Thanks for reading
October 15th, 2010 | Blogs | Posted by Phil Ewing
The author, center, listening to Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, has really enjoyed blogging for Scoop Deck and will miss it. // MCC Tiffini Vanderwyst
Today is my last day at Navy Times, and this will be my last post here on the Deck. I’ve gotten the chance to do many cool things in this job — trapped aboard aircraft carriers; flown in an MV-22 Osprey; visited several far-flung countries; dived on a nuclear submarine; and hit 40+ knots on both littoral combat ships. But the thing that consistently has been the most fun and rewarding was Scoop Deck. Composing posts and interacting with readers has been a blast, and I’m going to miss it.
Scoop Deck isn’t going anywhere; this is just a change of the watch. I stand relieved.
Getting a great big gator to take tiny sips
October 15th, 2010 | Environment Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Wasp-class amphibs like the Bataan, left, will use less of the fuel they get from oilers like the John Ericsson, right, with a new gadget installed in their main engines, NavSea says. // Navy
Efficiency is what’s hot these days in the surface Navy, and, as such, Naval Sea Systems Command has announced its latest effort to squeeze every last drop out of the fuel brought aboard the fleet’s Wasp-class big-deck amphibious ships. NavSea is putting new combustion trim loop systems in the engines aboard all seven of the steam-powered Wasps — the eighth, Makin Island, is a half-breed daywalker with diesels, electrics and gas turbines — that could save 2,400 barrels of fuel per year per ship:
The … system, coupled with a new stack gas analyzer, automatically optimizes the fuel-air mixture for the ships’ two boilers, making them more efficient. The trim loop system also protects the environment and increases crew safety by automatically preventing black or white smoke conditions. … “[The combustion trim loop] cuts down on fuel consumption because it provides optimum air flow going to the boiler, giving you a better fuel-air mixture and making the boiler more efficient,” said Master Chief Machinist’s Mate (SW) Robert Hook, NavSea’s steam generating plant inspector and community manager.
“A 2.1 percent [overall fuel] savings is significant,” said Doyle Kitchin, NavSea Fleet Readiness Engineering Office director. “The fuel savings is driving the return on investment, making this one of our ‘quick wins’ and creating a more efficient operation.”
Steam boilers have been making warships go since the 19th century, but it’s comforting to think that even a technology that old can still be improved.
Mesa Verde plays pinch hitter
October 15th, 2010 | Ships The deckplates | Posted by Phil Ewing
The amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde will return to the Middle East this summer as part of the Bataan Amphibious Ready Group. // MC1 Steve Smith / Navy
The amphibious transport dock Mesa Verde, which just returned from a deployment to the Middle East in August, will head back out to the 5th Fleet area again this summer, taking a spot that was supposed to be filled by its older sibling, the San Antonio. San Antonio’s latest repairs probably won’t be finished in time for the mission, the Navy says.
Our senior colleague Christopher P. Cavas has the background:
Problems have plagued the San Antonio since the ship was delivered in August 2005 from Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding. Although similar issues have, to varying degrees, affected follow-on ships in the class, the San Antonio, first in its class, has consistently been a problem ship — a fact the Navy acknowledged when it accepted the vessel after a prolonged fitting-out period.
The Navy and Northrop have long grown exasperated in trying to manage and deal with the ship’s problems, which have included poor electrical wiring installations, bad welds, a dysfunctional engine control system and faulty hydraulics in the stern door.
A persistent problem cropped up on all the ships of the class with contaminants in the engine lube-oil system. Earlier this year, while the San Antonio was undergoing an overhaul at Earl Industries in Norfolk, Va., engineers investigating the root cause of vibrations in the drive train — the engines, reduction gears and propeller shafts that drive the ship — discovered that bolts in the foundations of the diesel engines and the main reduction gears were improperly installed. If not fixed, officials said, the vibrations could eventually wreck the propulsion system.
The fate of LCS, cont’d.
October 14th, 2010 | leadership Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Galrahn's read of the tea leaves indicates the Navy's strategy will take it more toward big, old-style ships (left) than the newer, smaller LCS (right). // MC2 Ashley Van Dien / Navy
Galrahn has been reading a lot of news stories and think-tank studies and such lately, and he has come to this conclusion: The strategic winds are blowing such that the Navy’s littoral combat ship won’t survive the next infamous Pentagon budgetary rock-drill known as POM 12. That rock-drill will be keyed off a CNA study that calls for the Navy to essentially hedge its bets on a strategy that favors big, legacy warships instead of LCS, Galrahn writes, which is why it might go away. He has a very thoughtful, highly detailed explanation here.
