The 840-foot amphibious assault ship will be in dry dock until early April
 -  John R. McCutchen
 -  John R. McCutchenShare Photo✉-✉⎙This is a humble moment for a not-so-gentle giant.The 20-story amphibious warship Bonhomme Richard, scarred by the sea and the stress of carrying almost 3,000 people, is up on blocks at General Dynamics NASSCO in San Diego.Long fingers of rust line the inner hull. The ship's 15.5-ton propellers need to be checked for cracks. There's resurfacing to do on the 2.2-acre flight deck. And pipes must be replaced in the boilers, which produce roughly as much energy as is consumed each day in Escondido.Almost every inch of the 840-foot ship will be inspected, fixed or upgraded in a $74 million overhaul that will keep the behemoth in dry dock until April.(View 22 images of the ship in our photo gallery.)The overhaul represents a strain for the Navy, which needs every ship it owns. But the Bonhomme Richard also symbolizes a sharp rise in business for the local ship-repair industry and is a reminder of San Diego's growing importance in keeping the fleet operating.The Navy's Southwest Regional Maintenance Center, which oversees all 61 of the fleet's vessels in San Diego, says the amount it spent to repair and upgrade warships rose from $539 million in fiscal 2007 to $775 million in 2010.The figure is projected to go higher in 2011, as the Navy and private contractors hustle to repair everything from destroyers, which can fire long-range cruise missiles, to "gators" like the Bonhomme Richard, which can put Marines ashore. The Navy has already announced that another amphibious warship, the Essex, will replace the Bonhomme Richard in dry dock next April.The boom is being spurred by political and military factors that could create and preserve jobs locally for years.The Navy decided to extend the life span of many of its ships from 30 to 40 years, largely because tight budgets make it unlikely that the military will get all the money it needs to increase the size of the fleet from the current 286 vessels to the desired 313.Many cruisers and destroyers also are being upgraded so they're capable of shooting down the sort of land-based missiles found in North Korea. And the Pentagon continues to shift ships from the East Coast to the West Coast so it can respond to immediate and perceived threats in the Pacific and Indian oceans."The center of gravity of the naval fleet has been moving to the Pacific, and funding has been shifting as well," said Joe Carnevale, an adviser at the Shipbuilding Council of America in Washington, D.C. The number of ships stationed in San Diego is expected to hit 75 by 2014, and it could rise much higher if the Navy proceeds with plans to build an additional 20 littoral combat ships.Share Photo✉The maintenance center at the San Diego Naval Base performs some of the repairs. On a recent morning, workers were busy with a range of tasks, ranging from refurbishing 25 mm machine guns to putting fresh food in lifeboats and creating safety nets that can withstand the heat emitted by Osprey aircraft. To keep up with demands, the center's work force is expected to rise from about 1,429 today to 2,032 in 2013.But the maintenance center will continue to farm out most of the work to San Diego's sprawling private ship-repair industry, which employs about 7,500 people. And those companies will team up  -  as they have for years  -  to jointly repair major warships. The Navy, for all of its firepower, doesn't have a dry dock large enough to handle the 40,000-ton Bonhomme Richard in San Diego. It must rely on the private sector.At the moment, there's an industrial ballet going on at the NASSCO yard south of the Coronado Bridge. It involves the roughly 1,200 people who work on the Bonhomme Richard each day. They must dart about, painting steel, ripping out berthing and toting refrigerators, while keeping out of the way of forklift drivers and crane operators. Ear plugs are required."It's a dance, no doubt," said Joe Pritchard, director of repair production at NASSCO.Workers have been removing 98-foot long sections of the Bonhomme Richard's twin propulsion shafts so that they can be inspected and serviced.  -  John R. McCutchen+Read Caption
