May 21, 2008
On the Diplomacy Front
Girl Duo to Represent Japan in 'World Cosplay
Summit'
We can only stand by and hope that Mothera will be appeased...
Via Wonderduck...
(who says he is too tired to blog about this...while denying any involvement with vampires.)
UPDATE: I should have known...this innocuous tip from the Duck...it was a trap.
Summit'
We can only stand by and hope that Mothera will be appeased...
Via Wonderduck...
(who says he is too tired to blog about this...while denying any involvement with vampires.)
UPDATE: I should have known...this innocuous tip from the Duck...it was a trap.
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May 19, 2008
Dr. Who Season 3
I've watched the DVD set of third season of Dr Who over the last few days.
After the stellar first two seasons I had highly anticipated this.
Good points:
About the hottest "companion" ever. Freema Agyeman give a superb performance as Martha Jones, a savvy, and gorgeous med student who joins the Dr. on his trips through time and space. Martha is sharp as a tack, a fast learner and quite level headed.
Daleks...screeching and killing (while screeching).
The cat dude in the traffic jam...and his family.
Several interesting stories with neat ideas, great effects and superb pacing.
Bad points:
Most of those stories were saddled with tedious subplots ripped from the headlines of...er...ABC afterschool specials.
Not enough Daleks screeching (and killing while screeching).
The 'Docktah' is not just PC, but seems to be channeling Leon Kass at times.
Pig people...which go a long way to cancel out Daleks....
The Doctor comes off as even more of a pompous, callous ass...
...and he keeps pining for Rose (a previous companion).
****************************************************
I did not see "Blink" as it refused to play on my computer.
Very uneven season, most disappointing were the Dalek episodes, (which was a very interesting concept muddled by silly, unnecessary subplots, pig-people and a high pitched squeaky voice) and the season finale, which started off absolutely superb, built fantastically and petered out with a Gainax ending of sorts.
Nevertheless it was, still enjoyable, though it is by far the weakest of the 3 I've seen thus far. I hope this trend doesn't continue.
After the stellar first two seasons I had highly anticipated this. Good points:
About the hottest "companion" ever. Freema Agyeman give a superb performance as Martha Jones, a savvy, and gorgeous med student who joins the Dr. on his trips through time and space. Martha is sharp as a tack, a fast learner and quite level headed.
Daleks...screeching and killing (while screeching).
The cat dude in the traffic jam...and his family.
Several interesting stories with neat ideas, great effects and superb pacing.
Bad points:
Most of those stories were saddled with tedious subplots ripped from the headlines of...er...ABC afterschool specials.
Not enough Daleks screeching (and killing while screeching).
The 'Docktah' is not just PC, but seems to be channeling Leon Kass at times.
Pig people...which go a long way to cancel out Daleks....
The Doctor comes off as even more of a pompous, callous ass...
...and he keeps pining for Rose (a previous companion).
****************************************************
I did not see "Blink" as it refused to play on my computer.
Very uneven season, most disappointing were the Dalek episodes, (which was a very interesting concept muddled by silly, unnecessary subplots, pig-people and a high pitched squeaky voice) and the season finale, which started off absolutely superb, built fantastically and petered out with a Gainax ending of sorts.
Nevertheless it was, still enjoyable, though it is by far the weakest of the 3 I've seen thus far. I hope this trend doesn't continue.
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Numbers Again
CDR Salamander has an analysis of Australia's decision to buy an off the shelf Spanish frigate design as opposed to a somewhat more capable American vessel.
One of the Spanish vessels is seen here visiting Sydney.
The decision cost the Aussies 16 missile tubes...but the loss of tonnage and the use of an already existing design resulted in a large manpower savings and a sufficient cost savings to allow them to buy a fourth destroyer for nearly the same money as 3. Additionally since this is a design that has been built...the bugs are already largely worked out so the cost overruns are less likely.
According to Eagle 1 the Aussies learned their lesson from the Collins submarine acquisition, in which they got one of the best diesel subs on earth, but could only afford a few and they are expensive to maintain.
The USN is facing challenges in maintaining even a 313 ship navy in part because it buys the absolute best of everything. While it is important to have the top tier vessels like subs and carriers be top of the line, escorts need to be built in numbers, not just for screening the capital ships, but for escorting civilian convoys and detached duties. As Brickmuppet Blog has pointed out before, the best often is the enemy of good enough.
