A Suck Ride in a Sub

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., history, news, nukes, ships, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Dec 132021
 

The voyage of the USS Connecticut to San Diego sounds like a month of food poisoning.

Damaged Submarine Likely Had A “Nightmare Voyage” To San Diego Says Veteran Submariner

Likely did 6000 miles at 10 knots on the surface. Ride would have been rough because the friggen’ nose got ripped off… and because submarines aren’t designed to sail on the surface, the boat would have rolled like a drunken Bill Clinton.

They estimate repairs could take *years.* This is not the sort of industrial capability that wins wars with near-peer opponents. Early in WWII, the USS Yorktown was blowed the ᚠᚪᛣᚳ up and returned to sea after 48 hours of repair, serving admirably to lay a historic beatdown on the Japanese navy at Midway before finally being taken down by masses of aircraft and a salvo of torpedoes. None of that “years in drydock” ᛒᚪᛚᛚᛋᚻᛁᛏ… it was rebuilt in a damn hurry and sent back to the fight like a boss. Today the Navy runs one of only *three* Seawolf class subs into a friggen’ rock and it’s out of commission for a Presidential administration.

 Posted by at 8:44 pm

Falsified Steel

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, ships, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Nov 092021
 

Metallurgist admits faking steel-test results for Navy subs

And not just a few, but Elaine Thomas falsified strength testing data for hundreds of production runs going back to the 80’s while working for a foundry that provided steel used in the construction of submarines. The company she worked for only figured it out in 2017; they did the right thing in promptly canning her ass and letting the Navy know, but they apparently tried to pass this off as a series of mistakes, not fraud. Unclear why they would do that, maybe they thought that *they* would be on the hook more for having a dishonest employee rather than merely an incompetent one.

 Posted by at 10:39 am

Naval Institute Press is having a sale

 awesomeness, B-47 and B-52 Origins and Evolution, books, history, Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird Origins and Evolution, sales & specials, ships  No Responses »
Nov 012021
 

Half off the price of their books, plus free shipping. Woo! So if you have any money left over after you buy suspiciously large numbers of copies of “SR-71” and “B-47/B-52,” go get you some books about ships and such.

U.S. Naval Institute

 

And if you end up saving some cash on a haul of books, why not show your boundless appreciation…

 

 


Tips


 Posted by at 8:47 pm

Could it be… Cthulhu???

 AARRRGH, Crazy, Gah., news, ships, ಠ_ಠ  No Responses »
Oct 072021
 

US submarine hits underwater object in South China Sea

The Seawolf class USS Connecticut hit *something* hard enough to cause a number of injuries among the crew. Article doesn’t say at what depth this occurred; could well have happened on the surface. And given that this happened in the South China Sea, it could well have been a Chinese naval vessel.

But there are always other possibilities.

 Posted by at 3:39 pm

Aussies, nuke subs and France

 Hmm..., news, nukes, politics, ships  No Responses »
Sep 172021
 

Why France is angry about the US and UK giving Australia nuclear-powered submarines

In response to the trilateral agreement, a French official told CNN on Friday that France has recalled its ambassador to the US for “consultation” — marking what’s believed to be the first time the French have resorted to such a move in modern times.
The French ambassador to Australia has been recalled as well, the official said.
The problem: France had a deal with Oz to provide diesel subs. But Australia changed its mind and wisely went with nuclear subs. Why? Because the Pacific Ocean is friggen’ *big* and the Chinese are getting pushy. Now to get New Zealand on board…
The story also points out that the French Embassy has cancelled/curtailed some parties.
 Posted by at 5:16 pm

That’ll buff right out

 awesomeness, history, nukes, science, ships, youtube  No Responses »
Sep 122021
 

Some interesting footage of a ship getting nuked. This was the USS LSM-60, a “landing ship, medium” that was used as a float to suspend an atom bomb underwater during the Operation Crossroads-Baker test, July 25, 1946. A “Fat Man” style bomb was in a small submarine 90 feet below the ship when it went off with a yield of about 22 kilotons. No recognizable bits of the LSM-60 were ever located.

 Posted by at 7:21 pm

Shocking the Ford

 awesomeness, news, ships, weapons  No Responses »
Jun 242021
 

This would be more impressive with nukes:

Full Ship Shock Trials – Event 1

The aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) completes the first scheduled explosive event of Full Ship Shock Trials while underway in the Atlantic Ocean, June 18, 2021. The U.S. Navy conducts shock trials of new ship designs using live explosives to confirm that our warships can continue to meet demanding mission requirements under harsh conditions they might encounter in battle.

 

 Posted by at 6:58 pm
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