Navy crash and blow boaters

[krush]

16 hours of fuel gushing out?

Do they not have any type of operation people monitoring the transfer process? If this happened private sector, people may be in jail.

[Tinman]

Not looking good for the Bridge crew. Also read that there is a combat crew below the bridge deck that have radar and etc. Two crews supposed to be watching their area.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-...cid=spartandhp

[krush]

Hydrofoils? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQ2sSRBMPqs

[Tinman]

Krush, you could probably buy that toy for penny's on the dollar.

[luckydave215]

I suspect the officers involved have a nice career ahead of them counting mess kits in Alaska.

[spartonboat1]

How about the Navy's new 13 billion dollar carrier USS FORD that was slightly over budget. Have to wonder how many sailors will be working that bridge?

Sorry, way off the original thread, per the post above.

Re: the Ford and budget, she is the most advanced ship of her class ever, with extensive modern electronics, esp. the Catapult. E.g, the Catapult is an electromagnet rail gun, instead of steam. She is supposed to be able to re-charge for launches, twice as fast as the steam catapults. Also, automation will allow her crew to be much smaller that the previous Nimitz Class.

She is going to have a 5 year shake down cruise. Is that a lot for an operational system of this complexity? Probably not. I watched the commissioning ceremony and Change of Command. I did notice that the commanding officer for the Shake Down period is a rank of "Captain". I guess I thought that he (her?) would be a Rear Admiral (Lower Half), i.e. a one-star. Equivalent to an Army/USMC/USAF Brigadier General. USAF Brigadiers command a Wing, so I thought the Ford would be a Wing equivalent.

Oddly enough, the old USCG Cutter Mackinaw, WWII vintage, used all electrical power to run most all systems, via electrical power generated by 6 Diesels. The props were all driven by electric motors, including a bow propeller. I do believe the Ford does have steam turbines however.

Since I have over 25 years in developing very large scale computer systems, including 6 years for the DoD, some weapons, some not, I am not overly impressed that the Ford is a "...technical marvel...", per the CNO (Chief of Naval Operations); I do have one award from the CNO for an early global system for which I lead development. Such large computer driven operations require Operating Systems and extensive systems integration. This is not for the faint of heart and can be done badly, depending on technical choices initially and over time. The cost to alleviate issues could easily run into the billions (dollars).

E.g., the new USCG Mackinaw is run with the Windows OS, which is fine for a PC, but for a ship, not my choice. The US Navy did run a ship with Windows and, you guessed it, the OS "Blue Screened", and the entire ship went down; granted this was several years ago.

Then there is the specter of EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse), which is generated by an atomic bomb, esp. the modern Fusion bombs. They can knock out electronic systems from a distance of over 50 miles, without any physical damage to the affected system. You see a bright light, minutes later a loud boom, but in a second all your systems had gone down permanently (the EMP knocks them out). I have read no references to what extend the Ford has been "hardened" against EMP, as this is a significant risk area.

So I am thoroughly impressed by the Ford, but in a wartime situation, only time and testing will tell.

[spartonboat1]

Quick remarks on the collision, from tidbits on the net, plus from Navy friends.

Since the Fitz was a stdb hit, the "Crystal" (ship) was the Stand On Vessel, and the Fitz the Give Way. From what I know of Rules of the Road. Plus, I have been very nearly hit twice (43' Hatt), although I was the clear Stand On. But I got out of the way!

The Commanding Officer (a Lt. Commander I believe), had only been on board for 30 days; maybe he did not leave good instructions. My understanding is that if any vessel comes within 4,000 yards, the Skipper is to be notified immediately, but this did not happen.

Others have noted the crew compliment. But I understanding there should have bow and stern watches, at least three on Bridge, including the XO, plus the helmsman, then at least one on radar in CIC. Someone should have responded, in a major way. Both by directing evasive actions and communicating.

The severity of the collision and numbers of dead was exacerbated, due to the bulbous bow, below the waterline of the ship, which created far more damage to the Fitz, below the waterline, than is evident in pictures. The Captains cabin was damaged as well. No doubt that awoke him!

[krush]

Sorry, way off the original thread, per the post above.

Re: the Ford and budget, she is the most advanced ship of her class ever, with extensive modern electronics, esp. the Catapult. E.g, the Catapult is an electromagnet rail gun, instead of steam. She is supposed to be able to re-charge for launches, twice as fast as the steam catapults. Also, automation will allow her crew to be much smaller that the previous Nimitz Class.

So I am thoroughly impressed by the Ford, but in a wartime situation, only time and testing will tell.

Just read this: http://warisboring.com/how-not-to-bu...craft-carrier/

It's kind of long, but the new carrier doesn't work. One example of failure that just proves to me that the Navy, the contractors, and our society in general has become totally incompetent is this: to repair one of the fancy dancy electric catapults, ALL 4 must be removed from service. Good job on redundancy, geniuses. How does this foolishness even get out of brain-storm phase?

Perhaps even more serious is that the design makes it impossible for the crew to repair a catapult while the ship is launching planes with other catapults. This is done as a matter of routine on current carriers as each catapult operates independently of the other. When one of the steam catapults fails, the crew can make the necessary repairs while the adjacent catapults continue launching planes.

Like earlier carriers, Ford has four launch catapults so that — theoretically — should one fail, the ship could continue operations using the remaining three. But the Navy found there is no way to electrically isolate each EMALS catapult from the others during flight operations, raising questions about the system’s operational suitability.

The massive electrical charge needed to power the catapults is stored in three Energy Storage Groups, each using four heavy flywheel-generators. The three groups together power all four catapults and cannot be electrically disconnected from a single failed catapult to allow repairs while the other three catapults launch planes.

This means that repairing the failed catapult must wait until all flight operations have been completed, or, in the event that multiple launchers fail, all flights may have to be suspended to allow repairs. Thus there is the possibility that the ship might not be able to launch any planes at a critical moment because the EMALS designers failed to provide independent power for each of the four catapults.

http://warisboring.com/how-not-to-bu...craft-carrier/

[Tinman]

So I am thoroughly impressed by the Ford, but in a wartime situation, only time and testing will tell.

A lot of resources to put on one hull and hard to forecast what weapons will be around by the time the Navy gets that massive air base up to speed. The Navy plays an important role in our defense system but look very vulnerable in a real war with modern weapons. Scary to think a ship that size being fully dependent on computer systems. My neighbor took a lightning strike coming through the Keys, all shut down, the only thing working was their cell phones...not thinking that would happen on the Ford, but as you said surely vulnerable to EMP or something yet to be invented. Only somebody with your experience would know what the network engineer is up against. You can make anything appear to work if you throw enough money at it. One thing for sure...you get crashed by the Ford...nothing left but an oil slick!

[Scarlett]

By the time a Captain gets command of a carrier he has an ton of experience including war ships and a so called deep draft command, like a big amphibious ship. Sometimes junior Admirals got there with Moreland based glitter commands. So I would take a seasoned experienced Captain any day. John