"Go Navy!"

[Panther_99FS]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockheedmartin/2735801895/sizes/l/in/set-72157606438408274/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockheedmartin/2723362942/sizes/l/in/set-72157606438408274/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lockheedmartin/2723361984/sizes/l/in/set-72157606438408274/

[Snuffy]

Whatever happened to ... "The more guns the better?"

[redriver6]

is that one of the LCS prototypes?

i've seen the other one in Mobile...

[Willy]

I think it is. Not sure though. A lot of what I was on were leftovers from WWII.

[MudMarine]

Whatever happened to ... "The more guns the better?"

Gone with radar. They can find you too easy now. It's about guided munition now. The day of the 16" gun maybe gone, but I'll never forget the BB-NJ's 16" guns shelling "the Root".

[TARPSBird]

A core crew of 40 sailors to man the ship, cross-trained to perform a variety of duties (probably not all that well). Good luck when that first Exocet or coastal defense missile hits, we'll see how all those automated systems work. Read all about it here: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/archive/2010/September/Pages/DutyAboardtheLittoralCombatShip%E2%80%98Gruelingbu tManageable%E2%80%99.aspx

[Roadburner440]

Would make me pretty nervous to be on one of those.. the current ships in the fleet are undermanned as it is (always saying to do more with less, both personnel and $$).. I just hope they put a lot of dedicated research into all this technology. Cause things always find a way to fail at the wrong moment, and depending on the inter dependencies with other systems might make the ship useless. Guess we better keep the old H-60 ready for launch with weapons.. Looks like the flight deck is nice at least.

[CG_1976]

Yep that is the LCS 1 USS Freedom built up in Wisconsin.

[Bjoern]

The Navy's new toy doesn't look too bad. :wiggle:

[redriver6]

The Navy's new toy doesn't look too bad. :wiggle:

Freedom's competition which was launched in 2008 is LCS 2 USS Independence (built by Australian co. Austal) a trimaran...with a top speed of 50 knots...

[Willy]

Would make me pretty nervous to be on one of those.. the current ships in the fleet are undermanned as it is (always saying to do more with less, both personnel and $$).. I just hope they put a lot of dedicated research into all this technology. Cause things always find a way to fail at the wrong moment, and depending on the inter dependencies with other systems might make the ship useless. Guess we better keep the old H-60 ready for launch with weapons.. Looks like the flight deck is nice at least.

When I was active duty, I hated those automated engineering plants. Not only were we short handed to begin with, but when something broke, we usually didn't have the part onboard to fix it with. I was on one ship that spent 2 days bobbing around adrift in the Bay of Biscay because of a circuit board in the electronic controls for the main engine decided to let some smoke escape out of the circuitry. They had to helo in a replacement out to us.

That's just in normal operations. Now imagine what it would be like in wartime when the bad guys are putting holes in the vessel trying to sink it.

[Bone]

A nice EMP warhead would prorably do wonders for this boat.

[Roadburner440]

When I have been deployed we have never had a powerplant casualty (knock on wood), but plenty of engineering casualties involving chill water, prop shafts, prop pitch controls, and of course water plant casualties. Same as you described above.. Either had to return to port, or in the case of the water osmosis plant took a couple months to get a part to us. So it was running at minimum capacity. Water hours are so much fun, lol.

[Willy]

My last Med cruise, the ship I was on had two boilers for auxiliary steam. Had to have at least one to distill fresh water. One broke down just after we got into the Med. No problem we still had the other. Then heading for Kos Greece, the other went down hard. We ended up staying in Haifa Israel for a month while Norfolk Naval Shipyard sent a crew out to rebuild both boilers. The best month of the whole cruise for me!

Back in the 70s it used to be that we'd have enough spare parts stashed away in Engineering to get us through most casualties. But Supply decided they didn't like that and took them all away to where we'd have to go through them to get anything to fix the equipment. Sure made life harder for all of us engineers.

[Bjoern]

Freedom's competition which was launched in 2008 is LCS 2 USS Independence (built by Australian co. Austal) a trimaran...with a top speed of 50 knots...

There's very few ships that are stealthy *and* pleasant on the eyes. The Independence isn't one of them...

[Odie]

Freedom's competition which was launched in 2008 is LCS 2 USS Independence (built by Australian co. Austal) a trimaran...with a top speed of 50 knots...


Definitely has that "Star Wars Imperial ship" construction look.....