It should be noted in passing that the Spanish design is one of the AFCOM (Advanced frigate consortium) designs and as such can be built by Bath Iron Works.
Update: In the comments, the mysterious "leesea" points out that CDR Salamander posted the analysis of Joe Katzman of Defense Industry Daily.
One of the Spanish vessels is seen here visiting Sydney.
The decision cost the Aussies 16 missile tubes...but the loss of tonnage and the use of an already existing design resulted in a large manpower savings and a sufficient cost savings to allow them to buy a fourth destroyer for nearly the same money as 3. Additionally since this is a design that has been built...the bugs are already largely worked out so the cost overruns are less likely.
According to Eagle 1 the Aussies learned their lesson from the Collins submarine acquisition, in which they got one of the best diesel subs on earth, but could only afford a few and they are expensive to maintain.
The USN is facing challenges in maintaining even a 313 ship navy in part because it buys the absolute best of everything. While it is important to have the top tier vessels like subs and carriers be top of the line, escorts need to be built in numbers, not just for screening the capital ships, but for escorting civilian convoys and detached duties. As Brickmuppet Blog has pointed out before, the best often is the enemy of good enough.
It should be noted in passing that the Spanish design is one of the AFCOM (Advanced frigate consortium) designs and as such can be built by Bath Iron Works.
Update: In the comments, the mysterious "leesea" points out that CDR Salamander posted the analysis of Joe Katzman of Defense Industry Daily.
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Ummm...What?
Via Wonderduck
Via Wonderduck
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May 18, 2008
Some Beleated Jabberjawing on the "Chamberlain Smear"
Last week I did little but apply my right palm to my face when Obama's bizarre overreaction to an uncharacteristically good Bush speech. In the words of The Instapundit ...
Tonight I stumbled onto two less succinct but more comprehensive takes on this, which are worthy of linkage simply because of the spectrum of opinion.
The Anchoress likes the POTUS a lot and agrees with him on rather more issues than I do. She has a thoughtful roundup including the full text of the speech here and here.
Galrhan by contrast, strongly dislikes the the President, yet, is also deeply disturbed by Obama's reaction to a substantively correct speech.
It is not good for the nation to have such a stark contrast in perceived fortitude between the two candidates.
MEMO TO THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN: When somebody condemns appeasement, it doesn't help things to jump up and yell"Hey! He's talking about ME!"
Tonight I stumbled onto two less succinct but more comprehensive takes on this, which are worthy of linkage simply because of the spectrum of opinion.
The Anchoress likes the POTUS a lot and agrees with him on rather more issues than I do. She has a thoughtful roundup including the full text of the speech here and here.
Galrhan by contrast, strongly dislikes the the President, yet, is also deeply disturbed by Obama's reaction to a substantively correct speech.
Obama must have a guilt complex or something, how else can one explain how he sees this as a personal attack? Note, Hillary didn't react like a crying child, in fact she didn't react at all like Bush was talking about her. Why? Because no one in the world doubts she'll kick their ass, saw off their nuts, and mail them home to mommy. Everyone in the world but his supporters thinks Obama is weak, and it is why all the trash in the world love him. His reaction, and its associated pity party, only reinforces that perception of weakness.
It is not good for the nation to have such a stark contrast in perceived fortitude between the two candidates.
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May 15, 2008
On Hunting, FanGirls and CatBlogging
Hunters...
A fangirl relaxes with a good book.
OK...a book....
A cat...blogging...
Blogging more than me right now actually.
A fangirl relaxes with a good book.
OK...a book....
A cat...blogging...
Blogging more than me right now actually.
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May 14, 2008
A Good Treatment for Utter Dispair
Bwahahahahahahaha!!!
Of course she scares me less than Obama, but I still get to laugh.
Shamelessly lifted from Rand Simberg.
Bwahahahahahahaha!!!
Of course she scares me less than Obama, but I still get to laugh.
Shamelessly lifted from Rand Simberg.
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Oh Dang...I Haven't Ragged on Huckabee in Months
The Anchoress however, has not been so neglectful.
