“Here she comes, Miss America...”

J

Jud - s/v Sputnik

Super Anarchist
6,568
1,912
Canada
Matagi said:
Ceterum censeo: This thread should burn in PA and at best take that whole place with it.
Click to expand...
Maybe I shoulda posted this pic instead in the “Cool boats to admire” thread.  It is “cool” - whether you actually think the US is the paragon of global virtues, saving the world from Lord Voldemort/Vladimir and the arrival of jackbooted Chinese soldiers from invading the freshly mowed green lawns of Middle America; or whether you think the US is an evil perpetrator of disaster capitalism, war profiteering, extra-judicial renderings, illegal coup d’états, etc (oops...that’s true...).

It’s a cool navy ship.

Crazy, wastefully expensive. 

And without a big gun... :)

 
Last edited by a moderator:
loneshark64

loneshark64

Super Anarchist
1,517
1,355
Maine, USA
Elegua said:
Do you think it has a bridge-deck traveler? 
Click to expand...
LOL

I hope they sell it to Colin. 

D9D531CE-403D-4FC1-9A32-961CBF6A3791.jpeg

 
J

Jud - s/v Sputnik

Super Anarchist
6,568
1,912
Canada
Just to beat anyone else to the punch, as long as we’re trying to steer, nudge this thread away from politics...to the arts...all hail The Village People




 
Crash

Crash

Super Anarchist
5,216
1,113
SoCal
Ajax is spot on about the fact that the Navy recent shipbuilding development programs have all had serious problems, and have failed to deliver to both the fleet and the American people. The really delicious irony here is that much of the intent of those programs, and the decisions they made were all done in an attempt to save money, not spend more of it.  AGS and LRLAP, the gun and shell DDX was supposed to have, was a development attempt to build a long range gun with the accuracy of a guided weapon, as shooting a bunch of million dollar Tomahawk missiles is expensive but "shells" were cheap.

Littoral Combat Ship was an attempt to build a cheaper Frigate, and not have to fully outfit it to be able to perform all its missions because building multi-mission ships is expensive, and you need to crew it to do all those missions.  Instead we would build modules and outfit the ship for the mission we needed it to do, and be able to switch modules and crew as needed, which should cost less right?   Plus we wanted it to go fast, and work in shallow water, so it would be responsive in the "little wars" along the littorals.  

Even the Ford Class CVNs were given all this new technology (electromagnetic catapults, new weapons elevators, new radar, etc) because, in part, they would save us money in the long run, and its much more costly to refit those technologies then to just build them in.  Plus, 10 years ago, everyone was saying they'd be ready in time.  

Add to that the Program Managers nightmare of 435 idiots in the House of Representatives and 100 more idiots in the Senate, all convinced they are Naval Shipbuilding experts, and all trying to get money for their district and state, regardless of how much more that will make DDX cost, and defense budgets that soar and fall every 4 to 8 years, and the seemingly ever present danger of one party or the other "shutting the Government down" over some issue they are unwilling to compromise on, or their inability to do their jobs which is to approve and pass a budget.  It's a wonder, sometimes, that we even get a ship built at all...

Finally there is the change in strategic environment.  DDX grew out of DD-21, which grew out of the "Arsenal Ship."  The Arsenal Ship was an idea to build a ship that would carry lots (500) of vertically launched missiles that would then be controlled by Aegis Cruisers or Destroyers, or the E-2 Hawkeye.  It it were to be stealthy, then it wouldn't need sophisticated sensors or weapons for defense, freeing up room for lots of offensive weapons, and keeping cost down.   With the end of the Cold War in the late 80's, the need for an Arsenal Ship went away

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arsenal_ship

So Arsenal Ship evolved into the DD-21 concept (Destroyer for the 21st Century) in the early 90s, With two long range guns and 128 vertical missiles.  Land attack was becoming the likely mission, and with the retirement of the Battleships, the Marines were felt the existing 5 inch gun on Destroyers was inadequate to fulfilling the Naval Gunfire Support mission, and Tomahawks (or other land attack cruise missiles were too expensive to use for Naval Gunfire Support.  Hence the AGS/LRLAP development program and its primary role on DD-21 which became DDX.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SC-21_(United_States)

And just as we get to start building DDX, the world changes once again, and Near Peer nations (China and Russia) are building blue water navies again to exert influence regionally at first and globally in the end to shape environments and conditions in a manner more favorable to them, and less favorable to our Western and Pacific Allies.  So DDX is not exactly the ship we need now after all, and I suspect will have to go thru a series of refits to make them more strategically relevant...

Which will not be cheap either...

 
J

Jud - s/v Sputnik

Super Anarchist
6,568
1,912
Canada
1 hour ago, Matagi said:



The only song permitted here. Along with the Village People’s “In the Navy”.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Rasputin22

Rasputin22

Rasputin22
14,126
3,670
    I was working for a company that builds commissioning models for the Navy and lots of commercial vessels and rigs for offshore oil. We were working on that DDX for a 'promo' model to help sell the project to the politicians in Foggy Bottom. The really neat thing about that ship is the superconducting electric generation system for its gas turbines that drove electric shaft drives and/or waterjets for propulsion. First thing they wanted was a scale model of the highly classified hybrid drive of sorts and I was surprised at how many digital Solidworks files we were sent for the whole project. No security clearances at our little small shop (12 modellers and a couple of computer guys like me to do the scaling and generate cut files for laser and CNC work) but it would be a decade before the first ship was launched. 

    I forget what scale the engine system was modeled, maybe 1" = 1'0" and when it was nearing completion the photos of the model we were sending to the Navy project guys really didn't give any sense of just how big (actually it was surprisingly small) without something for reference. They decided that there should be a engineering dept guy in his navy work uniform working on the unit. So one of our best modelmakers on the team stopped at Toys R Us on the way home and next morning proudly showed us the GI Joe enlisted sailor to add to the model. Turned out that he was a bit overscale and I offered to find a human 3d model that we could print on our fusion deposition printer (FDM) but the old experience guy just said, 'Watch this'.

    He took the uniform off of the GI Joe and went over to the band saw and cut about 3/8" out of the models lower legs and thighs and then about a half inch out of the waist and did the same for the arms and they hot melted the poor guy back together! Without his clothes he looked like the 'small person' that starred in 'Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklin I the name I think. The modeler said not to worry and took the truncated GI Joe and his clothes home with him that night and his wife made the alterations to the uniform and he looked just fine back in the uniform of the day!  No telling how much that bit of cleverness ended up adding to the project.

http://www.gijoecanada.com/images/vintage%20gijoe_action%20sailor%201.JPG

Geez, I found this swabbie on the internet and the asking price is $480 online! I don't feel so bad about our hackjob and I am sure that we didn't invoice half that for our sailor.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.


Latest posts



Top