Farewell, Saturn
October 28th, 2010 | Aviation Carriers Maritime operations Navy ordnance Photos Royal Navy Ships Sinking | Posted by Bill McMichael
There may not have been many of you — the former supply ship Saturn’s crew of 160 never included many more than 40 sailors during its 25-year run with Military Sealift Command — but here’s a respectful nod to you and your old ride, which was sunk in the Atlantic Wednesday after the George H.W. Bush Strike Group spent two days attacking the decommissioned ship during a training/sinking exercise. Ships from Destroyer Squadron 22 and aircraft from Carrier Air Wing 8, along with Patrol Squadrons 10 and 45, took part in the tactical training exercise using surface-to-surface, air-to-surface and surface-to-air live fire, U.S. 2nd Fleet announced.
The destroyer Mitscher and the cruisers Philippine Sea and Gettysburg launched missiles, 5-inch guns, Close-In Weapons System, and 25 mm and .50-cal weapons at Saturn. In addition, aircraft and helicopters from CVW-8 launched from the carrier Bush employed bombs and air-to-surface missiles during the two-day exercise — what the fleet called “a unique opportunity to practice combat scenarios, to include tactics and procedures.” The attacks ramped up in intensity over the two-day period; it was the 5-inch rounds that finally did her in. The Navy has put a moratorium on such training sinkings after 2010 to conduct a comprehensive review of the requirements, costs, benefits and environmental impacts of the current process. Saturn, which began life as a British Royal Fleet auxiliary launched in 1966, had a great run. She’s now resting at the bottom of the Atlantic, about 250 miles off the East Coast. So, a toast to the ship and those who served!
Television with stopping power
September 24th, 2010 | Books ordnance | Posted by Phil Ewing
Chief Gunner's Mate Anthony Chatman punished the Pacific Ocean from the fantail of the carrier Nimitz during a live-fire exercise. // MC3 John Wagner / Navy
Our senior Marine Corps Times colleague Gina Cavallaro, author of the hot new book “Sniper: American Single-Shot Warriors in Iraq and Afghanistan,” scored a highly coveted guest spot on Washington’s top weekly defense news TV show, “This Week in Defense News.” You’ll be able to see her Sunday morning at 11 a.m. here in the National Capital Region, Monday everywhere on Armed Forces Network, and online soon here.
Will the sonobuoy drop no more?
July 22nd, 2010 | Aviation ordnance | Posted by Phil Ewing
Tomorrow's MH-60R Seahawk helicopters -- like this one from HSM 71, the "Raptors," -- may not carry sonobouys anymore. // MC3 Walter M. Wayman / Navy
Even as Big Navy is pushing for the fleet to re-master the lost art of submarine-hunting, one of its longstanding ASW tools could be going away, according to our friends in the big-time at Defense News: Commanders are considering pulling the sonobuoys from MH-60 Seahawk helicopters, or scaling back the number they will carry.
“Sonobuoys!” — the word takes one back to the bad old days of tense engagements over the North Atlantic, like the time that Soviet Tu-95 Bear used them to find and attack a renegade ballistic missile sub in the documentary “The Hunt For Red October.” But these days, American helos don’t use them that much, our colleague John Reed wrote, preferring to use their dipping sonar instead.
The sonobuoys won’t disappear altogether: The Navy may just keep fewer of them on board helicopters and use a smaller, six-unit launcher. And there’s no talk, as yet, of them disappearing from P-3 Orion patrol planes or their replacement P-8 Poseidon jets.
Advanced Gun System hits milestone
May 28th, 2010 | Maritime operations Navy ordnance Science and technology Ships | Posted by Lance Bacon
- An artist’s rendition of the the AGS at work.
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead in an interview with Navy Times last month voiced his commitment to providing Marines precision littoral fire support.
We’re looking at rounds that give us extended range and are compatible with 5-inch guns. Precision is going to be key. In today’s world, if you are developing a fire solution, it must be able to give you almost pinpoint accuracy, to within a couple of meters. GPS technology offers that. Of course, there is a huge G-force, so [the round] will have to be able to withstand a pretty significant speed of launch and flight.”
As that science is worked out, Devil Dawgs can give an emphatic “Ooh-Rah” to the Advanced Gun System. The 155mm system, which is part of the DDG 1000 program, can tattoo targets from 70 miles using Lockheed Martin’s 230-pound Long Range Land Attack Projectile. The program hit a milestone this week as BAE delivered the first AGS automated magazine. A mammoth of a magazine, this thing can organize and process 38 pallets weighing three tons each and fire up to 10 rounds per minute, according to this release. The world’s largest fully automated magazine, this two-story magazine is 45 x 30 and weighs 160 metric tons.
That’s enough firepower to make any Marine smile.
An interesting item in the NOC
May 27th, 2010 | leadership ordnance Shore duty Uniforms | Posted by Phil Ewing
It's important to keep a sharp lookout at all times for things others may not have noticed. // MC3 Walter Wayman / Navy
This is a delicate item: An Amphibian Associate of ours and his eagle-eyed readers have spotted something hilarious in the new Naval Operations Concept, but it’s borderline scatological. It involves the glossy pictures that take up much of the document and the salty language common among average sailors out in the fleet. That’s probably all that’s safe to say here on the family-friendly Deck. If you’re easily offended, please do not click.
If you’re interested, first, check out page 23 in the NOC (31 in your PDF reader). Then go here. Then, for a clearer picture and a little background, go here.
Then ask yourself: How many admirals probably signed off on this report? Did none of them see this, or did they all just agree it was funny?