Workers have been removing 98-foot long sections of the Bonhomme Richard's twin propulsion shafts so that they can be inspected and serviced.  -  John R. McCutchenShare Photo✉NASSCO, which builds and repairs big ships, is the main private contractor on this job. But it has teamed up with companies that have special expertise. Its partners include BAE Systems San Diego Ship Repair, which is known for its work on steam turbines; Continental Maritime, which does lots of boiler work; and Pacific Ship and Repair Fabrication, which is noted for its work on elevators and hydraulics.Pulling all of this together took a year, and the job involves round-the-clock help from the Bonhomme Richard's crew, many of whom have been through this sort of thing before."It's like taking a small town and overhauling the hospital, the airport, the schools and office buildings," said Lt. Steve Shelter, a maintenance officer on the Bonhomme Richard.It's also one of those projects in which timing is everything.Workers are given four hours to begin painting exterior areas that have been sandblasted. Even in dry dock, salt air can quickly cause corrosion.The open ocean is an even-bigger enemy."We're a big piece of metal in the water; that's not an ideal situation," said Capt. Jonathan L. Harnden Jr., the Bonhomme Richard's commander.Workers are cutting about 90 holes into the hull of the Bonhomme Richard so that sandblasters and painters can access hard-to-reach areas. The sound from airblasting is about as loud as that produced by a commercial jet.  -  Gerald McClard+Read Caption
Workers are cutting about 90 holes into the hull of the Bonhomme Richard so that sandblasters and painters can access hard-to-reach areas. The sound from airblasting is about as loud as that produced by a commercial jet.  -  Gerald McClardShare Photo✉The Navy spends more than $3 billion a year to deal with corrosion. In the past year alone, the maintenance center repaired corrosion on 80,000 objects from local warships, ranging from ladders to machine guns.Over the years, scientists have improved ship paints and antifouling materials. But there's no single solution, as researchers noted at "Mega Rust 2010," an anti-corrision conference held over the summer in San Diego.NASSCO and its partners will apply 200,000 gallons of paint to 1 million square feet of surface by the time work is finished on the Bonhomme Richard.The ship usually doesn't get that much paint. The Navy is making the most of the comparatively rare occasions when a large vessel is put into dry dock."Bonnie" goes up on blocksShips like the Bonhomme Richard, which was commissioned in 1998, tend to undergo significant pierside repairs and upgrades every two to three years. But the chance to enter dry dock, where the entire exterior of the ship is accessible, comes only about once every five years.The Bonhomme Richard's exterior will soon look like Swiss cheese. Workers have begun cutting 90 holes in the ship's steel hull so they can access hard-to-reach areas to sandblast and paint."We're also looking for 'Oh my Gods'  -  problems we didn't know about that need fixing," said Steve Severs, program manager for the larger amphibious ships NASSCO handles.Harnden, the Bonhomme Richard's commander, says there doesn't appear to be any significant structural problems with the ship. But the work is still tricky and difficult. Workers had to install an elaborate rigging system so they could remove 98,000-pound sections of the ship's two propulsion shafts. The propellers also have to be taken off and inspected for cracks. Damaged props can make a ship noisier in the water and costlier to operate."Half of everything we fix has to be taken off the ship," Severs said.And a lot of new stuff is getting added, including 20,000 feet of pipe, 15,000 feet of wiring and 20 tons of steel. Workers keep track of all the heavy material that's added and where it's located, to figure out whether the ship could dangerously list to one side when it's sent back into the bay.The Bonhomme Richard is going to need additional work, from minor repairs to the installation of new equipment, even after it leaves NASSCO and returns to its pier.The time in dry dock is well-spent, Harnden said."This is kind of like your car. Certain things have to get repaired as you go along. If you don't do it, it'll cost a lot more later."Share Photo✉PODCAST: Listen to our discussion with Chief Joe Kane, who explains the role of the Bonhomme Richard and how the ship is being repaired and upgraded.Read the Union-Tribune Defense blogGary Robbins✉More from Gary RobbinsUCSD graduate is doing spacewalk at this hourSatellite captures fury of Cajon Pass fireSDSU developing software to improve wildfire evacuations