Quote:The Navy on Wednesday called for a navigational stand down following a nuclear attack submarine’s collision in the South China Sea last month.

Vice Adm. William Houston, commander of Naval Submarine Forces, said he and the head of submarine forces in the Pacific signed a message today calling for the stand down after Seawolf-class attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-22) hit an unidentified seamount below the surface in the South China Sea.

“Admiral Jablon and I have sent out today a joint message having a navigational stand down. And we will have that and we will go ahead and learn our lessons. The safety investigation board is not complete yet, but we know enough right now,” Houston said at the annual Naval Submarine League conference. Houston was referring to Rear Adm. Jeffrey Jablon, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet’s submarine forces.

“And as soon as this event happened, we shared it with the operational force, such that they knew what happened. And now we know the details and are sharing that. And that goes back to the critique and oversight process that we have,” Houston added.

A spokesperson for Naval Submarine Forces told USNI News the Navy will perform “navigational safety training” across its undersea forces due to the collision.

“The Submarine Force is conducting force-wide navigational safety training as a result of the incident onboard the Seawolf-class fast-attack submarine USS Connecticut (SSN-22),” said Cmdr. Paul Macapagal.

Earlier this month, U.S. 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Karl Thomas relieved Connecticut’s commanding officer, executive officer and chief of the boat “due to loss of confidence” following the collision.

“We have very rigorous navigation safety procedures and they fell short of what our standard was,” Houston said today.

He did not elaborate on the nature of the stand down. Following the fatal 2017 warship collisions, the crews of the Navy’s surface fleet held a series of stand downs to reassert basic watchstanding and navigation tenents.

A safety board investigation into the collision is ongoing and the completed command investigation is at 7th Fleet for review by Thomas.

“We will find our deficiencies and we will correct them,” Houston said.

The boat is currently in Guam for repairs and will eventually head to Bremerton, Wash., for more repairs.

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USS Connecticut Underway off Guam After Undergoing Repairs

Quote:The U.S. attack submarine that struck an underwater seamount last month is underway off the coast of Guam after more than a month of damage assessment repairs, two defense officials confirmed to USNI News on Thursday.

USS Connecticut (SSN-22) left Guam on its own power Thursday evening local time, according to ship spotters tracking the automatic identification signal (AIS) as it left the U.S. naval base on the island. The departure was confirmed to USNI News by two defense officials.

Cmdr. Cindy Fields, a spokesperson with Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, would not confirm the underway when contacted by USNI News on Thursday. She said in a statement the submarine, “has been undergoing damage assessment, repairs and testing while in Guam. The submarine remains in a safe and stable condition.”

It’s unclear if the attack submarine was testing repairs and intended to come into port and begin the voyage to Bremerton, Wash., for its final round of repairs.

Following the Oct. 2 incident, the boat had traveled to Guam for initial repairs overseen by Naval Sea Systems Command, personnel from the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS-39).

The damage to the submarine was localized to the forward portions and may have damaged the ballast tanks, USNI News understands. The Navy has said repeatedly that the nuclear reactor plant and the propulsion system were undamaged.

Connecticut’s underway comes as the submarine force has announced a navigation stand down in what the Navy has determined was a preventable collision, Vice Adm. William Houston, commander of Naval Submarine Forces said on Wednesday.

“We have very rigorous navigation safety procedures and they fell short of what our standard was,” he said.

Earlier this month, U.S. 7th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Karl Thomas relieved Connecticut’s commanding officer, executive officer and chief of the boat “due to loss of confidence” following the collision.

Moving ahead, the service will now have to determine how to squeeze the attack boat into the repair schedules of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, which is already suffering a backlog of maintenance.

“If we ended up doing [the Connecticut work] in one of the public shipyards, that would certainly cause perturbations in all the other work in the shipyards,” Stefany said before the House Armed Services Committee readiness subcommittee in October.

A navigational stand down? Does that mean you don't go anywhere, or just that you don't navigate where you are going? And what about ships at sea?

(11-24-2021 03:59 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  A navigational stand down? Does that mean you don't go anywhere, or just that you don't navigate where you are going? And what about ships at sea?

It would seem the latter would be what they were doing now