Audit: Super Hornet a noise risk for sailors - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

Audit: Super Hornet a noise risk for sailors

Navy officials who helped design and purchase F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in the 1990s failed to initially consider ways to reduce the fighter jet’s deafening noise level, putting today’s flight-deck sailors at risk for hearing damage, according to a Naval Audit Service report.

Even when flight deck crews wear earplugs and cranials, Super Hornets are dangerously loud. Noise levels are near 150 decibels, a sound blast far beyond the hazard level of 84 decibels for civilian jobs, the audit service found.

Navy officials who developed the Boeing-made jet and the similar EA-18G Growler “made no initial attempt to mitigate the flight-line/deck jet noise hazard through design selection,” according to the report. “We also found that there was no mention of noise limitations in the F/A-18E/F and EA-18G acquisition strategy and contract Statement of Work.”

The report was published internally in October. Navy Times obtained it through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Super Hornet program office at Naval Air Systems Command declined a Navy Times request for comment on the report.

The program office, responding to auditors last year, defended the development of the Super Hornet, saying the Navy’s emphasis on hearing protection is new.

NavAir officials told investigators that “the emphasis on reducing current personnel noise exposure did not exist at the time the [Super Hornet’s operational requirements document] was issued, and therefore funding was not allocated to mitigate the flight-line/deck jet noise hazard.”

The officials also noted that “noise was always part of the ship and aircraft environment, and no viable technologies were available at the time the engines were designed.”

The report did not point to documents specifically laying out a decibel level, but it did cite sources saying that Navy officials overseeing the design development should have made an effort to address safety concerns such as noise.

The audit report did not fault Boeing.

Navy health officials and others at NavAir say they have stepped up efforts to reduce hearing damage among sailors, particularly in the aviation community, which includes some of the noisiest jobs in the Navy.

Those efforts include conducting more hearing tests than ever and developing personal-protection gear for those most at risk.

Some sound tough to stop

Trying to minimize noise levels is a long-standing practice, but sometimes it can be exceptionally difficult, said Thomas Hutchison, manager of the Navy’s Hearing Conservation Program at the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center in Portsmouth, Va.

“The first tenet of any hearing conservation program going back to the ’60s is engineering control. If possible and feasible, they want to engineer the noise out, keep the noise from getting to the person,” Hutchison said.

However, this is not always possible for some aircraft or heavy weapon systems, he said.

“With a high-performance aircraft, it’s difficult to get it down to acceptable levels,” Hutchison said.

In one reflection of Navy leadership’s new emphasis on hearing protection, the number of sailors routinely tested for potential hearing loss has more than doubled in the past few years, from about 67,000 sailors tested in 2000 to about 157,000 tested last year, Hutchinson said.

“They want to make it a readiness issue,” he said.

Stepped-up protection

In late 2007, the Navy stepped up efforts to develop new hearing-protection gear for sailors, said Martin Ahmad, aircrew systems program manager at NavAir.

Ahmad’s program in February provided the flight crew on the carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, more than 700 sailors, with a pair of custom-molded earplugs, costing roughly $200 each. These plugs will fit more securely and provide significantly better protection. They will replace the inexpensive foam plugs that sailors have used for years.

NavAir also is working to develop advanced cranials that will be form-fitted to cover a sailor’s head.

When used together, the new equipment could provide up to 50 decibels of protection, Ahmad said.

That could dramatically reduce the risk for noise-induced hearing loss among sailors. But it will not bring the noise levels below the 84-decibel level that is considered hazardous, according to the audit report.

That puts the sailors — and the Navy at large — at risk, said Sean Cronin, a former naval aviation safety officer and a Florida attorney who specializes in military litigation.

“I think they’ve opened themselves up to a lot of VA claims,” Cronin said.

Active-duty sailors are prohibited from suing the military by a 1950 Supreme Court ruling known as the Feres Doctrine. The Navy’s risk for any lawsuits stemming from the Super Hornet’s noise is most likely limited to contractors and civilians exposed to the planes’ noise.

“There is always risk involved when you are violating federal safety laws,” Cronin said. “They are supposed to be protecting our sailors. The first thing that comes to mind would be the long-term hearing loss for a generation of sailors who are performing duties in and around these aircraft.

“It’ll have potential long-term repercussions, financially and physically.”