Which will jump off this ship?
Apr 032016
Mar 192016
The Brits have themselves a new research vessel. Looks like this:
They’re holding open voting to name the ship. Some of the names suggested have been the RRS Henry Worseley and the RRS David Attenborough. But what name is winning the popular vote just now? Hmm, let’s see…
‘Boaty McBoatface’ Is Currently Leading An Open Vote To Name The New £200 Million Royal Research Ship
This is a reminder, as if it was really needed, that democracy isn’t *always* the answer. “What shall we name our ship?” “Engine #2 has burst into flames. What shall we do?” “Should we use the power of government to stomp all over such-and-such ethnic/religious/economic group?” These are the sort of questions it’s often best to *not* put in the hands of the mob.
Dec 312015
Passengers horrified after blood seeps out of cruise ship elevator
The article is vague, but it seems that an electrician was working in or on an elevator and got squished or chopped or something. The result, as can be seen in the video, is a whole lot of blood pouring down the outside of the door.
It’s bad enough that modern cruise ships have to deal with ghost pirates and pirate ghosts, but now also ghost electricians (or electrician ghosts, I always forget how that works).
Nov 252015
Donations save iconic American ship from the scrapyard
The cruise liner SS United States, currently moldering away dockside near Philadelphia, has received $600,000 in donations to aid in restoration. Sounds nice, but the costs of it just sitting at dockside – fees and caretakers and such – are $60,000 per month.
Nov 212015
Because this spoof of the first Force Awakens trailer is fricken awesome.
Who suspected that US Navy onboard droids were so advanced?
Nov 112015
Hmmm…
Putin TV: Russia’s Got a Dirty Bomb
A Kremlin-owned TV network broadcast footage of a meeting with Putin, with the camera looking over someone’s shoulder and getting a clear image of a page in a report detailing a design of a submarine-deployed “dirty bomb” designed to reduce American coastal cities to radioactive wastelands. Supposedly the Russian government had a conniption and censored the image from later airings.
The question is:
1) Is this what it presents itself as, with the Russians developing such a weapons system and somehow mistakenly letting it slip onto the air?
2) is it disinformation, intentionally aired in order to… what? Make people in coastal cities freak out for some reason?
The page in question:
Apparently this is a translation:
“Ocean Multipurpose System Status-6” and “Developer—Rubin Design Bureau.” And, below that, some explanatory text and illustrations.
“Purpose—the defeat of the important economic facilities in the area of the enemy coast,” the text reads, “and causing unacceptable damage to… the country through the establishment of extensive zones of radioactive contamination, unsuitable for implementation in these areas of military, economic, business or other activity for a long time.”
The design appears to be a large torpedo with a large nuke in the nose. It appears that it’d be slung underneath the carrying sub rather than carried within it.
Whether or not this is a real project or just the usual Putinesque disinformation, it does point out an important difference between the US and Russia: the US has a *lot* of it’s industry, economy and population in coastal cities, Russia does not. This means that America is more vulnerable to attack from the sea; a cargo ship with a nuke in the hold, or a nuclear “mine” lurking offshore big enough to make a good tsunami, can trash a city… but only a coastal city.
Sep 032015
China shows off secret ‘carrier-killer’ missile at Victory Day parade
While the US has spent decades and many millions of dollars throwing money down the rat-hole of scramjets to create airbreathing hypersonic missiles, the Chinese have apparently fielded a Mach 10 anti-ship missile with a range of 900 miles. They’ve done this by just building a sizable ballistic missile, a straight-up solid propellant rocket. Not as advanced or as neato as a scramjet cruiser, but it’s faster than any conceivable airbreather and, big as it is, it’s transportable by truck. One of these would presumably be able to poke a hole straight through the likes of an aircraft carrier. Of course, nobody in the west is all that sure about how accurate this thing is; it has some form of terminal guidance, so at least in theory is should be pretty accurate.
Photos of the truck-transportable missiles (in canisters) at the link. (Might be copyrighted, dunno)
If the Chinese demonstrate that this missile is accurate and is capable of trashing a carrier, it could really mess with the balance of power in the region. Missiles like this would be difficult to intercept, and would likely push US Navy aircraft carriers well away from Chinese territory. Not just mainland China, of course, but also away from Taiwan and the South China Sea
Also note just how old-school Commie Chinese military parades look.
Jul 272015
First up:
Destroyer USS The Sullivans Damaged After Missile Explodes After Launch
An SM-2 Block III missile went BLAMMO just after launch, setting a fire on the ship.
Well, that’s embarrassing. But then the Russian Navy (Navy Day in Sevastopol) is not to be outdone:
Looks like the solid rocket boosters for an SS-N-14 “Silex” torpedo-carrying missile broke away just a little early.
Jun 192015
I’m reasonably sure, but not 100% on this: if a Navy log book lists dates and times (in format like “0217” or “1645”), those times are in Greenwich time, yes?
Jun 182015
The USS United States (CVA-58) was a supercarrier that was begun in 1948, but never finished. Even though the keel was laid, the actual layout of the final ship has always been pretty poorly defined in published sources. It would have been an angled-deck supercarrier of modern design, but with no island at all, just a flat deck. But diagrams of it have always been vague, unofficial or dubious.
Huzzah! The National Archives has a number of high-rez plans of the ship as designed in October 1947. Five diagrams of slightly differing study concepts are available; I’m not sure which – if any – most accurately depicts the ship as it was eventually to be defined.
CV-New Study Arrangement Plans
Here’s one of the diagrams… greatly reduced in size. See the National Archives page for the full-rez versions.