Surface gun battle — the old fashioned way
May 19th, 2010 | ordnance Video | Posted by Phil Ewing
So how did the sailors of yesteryear figure out where to point their guns to make sure they reached out and touched the targets on the other end? This classic film, posted online earlier this year, gives you the full story, in the way only a 1950s U.S. Government educational presentation could.
Double H/T: BoingBoing and our senior colleague Brad Peniston.
The LCS missile may still fly
May 13th, 2010 | Congress ordnance Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
The NLOS enclosure on the littoral combat ship Independence, now empty, could hold the missiles for which it was designed if Congress and the Navy save the troubled weapon -- and the Navy can get it to work. // Lt. Zachary Harrell / Navy
The Non-Line Of Sight missile may live to fly after all, according to an exclusive report this week by our high-powered colleague Kate Brannen. NLOS, an Army missile also intended as a key weapon for the littoral combat ship, costs too much and doesn’t really work, according to the Army officials who have asked the Pentagon to cancel it — but Congress and the Navy may intervene to keep it alive:
Anticipating and encouraging the Navy’s takeover of the Non-Line of Sight Launch System program, the House Armed Services air and land forces subcommittee transfers $75 million in research and development funding for the program from the Army to the Navy in its markup of the defense authorization bill for 2011, according to congressional documents.
Citing the Army’s decision to cancel NLOS-LS, the subcommittee cuts the $350.6 million the Army requested for procurement of NLOS-LS in 2011 and the $81.2 million in research and development funds. According to a congressional source, the House Armed Services seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee’s markup will also include the additional $75 million for the Navy to complete NLOS-LS development.
In an amazing coincidence, several of the HASC subcommittees, including air-land and seapower, are scheduled to mark up this year’s defense bill today! Stay tuned to see how this all turns out.
The Army decision that could de-fang LCS
April 23rd, 2010 | ordnance | Posted by Phil Ewing
LCS's surface-to-surface missile will not be creating any big explosions any time soon. // Navy
We warned you about it — now it could be happening for real. Our compatriot Kate Brannen of Defense News reports today that the Army has recommended canceling its own Non-Line Of Sight missile program because the weapon has proved too expensive and too unreliable in its early iterations.That doesn’t just affect the ground-poundoisie: NLOS was also planned for use aboard the littoral combat ship, as its short-range surface-to-surface strike option. If the Army cancels it, the Navy could be in a bind.
The enclosures on both the littoral combat ship Freedom and its cousin, Independence, weren’t designed for just any small vertically launched missile — they were built, with tolerances down to fractions of an inch, for NLOS. So if NLOS as it exists goes away, that could mean Naval Sea Systems Command could get the program dumped in its lap, or that LCS could wait even longer for some other variety of surface-to-surface missile.
In the meantime, the ship will have to kill guys on Jet-Skis the old fashioned way.
Seven in Seven
April 22nd, 2010 | Aviation Carriers Congress Environment Foreign navies Maritime operations Military Sealift Command Navy NECC ordnance Recruiting SEALs Ships Submarines The deckplates The greenside The Middle East The Pacific Washington | Posted by Lance Bacon
The Navy nabbed a lot of headlines again this week. Leading the way is news that the Green Hornet on Thursday took to flight – the fighter jet, not the super hero. The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet was powered by a 50/50 blend of biofuel and JP-5.
That same day, a U.S. military jury cleared a Navy SEAL of failing to prevent the beating of an Iraqi prisoner suspected of masterminding a 2004 attack that killed four American security contractors. Two others will soon have their day in court.
And on Wednesday, the Navy implemented its first change in 17 years to the Defense Department’s much-debated “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Here’s seven stories in seven minutes from the past seven days that you may not have seen, but are worthy of notice:
Dealing with the small boat threat
April 13th, 2010 | Aviation Blogs ordnance | Posted by Phil Ewing
An MH-60R Seahawk from HSM 71, the "Raptors," fired a Hellfire missile in 2008. Air-to-surface missiles are a key weapon against small boat attacks at sea. // MC2 Mark A. Leonesio / Navy
There are many loose threads across the Internet from the past couple of days about the infamous Small Boat Threat, which has been a part of fleet planning since the days of E-Boats and long before. On Monday, an article in Taiwan’s Straits Times described a new Taiwanese fast-attack craft designed as a “carrier killer,” which will carry anti-ship missiles and specifically target China’s forthcoming home-built flattop.
That dovetailed with a two-part series by Iron Mike Burleson, of New Wars fame, conveniently titled “Can a speedboat sink a carrier?” His post is about Iran’s fleet of attack craft, but the same principles apply: How effective are swarms of small, fast vessels, loaded with explosives or missiles, against groups of comparatively big, slow warships? (They certainly put a scare into Task Force Monkey a few years ago.)
Burleson concludes the threat is real, and calls for a return to torpedo boat destroyers — ancestors of today’s destroyer-battleships — to screen tomorrow’s fleets. Others are more sanguine about Iranian speedboats and fast-attack craft generally. West Coast naval thinker Craig Hooper doesn’t discount the potential threat from small attackers, but quotes a newspaper report that said helicopters and shipboard weapons — including CIWS Block 1B and the Mk 38 mod 2 chaingun — give the U.S. fleet an edge.
You definitely do not want to be on the business end of a CIWS Block 1B in surface-sweep mode, and here’s something else to think about: American fleets have dueled with small boats before, and in at least a couple occasions, surface and air-launched Harpoon missiles were able to deal with them.
So what do you think? Is the fleet adequately protected against small boats, or does it need new weapons and tactics to keep pace with potential adversaries?