Heavy lift ship links (updated)
June 29th, 2009 | Blogs Carriers Foreign navies Historical Naval Academy Submarines | Posted by Phil Ewing
The heavy lift vessel Blue Marlin transports the sea-based X-Band radar into Pearl Harbor. A similar heavy-lift ship was needed to transport all Scoop Deck's links for Monday, June 29 // Navy
We’ve got more links than sense this morning here on the Deck — we had to engage a semi-submersible heavy lift vessel to handle them all. Here’s what the longshoremen have unloaded so far here at the Center of Excellence:
- Interesting quick historical piece about the Navy’s former submarine shipyard.
- Profile of a former Navy test pilot — and, oh yeah, man who’s walked on the Moon — who has taken up a fascinating hobby in retirement.
- America’s “most complete” World War II submarine museum celebrates its 40th anniversary.
- A decommissioned Russian nuclear submarine, a Yankee-class SSBN, catches fire out in the boneyard in Severodvinsk
- Speaking of SSBNs, the Navy got shut out of using a school building in the Pacific Northwest for a public meeting about the new weapons wharf it wants to load Ohio-class boomers in Washington State.
- Speaking of Russian submarines, work is scheduled to begin on a new Northern Fleet SSN.
- The UK’s Daily Mirror reports that the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier Invincible is “totally out of action,” even though the fleet is supposed to keep the flattop ready to deploy.
- What time are YOUR Naval Academy Midshipmen takin’ on the hated juggernaut known as Ohio State Sept. 19? Noon. The game is, in fact, taking place at Ohio Stadium, aka the Horseshoe, aka The Death Star, contrary to our earlier mis-reading of that Dispatch story.
Squared away or sloppy. You decide.
June 26th, 2009 | Chiefs Officers Personnel The deckplates Uniforms | Posted by Andrew Scutro
U.S. Navy
A year ago, then-Surface Force Master Chief (SW/AW) Michael Schanche put out a message (second item) about a trip to the waterfront in San Diego that left him “professionally embarrassed” for the first time in his career. He expressed dismay at an overall lack of military bearing, courtesies and good appearance.
A year has passed and Navy Times decided to see if anyone got the message. We’ve collected a bucketful of responses, most very thoughtful and expressing the same dismay as Schanche.
We’re wrapping up the project and will publish the results soon. But if you still have thoughts on the issue of “sloppy sailors,” e-mail reporter Andrew Scutro at ascutro@navytimes.com.
No ma’am, ‘Letterman’ is a callsign. I swear.
June 25th, 2009 | Aviation Carriers | Posted by Andrew Scutro
U.S. Navy
Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska needs no introduction. With the campaign long over, she’s still an instant news item, at the ballpark and from a now cooled skirmish with Dave Letterman. She’s news in the Navy too. Palin, and her husband Todd, embarked as distinguished visitors aboard the aircraft carrrier John C. Stennis in the Gulf of Alaska on June 22.
As a vice-presidential candidate she pumped up her home state’s proximity to Russia as national security cred, prompting the frighteningly good Tina Fey imitation to exclaim “I can see Russia from my house!”
According to Scoop Deck’s cursory study of geography in them parts, Russia would not have been easily visible from the Stennis.
What’s Michael Bay got against the Navy?
June 25th, 2009 | Aviation Carriers Historical Science and technology Ships The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
"Transformers" star Shia LeBouf and director Michael Bay on the flight deck of the carrier John C. Stennis, another star of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." // MichaelBay.com
So we caught a late screening of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” last night — not nearly as bad as everyone says, but definitely not as good as the first one — and our biggest disappointment was the Navy’s role cameo. After the first “Transformers” was basically a feature-length recruiting commercial for the Air Force, and from early reports about the stars filming on Navy ships, we were hoping for some love from noise-and-explosions auteur Michael Bay. The Pentagon made hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of people and equipment available to be in this movie. But y’know what? Underwhelming, on the Navy side.
No spoilers here, but even though Navy ships do play a slightly bigger role in the mayhem of the second “Transformers,” they’re still mostly ancillary. When they do appear, they’re not kickin’ ass: If you’ve ever served on the fast-attack submarine Topeka or the carrier Theodore Roosevelt (played in the movie by sibling John C. Stennis, which also appears as itself) you may want to wait for the DVD. Unless you hated those ships, in which case you’ll love this movie. ‘Nuff said.
The destroyer Shoup reprises its appearance in scenes from the first “Transformers,” as the platform from which the good guys rid themselves of the dastardly Decepticon potentate Megatron, and Stennis has a couple cool scenes with the Autobots. But the biggest Navy star part in “Transformers 2″ goes to the destroyer Kidd, which makes a brief but important contribution to the loudness and explosions that will delight surface warfare types, Office of Naval Research scientists and every defense contractor in the audience.
Naturally Navy Times has been on this “what kinda Navy stuff’s gonna be in the new ‘Transformers’” story for months now, so we were already prepared not to see a giant, transforming aircraft carrier. But we were still hoping for more.
Have you seen it yet? What’d you think? What’d you think of the Navy’s role in the fight against the Decepticons?
Chevy Corvette v. Hornet: Seriously?
June 24th, 2009 | Aviation Blogs | Posted by Phil Ewing
"Hey, you down there, in the Vette! You wanna go? I'd gun my engines but it'd shatter your windshield." // Navy
We’ve already tried to start one flame war today, about whether an Air Force F-22 Raptor could beat a Navy F/A-18E or F Super Hornet in a dogfight. That is a topic upon which reasonable people can disagree.
No need for debate here: Motor Trend magazine wondered how Chevrolet’s latest, super-powerful Corvette would do in a race against an F/A-18 (regular) Hornet — more specifically, the Blue Angels’ two-seat B-model.
