Truman collided with a freighter resulting in the dismissal of her commander. Last week an F-18 plus its tug slipped overboard while being moved during a hard turn of the boat. The tug operator was injured. And finally yesterday a super-hornet crew ejected with injuries after the arresting cable failed during an attempted trap. I know she’s doing some good work keeping Houthi shipping attacks at bay. But a lot of own-goaling seems to be taking place here. Is this just normal Navy in a complex environment? Or is this a particularly bad run?
I hardly believe that it’s a single factor…
I’d guess high operational tempo without much in the way of rest in a dangerous patch of water?
But yes, it’s a notable run of … “bad luck” shall we say!
Yeah probably coincidence. But still weird.
High operational tempo in a contested environment.
When you’re operating at a high OPTEMPO, especially when you’re at general quarters for days on end, regular maintenance goes out the window, unless things are mission critical and are on the verge of breaking.
Additionally exhaustion set in fast at the best of times on warships, much faster with this kind of thing going on. That leads to things happening, or can be considered contributing factors.
Keeps Boeing in business I guess.
True. I think a Hornet is $50M per piece or so.
My question is where are the other carriers and why aren’t they helping out? I know a couple are always under maintenance or refueling but we’ve got what, 11 of them?
I dunno? I’m not normally superstitious, but sometimes inanimate objects can be ‘bad luck’ that transcends what is statistically likely… and sometimes downright freaky.
There was a Leopard at 1st Armd when I was there that was constantly breaking down, despite the best efforts of the RAEME mechanics and was involved in a spate of accidents that injured the driver. Rumour was that this particular tank was the one that had rolled into a creek a few years previously, trapping the driver who drowned!