Read the whole thing. In fairness, it concerns some of his more fanatical backers rather than Huckabee himself but it is a reminder (as if one was needed) that the Jackasses don't have a lock on creepy messianic political campaigns in their primaries this cycle...just the successful one.
Read the whole thing. In fairness, it concerns some of his more fanatical backers rather than Huckabee himself but it is a reminder (as if one was needed) that the Jackasses don't have a lock on creepy messianic political campaigns in their primaries this cycle...just the successful one.
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Primal Scream
Bad day
Bad week
Bad month
Bad couple of months actually...
I withhold judgment on the year for now.
As hopeless and futile as my life seems right now, I'm not here, here, here, or here.
Perspective is not really a substitute for hope...but it is important.
Bad week
Bad month
Bad couple of months actually...
I withhold judgment on the year for now.
As hopeless and futile as my life seems right now, I'm not here, here, here, or here.
Perspective is not really a substitute for hope...but it is important.
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May 13, 2008
On the West Virginia Primary
Thoughtful analysis...with a Ghibli perspective.
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May 12, 2008
BEST NEWS STORY....EVAH!!
The United States Coast Guard has rescued the Navy sailing team.
via
via
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May 11, 2008
Joy in the Near Future
Astro posts on the assembly of his super-dimensional, wave motion, Minovsky modulated, paxis enhanced, shizuma powered, media optimized PC.
More importantly, at the end of said post he reveals that Welcome to the NHK volume 4 is not just a forlorn hope to be cruelly dashed...but an actual tangible item available for purchase! He has spoileriffic video to prove it!
Wo0t!!
This black comedy is tasteless, merciless, and sadistically cruel to its target audience. It is also one of the better character shows in recent years.The neurotic ensemble is very well realized and several of the characters are actually quite poignant.
One thing that is remarkable about this series is the dub. I'm more tolerant of dubs than many fans as I often am doing other things while the TV is on, however this, hands down, one is one of the best I have ever heard for a TV show. Only Black Lagoon had voice acting and direction this good.
As to volume 3, it was excellent and the ending left me really fearful of the possibility that #4 would never ship due to ADV's recent issues.
( Being slow, I did not realize what was up until she tossed the cellphone.)
Anyway, I highly recommend this show.
Please avail yourself of spoiler tags in the comments.
More importantly, at the end of said post he reveals that Welcome to the NHK volume 4 is not just a forlorn hope to be cruelly dashed...but an actual tangible item available for purchase! He has spoileriffic video to prove it!
Wo0t!!
This black comedy is tasteless, merciless, and sadistically cruel to its target audience. It is also one of the better character shows in recent years.The neurotic ensemble is very well realized and several of the characters are actually quite poignant.
One thing that is remarkable about this series is the dub. I'm more tolerant of dubs than many fans as I often am doing other things while the TV is on, however this, hands down, one is one of the best I have ever heard for a TV show. Only Black Lagoon had voice acting and direction this good.
As to volume 3, it was excellent and the ending left me really fearful of the possibility that #4 would never ship due to ADV's recent issues.
( Being slow, I did not realize what was up until she tossed the cellphone.)
Anyway, I highly recommend this show.
Please avail yourself of spoiler tags in the comments.
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What could we buy for 6 NSC's? Comparison shoping...
The second of the Legend class, USCGC WAESCHE WMEC 751 is nearing completion and is naturally under considerable scrutiny regards quality control and design issues learned in BERTHOLF.
The Fiasco that has been the National Security Cutter program has led to some laypeople to propose putting a fork in it.
The response of course is that the ships are still needed, restarting the program would be expensive and would not take into account the hull specific lessons learned with the lead vessel.
If all lessons are learned and this ship is completed without the issues of its predecessor then the Coast Guard will have a very fine ship indeed. EVERYTHING I have hard about these vessels design is that they embody every thing that cuttermen have been asking for for 30 years.
Of course it is expensive, the best costs a lot.
The best can also be the enemy of the good.
These high endurance cutters, if they don't have any cost overruns will cost over 450 million dollars apiece....for offshore patrol vessels.
I recently blundered onto this PDF, which is concerned with the state of the Australian shipbuilding industry. This is interesting because at the bottom there is a list of most of the ships built in Australia in the last few years...and their costs....in US Dollars!