Spoiler alert: One of these two vehicles is powered by twin GE F404 jet engines and is capable of hitting speeds around Mach 1.8. The other is a car.
The video is amusing, though, if you’ve got about 20 minutes to kill.
Thankfully, the Russians are coming
June 24th, 2009 | Foreign navies Ships | Posted by Andrew Scutro
FRUKUS 2007 was held in and around Norfolk, but cancelled the following year because of Russia's attack on neighboring Georgia. Pictured here are French frigate La Fayette, Russian destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, and British frigate Portland. Destroyer Laboon also participated. //Navy
FRUKUS, a normally annual naval exercise for France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. handily provides its own acronymn with first letters for each country. All four nations began holding the annual get-together in 2003 but it was cancelled last year after the U.S. suspended military-to-military activities with the Russian Federation following its conflict with Georgia, the nation.
The 2009 iteration got underway in the Bay of Biscay off France on June 19. And it’s a good thing Russia decided to show up, still willing to contribute an “R” to FRUKUS, or someone would have to come up with a new name. Fast.
Super Hornet v. Raptor: ARGUEX ’09
June 24th, 2009 | Aviation | Posted by Phil Ewing
An F/A-18C Hornet of VFA 192, the "Golden Dragons," accompanies an F-22 Raptor of the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron in an exercise above the Pacific June 17 //MC1 John Ageman /Navy
All right, let’s get right down to the heart of this thing: Which would win, an Air Force F-22 Raptor or an F/A-18E or F Super Hornet? “Oh, that’s easy,” you say. “The Raptor’s low observability, internal weapons carriage and vectored thrust mean that it could easily out-dogfight the Navy’s latest carrier-based fighter jet.”
Maybe. But you should remember than a Navy E/A-18G Growler electronic attack jet has already “killed” a Raptor in a mock battle — yes, you read that right. And we don’t know the results of this month’s practice sessions that included Navy jets from the carrier George Washington and Air Force Raptors from the 525th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron — both sides in the Air Force announcement seemed careful not to claim they’d “won” or “beaten” the other.
“This was an excellent opportunity to hone our air combat skills against a dissimilar adversary as well as integrate with members of the joint team,” said Lt. Col. Joseph Kunkel, director of operations for the 525th. “The exercise was a huge success, and we hope to fly with our Navy counterparts again soon.”
Why can’t he tell us what we all want to hear: Who out-turned who? Who pulled some crazy moves to get into a superior position? Does the F-22 perform as well in a mock dogfight as in an air show, when it has the entire sky to itself?
Which would you take in an imaginary dog fight: A Raptor or a Super Hornet? Why? What about if the Raptor pilot had just inhaled a bunch of dust and was sneezing a lot, and as such was distracted?
‘Any means necessary’
June 23rd, 2009 | Coast Guard | Posted by Susan Schept
Paul Conner, the search and rescue controller at Coast Guard Sector Northern New England. (Lt. Lauren Trochio/Coast Guard)
The wonders of modern communication.
Coast Guard Sector Northern New England was searching Sunday for a possible overdue fisherman out of Cobscook Park in Eastport, Maine, until a search on Facebook helped locate information which ultimately closed the case and saved up to $30,000, according to Coast Guard officials.
A park ranger who spotted a lone vehicle and trailer without a boat sitting in an empty parking lot passed along the license plate number to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard traced the name, address and phone number of the vehicle owner but couldn’t reach him.
Before launching a costly search, Paul Conner, the search and rescue controller, decided to use Facebook to check for any contact information on the missing fisherman or his relatives. Conner sent an e-mail to one of the man’s relatives, but Connor ended up hearing back first from the fisherman by phone. He was simply moored at a different location and was A-OK.
“Sometimes we have to be very creative in our information gathering,” said Conner. “A simple internet search can often help us locate a missing person before a boat or aircraft is even on scene.”
Later that day, in that very same district, the Coast Guard called off a search after a boater sailing from Block Island to Newport sent an e-mail to his family that he was safe after a storm.
“For over 200 years the Coast Guard has been using any means necessary to fulfill our mission,” said Captain Jim McPherson, commander at Sector Northern New England. “Now we can add social online media as another tool in our lifesaving kit.”
The cheesebox on a raft
June 23rd, 2009 | Historical Science and technology Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Navy History and Heritage Command
Dive teams are hoping to pay a visit this week to the wreck of the ironclad Monitor, the revolutionary Union gunboat that we all remember from its jolly battle against its Confederate arch-nemesis Merrimack — or Virginia, if you prefer.
In the Battle of Hampton Roads, the world’s first two armored warships bounced some cannon balls off each other and went their separate ways — well, it was a bigger deal than that — the skirmish changed naval warfare. While we wait to learn what the divers discover at the wreck of the Monitor, it’s worth checking out the ship’s website for lots of cool details about “the cheese box on a raft.”
Stopping traffic on the Beltway
June 23rd, 2009 | Photos Science and technology Ships Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
The littoral combat ship Freedom sailed under the drawbridge span of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, which carries Washington, D.C.'s infamous Beltway from Virginia to Maryland, on a May 6 visit to Alexandria, Va. // Lockheed Martin
More than a month after the fact, here’s something it would’ve been really cool to see in person — this shot looks like it was taken from Pomander Park in Alexandria, Va. — the littoral combat ship Freedom coming north in the Potomac River under the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Drivers familiar with this part of the National Capital Region, upon seeing this image and thinking of the rate at which traffic here passes even on a good day, may want to take a few deep, cleansing breaths.
What’s interesting is that the Freedom seems like it would be able to slip under this span if only for its main mast.