Painter destroyed nuclear submarines of the US Navy

In the United States decided to abandon the recovery multipurpose nuclear submarine "Miami." The ship burned after working in the dock painter decided to go home early and made arson. The fire destroyed the command post, the torpedo compartment, damaged missile launchers, and pipelines after the fire were to be replaced due to a number of microcracks appearing in them. The cost of repairs to the $ 450 million considered unaffordable due to the reduction in military spending.

"Miami" took in the US Navy June 30, 1990, and its construction began in 1983. Nuclear submarine of the "Los Angeles" refers to a multi-purpose submarines, which carry strategic nuclear missiles, and are intended for torpedoing enemy ships and thus are able to launch a missile at surface and ground targets. Twelve silos allow the submarines of this class (note that we are talking about submarines built after 1982) use the missiles "Harpoon" and "Tomahawk". And some versions of "Tomahawk" (eg, BGM-109A, in 1994 written off under the terms of the START-1) has a nuclear warhead and have a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, "Miami" could fight is not only marine and coastal objectives.

In 2012 the submarine once again embarked on a long period of maintenance. It was conducted at the docks of Portsmouth, and there were no signs woes. Except for one : brigade, made up of civilians, Casey worked as a Fury, 24-year-old worker with not the best characteristics for such work, how to repair a nuclear submarine. At Fury was depressed, he broke up with his girlfriend and took antidepressants, according to lawyers, periodically experienced panic attacks. First, when his condition worsened, Fury took time off, but just in time for work on the "Miami" time off ended. May 23 Fury entrusted cleaned of old paint using sandblasting torpedo room setting.

In order not to mess around in the torpedo room all day, Fury did not come up with anything better than to arrange arson. He decided that the smoke will cause the collapse all activity on board, the workers let go from house to house, and the fire quickly eliminate: the latter assumption proved fatal to the "Miami" a mistake. Fire not only extinguished, but the submarine began to spread, so more than a hundred firefighters to extinguish it took 12 hours. One of the firefighters failed to smoky deck in the open hatch and broke his ribs, another six received other injuries.

The Commission examined "Miami" after the fire, found burned to the ground command post and the torpedo room and flooded the lower deck through which the pipes leading to the reactor. Leakage of radioactive material has occurred, as the fireproof bulkhead in front of the reactor compartment did their job, but most of the management systems to ensure the combat capability of the submarine, were lost forever. Examination of the wreckage caused initially assumed that the fire started due to an outbreak within one used in the repair of vacuum cleaners, so that Fury has for some time worked on the docks.

And not just any job. In June, he again decided to go to work the old, proven, and gave way to the next fire, only now in the dock outside the submarine. At this time, whether Fury calculations were accurate, whether the source of fire will have noticed - but the fire quickly extinguished, and everyone is really limited to excessive smoke. After this incident, workers were arrested, interrogated (including the use of polygraph), and that effectively ended the investigation of fire. A simple comparison of the lists of workers who were at the docks during both fires, sharply narrowed the list of suspects; Fury at the first interrogation, denied guilt in a fire on a submarine, but on the second he confessed to the two arsons.

Fury was sentenced to 17 years in prison and obviously very heavy fine of 400 million dollars. Submarine began to put in order, and experts have begun a careful study of damaged equipment.

The findings were disappointing. The fire not only destroyed the electronic devices and everything that was made of combustible materials, - even damaged metal pipes. Heat changed the structure of the metal, it appeared microcracks strength fell below a safe level, and to save the situation could only complete replacement of many kilometers of communication. Estimated repair work rose to $ 450 million (however, according to preliminary estimates the damage was pessimistic and even more) that made the command of wonder and let it needed a well-deserved, but still not the newest submarine? Repair of the most optimistic estimates would take several years and was completed by May 2015 - and by the time the age of the ship closer to the age of thirty. Even the use of units taken from the parsed Now "Memphis" (nuclear submarine of the same type, charged in April 2011), could dramatically affect the price of repairs, and as a result of the restoration of the burnt submarine was abandoned.

lenta.ru/articles/2013/08/12/miami/



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