MCPON’s July 4 message: Hiiii-YAH!
June 30th, 2009 | Liberty Personnel The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
"If you're gonna compare a Hanzo sword... you compare it to every other sword ever made... that wasn't made by Hattori Hanzo." // MC1 Jennifer Villalovos/Navy
Strike that — it’s actually “Hooyah.” In his message to the fleet for the Independence Day holiday, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy (SS/SW) Rick West encouraged sailors to “take every possible precaution (including watching out for others) whether you’re driving, riding a motorcycle, on the water or staying at home with fireworks and barbecue.”
Naturally, no one needs a reminder about safe sword use.
Not to be flexed with
June 30th, 2009 | Ballistic missile defense Ships The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
Naval Surface Force Atlantic
Very few things have brightened up our otherwise dreary Center of Excellence as much as when we received this copy of the DDG class squadron emblem. Reaching sublime heights of awesomeness, the logo depicts an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer and its Aegis system, which, as every student of naval technology knows, is a giant, fire-breathing sea monster.
Bred by Lockheed Martin in lake-sized radioactive vats and capable of tracking and engaging multiple targets — such as the coastal patrol ship and Kilo-class submarine in its paws, and the incoming fighter jet being incinerated by its flame-breath — Aegis is the main defensive system for U.S. carrier strike groups. It stands beneath the motto “Virtus,” Latin for “virtue, manliness; strength in the face of adversity.”
How does your unit emblem stack up against the angry green guy? Got a logo you think is even cooler? Let us know in the comments or send it along.
A 95,000-ton hole in their hearts
June 30th, 2009 | Aviation Carriers | Posted by Phil Ewing
Residents of Everett, Wash., homeport of the carrier Abraham Lincoln, say they'll miss the ship while it's gone for about three years for a refueling and overhaul // MC2 James Evans/Navy
A Navy warship, especially an aircraft carrier, can mean so much more to its home port than jobs or dollar signs in politicians’ eyes — although those mean quite a lot, too. You can see as much in this story out of Everett, Wash., where locals profess they’re really going to miss the big lug Abraham Lincoln when it’s gone for about three years starting in 2013, doing its Refueling and Complex Overhaul in Hampton Roads, Va.
The Lincoln also is as much a part of this community’s identity as the Everett Silvertips. In fact, the Silvertips’ mascot is a bear named for the Lincoln. He boasts a “72,” the ship’s hull number, on his hockey jersey.
Lincoln the bear isn’t going anywhere, said Jon Rosen, the Silvertips’ director of broadcasting and public relations.
“It would be hard to imagine Everett without Lincoln,” he said — either the ship or the bear.
All together now: Awwww!
While Abe is gone, the carriers Nimitz, of San Diego, and John C. Stennis, of Bremerton, Wash., will take turns calling at Everett.
The problems pile on
June 30th, 2009 | Foreign navies Royal Navy Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
No need to keep dwelling on it, but the Royal Navy just cannot catch a break. Reports in the British press today say that the U.K.’s two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers will cost £1 billion more than planned, an additional expense that could force some unpleasant decisions on the Ministry of Defence.
British defence officials (as opposed to our “defense” officials here in the U.S.) may have to cut the Royal Navy’s new ballistic missile submarine program or even one of the two carriers, according to the Financial Times.
South Carolina to the rescue
June 30th, 2009 | Historical Ships Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
South Carolina has agreed to extend a $9.3 million loan to the Patriots Point naval museum to help repair the destroyer Laffey // Patriots Point
It was only a matter of time before the sensational, white-hot controversy nearing a flash point in South Carolina rose to our attention here at Scoop Deck — yes, the state government has agreed to extend a $9.3 million loan to help repair a World War II destroyer in very bad shape. What did you think we were talking about?
The destroyer Laffey, known in the third paragraph of every news story as “The Ship That Would Not Die,” after it survived murderous waves of attacks at the Battle of Okinawa, has corroded so badly it’s in danger of sinking. But officials at Patriots Point, the Mt. Pleasant, S.C. museum fleet that also includes the carrier Yorktown, couldn’t afford to dry dock the Laffey or the renovations it needs. So, after the museum appealed to state and federal governments for help, South Carolina has secured enough money to start work on the ship.
But these things are never simple: Patriots Point must repay South Carolina taxpayers within a year. In the meantime it’s counting on another batch of government help, from Uncle Sam, which it will use to repay its South Carolina loan and put toward additional work on its small fleet. It’s not clear whether that federal assistance is a grant or a loan, but if they need to pay it back, that could take a lot of sleep-overs.
All kidding aside, if you’re in the market for in a hair-raising sea story, check out the captain of the Laffey’s account of the battle.
