Navy drops plans to repair USS Miami sub

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Navy drops plans to repair USS Miami sub

AP foreign, Wednesday August 7 2013

DAVID SHARP

Associated Press= PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - The Navy has decided to scrap the submarine USS Miami because of the high cost of repairs after a fire that damaged the vessel at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard last year.

Navy Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge, director of undersea warfare, said Tuesday that repairing the Groton, Conn.-based sub would have meant canceling work on dozens of other ships because of new budget restraints. He says that would've hurt the Navy's overall readiness.

The Navy originally said it planned to repair the submarine but the discovery of new damage would further drive up the cost of repairs, originally estimated at about $450 million.

A shipyard worker was sentenced to 17 years in prison after admitting he set fire to the Miami in dry dock at the Kittery shipyard during a 20-month overhaul.

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Navy to scrap submarine Miami
http://www.militarytimes.com/article/20130806/NEWS/308060041/Navy-scrap-submarine-Miami

Repairs too costly under sequestration
Aug. 6, 2013 - 06:00AM

By Christopher P. Cavas, Staff writer

WASHINGTON — In a move that will sadden and anger many submariners, the Navy has concluded the cost to repair the nuclear attack submarine Miami, severely damaged last year by an arsonist, is more than it can afford in an era where repair and maintenance funds are being slashed by mandated budget cuts.

“The decision to inactivate Miami is a difficult one, taken after hard analysis and not made lightly,” Rear Adm. Rick Breckenridge, the Navy’s director of undersea warfare at the Pentagon, said in a statement released Tuesday {Monday?} evening.
....

The Miami was devastated by a fire that broke out late in the work day on May 23, 2012, while the submarine was in drydock at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. Casey James Fury, 24, a civilian painter and sand blaster at the shipyard, was arrested after a three-week investigation and charged with arson. On Nov. 8 he pleaded guilty to the May 23 fire, and to a smaller fire set outside the submarine on June 16. He was sentenced on March 14 to more than 17 years in federal prison.

He set the May 23 fire, he told authorities, because he was having an anxiety attack, wanted to leave work and had already used up his sick leave.