Boatnerd News – October 2

October 2, 2021

Montreal’s Ocean Group expands operations in Vancouver area

Montreal, QC – Ocean Group has announced the acquisition of Samson Tugboats Inc., a Vancouver-based company specializing in harbor towing in the Vancouver area since 2011.

In March 2020, Ocean Group announced that it had been awarded several major contracts in British Columbia, including one for harbor towing services in the Port of Vancouver, with three state-of-the-art tugs. After more than a year of operations, the company now has four tugs on site to serve its clients. With the acquisition of Samson Tugboats and its two tugs, Ocean Group will now have six harbor tugs in the region, additionally being able to count on the business relationships previously established by the management of Samson Tugboats.

“We share Canadian values of respect and integrity with Samson Tugboats and we intend to focus on the continuity of our activities, in a sustainable development perspective. The two harbor tugs will become part of Ocean Group’s fleet and will meet the needs of our clientele in the Vancouver area. This acquisition is in line with our desire to have high quality standards for our clients,” said Jacques Tanguay, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ocean Group.

Ocean Group

U.S. Navy is both decommissioning and building more of this failed ship

You may be confused by this headline but so are we. USS Freedom (LCS 1), the Great Lakes-built lead ship of the Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship, recognized little more than a decade of naval service during a decommissioning ceremony at Naval Base San Diego this week. It was “envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant” but most naval experts agree the program was an expensive failure.

Depite the monumental failure of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) platform – which naval experts have called “A Beautiful Disaster” – the US Navy is constructing 10 more LCS ships right now and have an additional one of the failed platform on order.

Because of the many failures in the program, USS Freedom has served mostly as a test and training ship. According to the US Navy the decommissioning of LCS 1 “supports department-wide business process reform initiatives to free up time, resources, and manpower in support of increased lethality” but most experts cite the true problems as huge cost overruns, mechanical problems, and changing geopolitical trends made this relatively new ship obsolete.

“I just wanted to point out the fact that, you know, we’ve had class after class after class of ship procurement and construction that has essentially failed. And it’s failed us in providing national defense, presence, deterrence overseas,” Congresswoman Luria said during a Congressional hearing in February 2020. “And it’s failed the sailors who are working on those ships. They’re the ones who are doing the right thing, but we’re giving them platforms that can’t do the job, that are not fully developed, that are not mature in design before we start building them.”

Of the four original Feedom Class LCS ships the USS Independence has never deployed and served as a test platform, Freedom recently deployed to U.S. Southern Command. Fort Worth and Coronado have each deployed once, but both experienced technical issues that forced expensive repairs during their deployments. In May, Admiral Gilday, Chief Of Naval Operations, said it would cost approximately $2.5 billion to upgrade the first four hulls of the Freedom Class LCS to prepare them for combat. So instead, he is decommissioning them.

What is most shocking about this story is not the utter failure of the LCS platform, nor it’s immense costs. Most shocking is the fact the Navy is still building more. In 2019 the U.S. Navy announced it awarded contracts for another three Littoral Combat Ships, bringing the total number of vessels ordered so far to over 30. Austal received two of the awards while Lockheed Martin received the third.

Two LCS ships were commissioned this year, USS Oakland in April 2021 and the USS Mobile in May 2021. The USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul, built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine, Marinette, WI, was also scheduled to be commissioned this year but a problem with the propulsion system was discovered. The Navy did not provide a timeline for when she is expected to be commissioned or go into service. The USS Marinette, also built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine, was launched in 2020 but still has not been commissioned.

According to the US Naval Register of ships, the following 10 LCS ships are still under construction:

LCS LCS 21 MINNEAPOLIS-SAINT PAUL
LCS LCS 23 COOPERSTOWN
LCS LCS 25 MARINETTE
LCS LCS 27 NANTUCKET
LCS LCS 29 BELOIT
LCS LCS 30 CANBERRA
LCS LCS 31 CLEVELAND
LCS LCS 32 SANTA BARBARA
LCS LCS 34 AUGUSTA
LCS LCS 36 KINGSVILLE

In addition, the USS Navy has one more LCS on order that has been authorized but is not yet under construction, the LCS Pierre.