The Navy will not say how long the USS Port Royal will be out of commission, but it will need at least $40 million in repairs.

This is after the Navy already spent $18 million for a routine repair, maintenance and an underwater hull paint job on the guided-missile cruiser.

The Port Royal was completing its first day of sea trials after the repairs when it ran aground a reef near the airport 90 minutes after sunset on Feb. 5.

The Navy said yesterday that preliminary costs to repair the warship again range from $25 million to $40 million.

But the final bill could be much higher depending on public and private shipyard labor and other material costs.

The Navy also faces other problems caused by the grounding of the warship:

» The past week's bad weather hampered state and Navy divers in completing their assessment of the reef conditions in the grounding area, forcing continuation of the state's investigation. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources has already said it would file a claim against the Navy for the cleanup and remediation.

» The state Health Department hopes to decide by next week whether to fine the Navy because the Port Royal dumped 7,000 gallons of waste water while it was aground to prevent it from backing up and endangering the crew.

» The Navy also has not said what will happen to Capt. John Carroll, the Port Royal's skipper, or any of the sailors who were on the bridge when the ship ran aground while it was offloading sailors, contractors and shipyard workers.

The 567-foot warship has been in a Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard dry dock since Feb. 18 where it was taken after it was refloated on Feb. 9.

The Navy acknowledged that the warship's hull, propeller blades, sonar dome and instruments on the ship's underside were damaged.

  Port Royal Damages Costing Millions

 

The Navy says that just to repair the cruiser alone could cost up to 40-million dollars.

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The preliminary cost estimate includes repairing or replacing the ship's sonar dome and transducers, refurbishment of the two propulsion shafts and repainting of the underwater hull.

However, despite an internal Navy assessment the Pacific Fleet's news release said yesterday that hatches to the Port Royal's vertical launch cells, where its anti-ballistic missiles are stored, and other weapons systems; the AEGIS radar system; ballistic missile defense capability; surface-search radar; anchors; antennae; and gas-turbine engines were not damaged.

That confidential Navy report, obtained and released by the Navy Times on Monday, said:

» Instruments on the ship's underside, including its devices for measuring speed and water depth, were damaged when they struck the bottom.

» The hatches of the forward and aft vertical launch cells were damaged as the ship's hull rolled and flexed with the waves.

» The antennae and other equipment on the ship's mast endured “;severe shock”; as the ship rolled on its reef. The shocks also affected the alignment of the Port Royal's Aegis radar arrays and other sensitive gear, costing the ship the use of its Aegis sensors as well as its ballistic-missile defense capability.