Bonhomme Richard fire

[CAVU]

... If they burn her to the waterline in the process, well, that sucks, but the contractor and their insurers are now on the hook to pay DoD to build a replacement.

All we have to lose is liability we could be offloading and a crew and officer corps wasting their time and promotion prospects fucking around dealing with yardbirds instead of studying how to fight wars. And yet we're still not doing this because . . . ¯\_(ツ)_/¯??

The insurance premiums would be a pass through to DoD, so DoD pays for it, plus a fee. Nothing is free. Too expensive so the government self insures and establishes/invokes standards and inspections. However, the government can still go after the contractor if gross negligence is involved.

The only time I have seen a contractor buy insurance is when they borrow an aircraft from DoD for demonstrations etc. VERY steep premium for each flight. In the late 90's it was $30-50k for 30'.

 

[Spekkio]

The insurance premiums would be a pass through to DoD, so DoD pays for it, plus a fee. Nothing is free. Too expensive so the government self insures and establishes/invokes standards and inspections. However, the government can still go after the contractor if gross negligence is involved.

I'm pretty sure someone has done the cost analysis on reduced sailors and shifting full responsibility to the yards vs current status quo.

Also, there are multiple players in this game along with contracts. The Navy and even Congress can't just unilaterally change business rules on the fly.

 

[zippy]

It's worth noting that the concept some have brought up, I.E. greater contractor responsibility, would be enormously expensive... and this is all to address what is essentially an extreme outlier event, a la BHR.

But BHR isn’t an extreme outlier event… The Navy lost MIAMI a similar way less than 10 years prior.

 

[Brett327]

But BHR isn’t an extreme outlier event… The Navy lost MIAMI a similar way less than 10 years prior.

Of all the hundreds of avails in the past few decades, two catastrophes... still outliers.

 

[CAVU]

I'm pretty sure someone has done the cost analysis on reduced sailors and shifting full responsibility to the yards vs current status quo.

Also, there are multiple players in this game along with contracts. The Navy and even Congress can't just unilaterally change business rules on the fly.

I was in the military and contractor aviation acquisition business for 20+ years and will admit to not knowing about the ship yards but I suspect who pays for damages is managed in a similar fashion as aviation.

Big difference between responsibility and who pays for damages. With aircraft manufacturing, mods, reman. etc at contractors facilities, DoD has DCMA teams/commands on site with many responsibilities but one that is germane to this discussion is a trained GFR who monitors compliance with the contract's GFRC (ground flight risk clause). The GFRC details out specifically what the contractors responsibilities are. They must comply to have the aircraft they are building for DoD covered for damage by DoD. With fixed wing aircraft, when an engine or wing is installed on the fuselage, DoD is now covering the aircraft for damage, aka "Covered"

Why does this make good fiscal sense? DoD gets nothing for free. DoD pays for whatever insurance the contractor needs to carry to operate. Its paid through allowable overhead costs. I can not fathom the bill if they had to cover all the way to DD-250 (think of taking title). The contracts are written in such a way that there is an accounting for what DoD is paying for damages caused to aircraft that are "covered". During my 18 months as a GFR, I kept track of the damages and what DoD paid. Manufacturing F/A-18 C/D USMC, Swiss and Malaysia and E/F, F-15 for USAF, Saudi and Israel, T45 and AV-8B reman. $2,200. That was it. My house and car insurance is more than that per year. Can they be held liable AND pay for it. Yes, but it has to be gross negligence and it will be years before it gets resolved.

...and this is the short version. Here is the long version. https://www.dcma.mil/News/Article-View/Article/2100501/a-history-of-defense-contract-administration/

Now I am very curious as to how the ship yards handle it. Hmmmm?

Cheers!