Is it true? Will it happen? Who knows? Naval shipbuilding is a truth-free netherworld where you throw ducks at balloons and nothing is as it seems. Officials talk in ciphers when they talk at all, but usually they just explain that they can’t explain because the budget process is “ongoing.” (“What’s your favorite coffee variety at Starbucks, admiral?” “I’m not going to get into that because that’s in the POM.”) So instead we have a reality vacuum where Galrahn’s theory is just as valid as my theory that the Navy is going to replace LCS with giant, missile-wielding, semi-submersible rubber duckies.
Still, an LCS cancellation in a forthcoming budget cycle would represent a titanic concession of failure; cost the Navy what the progress it has made with the LCS ships and equipment; and potentially imperil the billions of dollars the Navy planned to spend after the down-select that’s just around the corner. (Just. Around. The. Corner.) It could, however, give proponents of the National Patrol Frigate just the chance they’ve been waiting for, even if Galrahn doesn’t think the Navy will go that route.
Which is fine, because my rubber ducky concept represents a technologically mature, consumer off-the-shelf capability that makes a fun squeaky noise.
Talking the talk, or, The dessert that nobody wants
October 13th, 2010 | leadership Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
These sailors on the mess decks of the carrier Enterprise were probably glad to take an active role in ice cream cone consumption operations, rather than have the Navy explore options for an automated system. // MC3 Jeffry Willadsen / Navy
Last year, not long after Navy Secretary Ray Mabus began his job, he invited a group of journalists to the Pentagon for an introductory chat. He was still trying to get his bearings in the nonstop party called the Puzzle Palace, and described a steep learning curve with all the unfamiliar acronyms and technical terms and such. I asked him if he’d learned how to say “and oh by the way” yet, but he smiled and shook his head. That’s how new he was.
Fast forward to today, when Mabus gave a defense of his far-reaching energy-conservation and alternative fuel usage goals at the Reagan Center in Washington. Today’s bio-fuels are expensive, he acknowledged, but he remains confident that new technology and reliable demand from the Navy Department will soon make their costs competitive:
“There are some that say, ‘It’s just too hard. Don’t do this. We’re gonna be stuck with fossil fuels,’” he said. “Well, if we buy that argument, it’s going to become a self-fulfulling prophecy and that’s exactly what’s going to hapen. I’ve learned an expression in the military: It’s going to become a self-licking ice cream cone. But it’s one we can avoid.”
A classic! Now he’s definitely speaking the language.
When the new ‘Navy’ needed a news-paper
October 13th, 2010 | Historical | Posted by Phil Ewing
GanGovMedCorp's early predecessor, Brompton-Hardwicke & Sons Consolidated News-Paper Publishing Concern, Ltd., Purveyors of Fine Printed Matter, published the newly rediscovered first issue of Continental Navy Times to mark the birth of the new Navy. // Staff
Our archives department here at Army Times Publishing Co. Gannett Government Media Corp. was doing some research this month into new ways to illustrate how much money service members will get next time around: Giant sacks with dollar signs? Piles of cash? Scrooge McDuck swimming in a warehouse full of gold coins? But instead it stumbled on something amazing — the very first issue of our ancestor newspaper, Continental Navy Times, published to coincide with the founding of the Continental Navy 235 years ago today.
Aftermath and legacy
October 12th, 2010 | Ships The Middle East | Posted by Phil Ewing
A sailor aboard the destroyer Cole fired a .50 caliber machine gun during an exercise in the Atlantic in 2009. // MC3 Matthew Bookwalter / Navy
Ten years after the bombing of the destroyer Cole, could a U.S. warship today handle a similar attack? Crew members today are more alert for small boats, ships have new weapons specifically to keep potential threats at bay, and the Navy seems generally more mindful about sending ships into ports where unpleasantness might occur.
But “optimal manning,” individual augmentee assignments and other high-level changes have cut the sizes of crews on ships today significantly. In a situation where a ship needs simple, brute-force manpower to control flooding, fight fires, handle injuries and all the rest of it, today’s smaller-crewed ships could be at a disadvantage, our senior colleague Bill McMichael reports:
The officer who commanded the [Cole] said adequate manpower is critical to such a prodigious damage-control effort, and he doubts whether a lesser-manned ship could pull it off for long.
“I think it is going to be very questionable,” said retired Cmdr. Kirk Lippold. “While you may be able to train a crew that could respond and contain the initial damage, the ability of the ship to sustain itself for the extended period of time over days, if not weeks, like we had to do … that means you’re going to man the same number of watches for damage control, your flooding and shoring watches. You’re going to still have the same security requirements. And people are going to have to rotate through the watches quicker, or stand extended watches — which means they’re going to be more tired.
“We were already at some point operating at the limits of our physical and mental endurance,” Lippold said. “Especially after we almost lost the ship, Saturday night — Sunday morning. … And while I could exhort them, as the CO, that we had to keep going and we couldn’t give up, you’re going to reach a point where people physically cannot function effectively anymore. And at that point, you make mistakes, and you will lose the ship.”