LCS 2: We’ll give it another shot tomorrow
June 29th, 2009 | Science and technology Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Engineers postponed starting the littoral combat ship Independence's builder's trials by a day after an "anomaly" with the ship's engines // General Dynamics
As we’ve written before, the COmbined Diesel And Gas power plants in the Navy’s littoral combat ships mean they can outrace anything else in the fleet; the Freedom has made 47 knots at full CODAG power. But, as we’ve also written, one price of that speed is complicated engineering arrangements, including two main diesels; two gas turbines; splitter gears; reduction gears; amidships impellers that suck in water; and four jets that spit it out, two of which turn to steer the ships. The Navy’s vision is for LCS’ engineering spaces to be unmanned under normal cruising, but there are a lot of potential wrinkles to be smoothed out before that happens.
After lighting off its propulsion plant in early June, the second LCS, Independence, was all set to set off for four days of builder’s trials on Monday, but an engineering hiccup kept the ship at its dock for another day. Because Independence hasn’t been delivered to the Navy it still has a shipyard crew of technicians from Austal, the Mobile, Ala. yard where it was built, and Bath Iron Works, part of the General Dynamics-led team building the ship. They heard a noise they didn’t like in one of the ship’s main propulsion diesels, and decided it was wiser to stay at the pier for another day instead of taking Independence out.
Bath Iron Works spokesman Jim DeMartini said Independence’s builder’s trials would include “a full-power run, quick-asterns, quick-aheads, all the maneuvering events typical of what you would find in a new ship.”
We’ll be watching to see not only how Independence does with standard early-ship evolutions, but also to see if it can match the speeds Freedom hit on its builder’s trials last summer, which included runs at more than 40 knots.
She whistled for a ship and when it came near…
June 29th, 2009 | Photos The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
"Uh, yeah, Aunt Viv? So why'd you look so different in the first couple seasons?" //MC2 Jay Pugh/Navy
Not only is being in the Navy a job, it is an adventure, as was the case for the lucky sailors of Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, Hawaii. Not only do they get to help out with missile tests, they got to hang out with Aunt Viv!
(Yeah, granted, it’s the second Aunt Viv, but how many Aunts Viv have you met?)
Actress Daphne Maxwell Reid, who replaced the original Aunt Viv on Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Aire,” — an iconic TV show for a certain segment of Scoop Deck’s readership — hung out with missile test range sailors as part of a Hollywood tour to military installations. No information about what they discussed, but it’s easy to imagine that Reid, a self-described “Renaissance woman,” got a plug in for her book of photos, “Fresh Prints.”
Amazingly, that is not a joke.
A longer wait for full battleship tours
June 29th, 2009 | Historical Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
The battleship Wisconsin is available for tours on deck, but not inside the ship, until the city of Norfolk takes it over. // Navy
A visit to the battleship Wisconsin is a highlight of any visit to Norfolk, Va., — as opposed to a visit to Naval Station Norfolk, Va., which has many of its own haze gray attractions. But as amazing as it is to walk the Wisconsin’s teak decks, it’s also kind of disappointing how little of the ship most visitors actually get to see. That’s supposed to change when the city of Norfolk takes the ship over from the Navy — but even that has been delayed.
Even though Norfolk has more than $6 million set aside to refurbish and open the Wisconsin for interior tours, it’ll apparently take a little longer to resolve the environmental issues that have to be cleared up before the city can take over.
The carrier-killer threat
June 29th, 2009 | Carriers Navy Science and technology | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Jamestown Foundation has released a report on its Web site about the thing that has apparently been worrying a lot of people in the Pentagon — the potential for a Chinese carrier-killing, re-targetable ballistic missile. In the nightmare scenario, China could keep American carrier strike groups out of the Western Pacific by launching ballistic missiles that found and struck U.S. flattops as the missiles plunged out of space, falling too fast, from too high, to be stopped by Aegis-equipped cruisers and destroyers.
Nightmares notwithstanding, that scenario has many skeptics, who want to see some kind of proof before the Navy mothballs the West Coast carrier fleet. Not only has nothing like this missile ever been demonstrated, but the Jamestown study raises basic conceptual questions about how it would even work:
Does China have multiple sensors that it is currently capable of applying to ASBM detection and targeting? Even in the absence of relevant space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), is there another way to cue the missile accurately enough so that the possible parameters of where the carrier could move in the missile’s brief flight time can be accounted for within the “window” of its seeker? As for the seeker, how would it work? How would it accomplish target discrimination? Is this a challenging issue? Does it hinge on the large size of a carrier? Could smaller ships also be targeted effectively?
The report is kind of long, but worth a read.
Supersonic (updated)
June 29th, 2009 | Aviation Carriers | Posted by Phil Ewing
An F-22 Raptor makes a supersonic pass over the carrier John C. Stennis during joint exercises in the Gulf of Alaska. // STG1(SW) Ronald Dejarnett/Navy
Most people are apparently still on the fence when it comes to the central question of ARGUEX ‘09, but we were reminded of that argument by this cool photo of an Air Force F-22 operating with the carrier John C. Stennis.
Update: So that’s why there’s a collar of vapor around the jet.