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A very good friend of mine sent me this info about our U.S. Navy's newest high speed attack ship called Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) and they can go to speeds of 44 knots (51 mph) as they will be used primarly to hunt down and kill the pirate boats that are attacking commercial shipping off the coast of Africa.
It's so unlike anything I've ever seen (and my Dad was 20yr Navy) that even that single deck gun looks outta place!
I'd bet John Paul Jones would freak out at the sight of this "boat"!
Heck i trip out seeing the constant advances as i was in the Navy during the 80's as i'm stoked to see how advanced it's become since Prez Reagan along with Sec of Defense Weinberger along with Sec of the Navy Lehman first started the 600 ship armada in 1981 .
These have been in development for quite a while already.
They are really sleek ships and they look like they'd be fun to be on- give those pirates what-for!
Heck i trip out seeing the constant advances as i was in the Navy during the 80's as i'm stoked to see how advanced it's become since Prez Reagan along with Sec of Defense Weinberger along with Sec of the Navy Lehman first started the 600 ship armada in 1981
Yep President Reagan kept my mighty busy during the 80's. I worked for the Navy (civilian) installing test instrumentation for sea trails of new and modified classes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tightwad
... It's so unlike anything I've ever seen (and my Dad was 20yr Navy) that even that single deck gun looks outta place!
I was talking to an officer on a Spruance DDG-963 class destroyer and noted the difference between WWII destroyers which bristled with gun turrets and this new ship which only had two 5" guns. He said "Yes there's a difference. These new ones don't miss." Automated and computer controlled, they load and move extremely fast.
(image is public domain) USS Yorktown (CG 48) fires its 5 inch gun at a target drone during a gun exercise.
Yep President Reagan kept my mighty busy during the 80's. I worked for the Navy (civilian) installing test instrumentation for sea trails of new and modified classes.
I was talking to an officer on a Spruance DDG-963 class destroyer and noted the difference between WWII destroyers which bristled with gun turrets and this new ship which only had two 5" guns. He said "Yes there's a difference. These new ones don't miss." Automated and computer controlled, they load and move extremely fast.
(image is public domain) USS Yorktown (CG 48) fires its 5 inch gun at a target drone during a gun exercise.
Talk about a difference of a couple of years can make as when i first joined in 1981 most of the surface ships were the Steam Turbine propulsion systems although most subs were Nuke and i believe so were most Carriers and by the mid 80's they had been mostly converted to the modern Gas Turbines.
A shipmate friend of mine who was a Machinist Mate gave me a tour of one of the engine rooms (i was in navigation) and so i asked him why there were so many brooms all over the engine room and he said it was because the PSI in the steam lines is highly pressurised and if a pin hole leak were to ever occur it would cut in half what went across it including steel and so they would use the broom handles to sweep the steam line to determine where the leak was as you couldn't see it but you would hear a high pitch whine in the general area in which they could then isolate it and make repairs once they shut the steam off feeding that line. He said it would cut a person in half if you walked across it if the leak was at waist level.
Here's a link on how modern high pressure jet cutters work; I can imagine the pressure and steam/heat combination could prove quite lethal to anyone in it's path. Water jet cutter - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I should have stated that they had never had any high pressurised ruptured steam lines back then but that they were trained in case it ever did happen. I imagine it was a worry during WWII when ships were getting hit with torpredos and bombs and even undirect hits could have had enough concussion to rupture the lines back then.
Back to the high speed ships as i remember back then reading on 'Navy Times' about the hydroplane boats/ships that were supposed to come out in the 1990's that were supposed to also be super fast but i wonder what ever became of the program to develope them?
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Is that ever a different kinda "boat".
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