What do you think?
Ten years gone
October 12th, 2010 | Ships | Posted by Phil Ewing
Despite an attack that killed 17 sailors and injured 39 a decade ago, the destroyer Cole remains an active, ready combat warship -- a living, working memorial to its fallen crew members. // MC3 Matthew Bookwalter / Navy
- Chief Electronics Technician Richard Costelow, Morrisville, Penn.
- Signalman Seaman Recruit Cheron Luis Gunn, Rex, Ga.
- Seaman James Rodrick McDaniels, Norfolk, Va.
- Seaman Recruit Lakiba Nicole Palmer, San Diego, Calif.
- Operations Specialist 2nd Class Timothy Lamont Saunders, Ringgold, Va.
- Ensign Andrew Triplett, Macon, Miss.
- Seaman Apprentice Craig Bryan Wibberley, Williamsport, Md.
- Hull Maintenance Technician 3rd Class, Kenneth Eugene Clodfelter, Mechanicsville, Va.
- Mess Management Specialist Seaman Lakeina Monique Francis, Woodleaf, N.C.
- Information Systems Technician Seaman Timothy Lee Gauna, Rice, Texas
- Engineman 2nd Class Mark Ian Nieto, Fond du Lac, Wis.
- Electronics Warfare Technician 3rd Class Ronald Scott Owens, Vero Beach, Fla.
- Engineman Fireman Joshua Langdon Parlett, Churchville, Md.
- Fireman Apprentice Patrick Howard Roy, Cornwall on Hudson, N.Y.
- Electronics Warfare Technician 2nd Class Kevin Shawn Rux, Portland, N.D.
- Mess Management Specialist 3rd Class Ronchester Mananga Santiago, Kingsville, Texas
- Fireman Gary Graham Swenchonis Jr., Rockport, Texas
A new queen of the Lego seas
October 11th, 2010 | Ships Video | Posted by Phil Ewing
The Lego carrier Intrepid with its Lego escorts on display at a Lego show in Great Britain. // Flickr users Blue Moose and Lego Monster
Way, way back in the early days of Scoop Deck, we wondered whether any Lego model could ever rival this 1/40 scale version of the Imperial Japanese Navy’s super-battleship Yamato. Now, something has: An entire Lego battle group, and one appropriately centered around that which eclipsed the battleship as the big-dog of the seas: An aircraft carrier.
It’s the aircraft carrier Intrepid, to be precise, all 22 feet 4 inches of it, complete with an air wing of Lego fighters and escorted by a Lego destroyer and Lego submarine. If you take a look at the photos of how it was assembled, you can also see a tiny Lego boat being rowed by a tiny Lego man, which shows the size of these scale-enormous warships.
You know what this means — the only thing left now is a full-scale Lego Strike Group Challenge, which should include a Lego Nimitz-class carrier with Lego air wing, Lego Aegis escorts and a Lego nuclear submarine. It can be done! It’ll just take lots and lots of Legos.
UPDATE: The Lego CVN 75 has been built. All we need’s the strike group.
The brass argues: Who gets to nuke the North?
October 11th, 2010 | Historical nuclear weapons | Posted by Phil Ewing
A nuclear-armed A-4 Skyhawk, like this one getting ready to take off from the carrier Hancock, was just one item on the menu of strike options available if the U.S. wanted to strike North Korea -- if the Air Force didn't get there first. // NavHistHerCom
This morning’s AP report about the U.S. military’s newly declassified nuclear weapons plans for North Korea is an absolute must read. Did you know the infamous Gen. Douglas MacArthur had a plan to hit the North with 30 to 50 nuclear weapons? That the U.S. has seriously considered nuking the North at least six times since 1976?
And here’s something else: From the beginning, the services were competing amongst each other to see which one of them would get the job of delivering Uncle Sam’s special regards to Kim Il Sung:
Air Force commanders asked for more nuclear-capable F-84G warplanes in the Korea theater “to offset the Navy’s greater and more immediate atomic delivery capability,” the declassified documents show. But one colonel warned against arousing “the Army-Navy suspicion that the Air Force is trying to steal the atomic bomb act” in Korea planning. By the late 1950s, all the services shared in an “era of relative atomic plenty,” as an Air Force memo called it. The number of nuclear warheads in South Korea and nearby Okinawa — in artillery shells, short-range missiles, gravity bombs and other weapons — peaked at about 2,600 in 1967, civilian researchers would later determine.
Most of this isn’t totally new, but it fleshes out some stories we’ve already discussed here on the Deck, including Japan’s secret permission for Navy nuclear weapons and the role the carrier Kitty Hawk played in President Nixon’s aborted attack on the North in 1969.
Kind of amazing to think the human race made it through all those decades of nuclear tension with all our major cities intact. So far.