Wired for Disaster: Cableway Improvement Program (The National Shipbuilding Research Program)

Throughout a Ships lifecycle, as systems are installed, modified, or removed, breaches of the technical requirement for proper installation of electrical and electronic cables occur. The majority of these deviations are a result of insufficient attention to cable installation requirements during ship design or production caused by shortcuts to reduce costs or meet schedules, and overall poor workmanship. In January l9S4 on the USS TATTNALL DDG-l9 a fire originating in a locked compartment spread through electrical cableways. Before being contained, this fire caused loss of life, extensive damage to critical system and prevented the ship from completing her assigned mission. An investigation revealed that the fire started as a result Of cableway discrepancies. Further Surveys performed on various ships revealed findings which included The cableway discrepancies found on the USS TATTNALL DDG-l9 were not isolated, but common to the fleet in great numbers. Fifteen to Twenty percent of all dead-ended cables were found to be still electrically energized. To develop a systematic and trackable method of removing cableway discrepancies and reduce the risk of fire a program was developed to assist in correcting cableway discrepencies on all navy vessels. The program since displayed great success evidenced by Navy wide attention and expansion of the program to include aircraft carriers.