Bet you $100 it's mostly women flushing feminine hygiene products down the loo . . . . it's the military, they can video anywhere/anytime they want. Install video cams in the toliets to capture the user and what is being flushed and I guarantee they will catch the offenders and punish them severely.
The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
51–60 of 98 posts
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly. The real question is - why do the chemicals cost $400,000? This seems to be a recurring theme with U.S. expenditure - particularly within the defense sector. When you get nearly blank checks from the government it’s not uncommon for items to be “marked up” so to speak and the difference pocketed by the vendors. Granted, this kind of stuff is pervasive across all sectors/layers. “[A] McKinsey “business analys…
The amount of red tape involved in working with the government- especially anything related to defense- is astounding. I previously worked with a start up whose contacts in the military genuinely wanted to buy our services, but the process to do so was so long that the company ended up pivoting to focus exclusively on the commercial market. It was a less ideal fit, but it actually paid. Take: One part slow bureaucrac…
I worked for a government contractor for a little over two weeks once. (I gave my 2 weeks notice almost right away.) It’s hard to express how wasteful and broken this process is. When I realized that I wouldn’t actually be doing anything useful for the first two months of my job, I just quit. No way could I do that kind of “work” day in and day out.
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#53Still sounds harmless compared to the toilet problem of U-1206: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pfr0nsh0Ghc
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#54Given the size and complexity of such a device, and the limited number of them that are constructed (which means they are always a one-off), it would be a miracle on the order of Moses parting the Red Sea for one of them to be built __without__ such mistakes happening.
In you are a developer, think of the number of times you have seen a successful SAP deployment i.e. on time, on budget, meets specs. Then multiply that by about 10k to reach the complexity of an aircraft carrier.
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#55“system must regularly be cleaned with ... acid solution that costs $400,000 per use.” I realise the government/military procurement process can result in higher costs than the private sector would pay, but that is beyond ridiculous.
I think it's less insane when instead of perceiving it as flushing a building's plumming, you're flushing a town of 6000's plumming.
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#56It's interesting that there's so much focus on the toilet problem, and not the other $139 billion in unexpected maintenance costs
I know right. A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money.
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#57What problem is solved by using aircraft-style toilets on Navy ships?
Well, the old way to do it is to use sea water flushing which leads to its own problems over the life of the ship with pipes corroding. New(ish) environmental regulations dictate that you can't just flush everything overboard anymore, it needs to be processed through a sewage plant. Despite probably being able to ignore most environmental laws, the Navy normally at least tries to abide by the current laws to be a goo…
When I was on ship, when it was trash day you'd watch them take every trash bag, slit it open, and toss it into the sea.
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#58What problem is solved by using aircraft-style toilets on Navy ships?
There’s a substantial number of big passenger ships cruising the seas. One would think this was a solved problem.
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why in the world would you stock it and use up valuable space, and fuel on carrying it around the world? Also, it surely cannot be a good idea to keep massive amounts of acid around for non essential purposes.
How is it non-essential if that's the only way to get the toilets going?
Its non essential if you can get it shipped there easily in a resupply
Re: The U.S.'s $13B aircraft carrier has a toilet problem
#60“system must regularly be cleaned with ... acid solution that costs $400,000 per use.” I realise the government/military procurement process can result in higher costs than the private sector would pay, but that is beyond ridiculous.
My guess would be that this figure also includes costs for downtime and the like, but that's just a guess. Would be interested to see a more detailed breakdown of the $400k.
How would you measure the cost of downtime for a toilet system? Number of people in the infirmary with constipation?