After three years and $200M in upgrades, why can't the USS Boxer get to sea?

[rangerrebew]

After three years and $200M in upgrades, why can't the USS Boxer get to sea?
By Andrew Dyer / Military and Veteran Affairs Reporter
Contributors: Charlotte Radulovich / Video Journalist
Published July 27, 2023 at 11:12 AM PDT
 
Since entering a San Diego dry dock in June 2020 the amphibious assault ship Boxer has spent just seven days at sea and hasn't left San Diego for 13 months, a Navy spokesperson told KPBS in a statement Wednesday.

The Navy won't say what issues plague the Boxer or how many times over the last year it's tried and failed to get to sea. Cmdr. Arlo Abrahamson, a Naval Surface Force spokesperson in San Diego, said the Boxer's crew has identified "additional maintenance requirements" before getting underway.

"We don’t discuss specific instances of maintenance casualties due to operational security," Abrahamson said. "However, I can note that the Boxer’s preparation for sea trials identified additional maintenance requirements before the ship could get underway."
 
The Boxer, an 844-foot ship that functions as a sort of miniature aircraft carrier, returned from its most recent deployment in November 2019.

https://www.kpbs.org/news/military/2023/07/27/after-three-years-and-200-million-in-upgrades-why-cant-the-uss-boxer-get-to-sea

[rangerrebew]

Because it's an NFG piece of junk?

[PeteS in CA]

This USS Boxer (= not the Essex class CV) is almost 30 years old. Besides wear-and-tear maintenance, she was also being upgraded to carry F-35s rather than just AV-8Bs (upgraded Harriers). Defense News, https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2020/06/01/us-navy-upgrades-more-ships-for-the-f-35-as-the-future-of-carriers-remains-in-flux/ , describes the Boxer's maintenance, modernization, and repair as including, "Hull structure, propulsion, electrical plant, auxiliary systems, and communications and combat systems, as well as alterations to prepare the ship for operations with the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)".

Boxer entered drydock for the above in June 2020, and went to sea for sea trials in June 2022. Since Boxer, apparently, was the 5th Wasp class LHD to be upgraded to handle F-35s, I'm going to guess that the further work done in the past year had to do with something specific to Boxer, possibly with her hull or engineering systems.