Australia has been building a lot of well regarded low end naval vessels for various countries....lets see what those countries are paying and what they get.
New Zealand has ordered a series of offshore patrol vessels from the Australian firm of Tenix.
These are actually designed by the Finnish firm of Aker which designed the Healy as well as the new Mackinaw. They are ice strengthened and designed to serve in the horrific conditions of the southern ocean, which is broadly comparable to the Bering Sea in sheer nastiness. A good overview of them is here.
They are slower than the WMEC 750's and they are certainly inferior in some respects, but they cost 45 million. The WMEC 750's cost 450+million (and the Bertholf is breaking 600 mil)..thus being generous and going with the promised rather than demonstrated cost one comes up with.....
10 of these for one NSC...or 60 of these vessels for the cost of the remaining 6 Legends.
The finest ship in the world can only be one place at a time...as the Russians like to say, quantity has a quality all its own.
Going down the scale we find another Tenix design. This time for the Philippine Coast Guard, the 56m San Juan class provides broadly similar capabilities to the Coast Guards 210' Reliance class. They are slightly smaller, have about half the crew and 6 knots faster. A company brochure on them is here and there is an industry analysis of their construction here.
They are fitted for (but not with) a 25-35mm auto-cannon on the foredeck (a strong point and provision for a magazine are provided) and carry such gold plated items as a decompression chamber for diver mishaps and a rescue/triage compartment for 300 people! At 25 knots they are slower than the USCG would like but unlike the Otago class mentioned above they are developed from a fast attack craft, thus their hulls are likely more amenable to high speed with uprated engines. Of course the Phillipine CG chose these engines for their outstanding fuel efficiency...something that is likely to become more pressing than 3-4 knots speed. No helicopter hangar but they have a pad and at any rate at 183 feet long are close to the USCGs high end patrol boats, of the Cyclone class. (The CG is short of patrol boats btw.)
The low balled cost of one WHEC750 would buy 23 of these vessels. All 6 would provide us with 138 patrol boats...with helicopter decks.
Golly....
This SAR vessel is the break point between the medium endurance cutter and patrol boat. The Australian firm of Austal, which is involved in the LCS contract provides the Royal Australian Navy with a similarly sized patrol boat, the Armidale class. These vessels have no helicopter deck but have a 30mm gun two large rescue/inspection craft, a speed of 26 knots and are designed for patrol in the hellish southern ocean as well as SAR ops in the teeth of Willie Willies. They are very seaworthy for their size and are reportedly highly regarded.
At 14 million apiece 32 could be purchased for the cost of one WHEC750 or 182 could be had for the cost of the rest of the program.
Golly willakers....
Tenix makes a broadly similar steel hulled, ice strengthened vessel for the Kiwis that is a bit more expensive at 20million a pop.
Due to the size restrictions of many small boat stations, the Coast Guard prefers its patrol boats to be somewhat smaller than this, which is one reason we didn't simply build more of the successful WPC179's.
Helpfully Tenix provides a smaller companion to its 56m Search and Rescue
Vessel....The 35 Meter patrol boat is very much more in line with USCG ideas on patrol boats....seen here behind one of her larger half sisters.
30 kts, a 30mm gun and a rescuee/triage area (not included in the PDF) . At 8 million dollars apiece thats 56 per NSC and for the program...336
Jeepers Golly Willakers!!
OK this is getting silly...pier space alone is an issue not to mention 6720 cuttermen if the vessels have a realistic crew of 20 in CG service.
There are lots of designs from around the world including, I'm sure the US, I just found numbers for the Aussie designs.
In an operational area as big as that of the USCG some large cutters are certainly necessary, and a far larger number of small patrol boats is desirable. Also the NSC program is not the alpha and omega of USCG budget.
The point of this above the paygrade rant is to suggest that we could spend the money better than on 8 ships, we plan to run ragged. This is true however fine the ships in question may be.
We could buy scads of cruising and inshore patrol cutters and use the money saved to buy a few icebreakers which we have to buy anyway, or even airships.....which are certainly cool , but I don't have any cost info.
UPDATE:
Spelling, syntax errors fixed.
There are many things that the linked PDF does not cover, including life cycle costs, such as fuel consumption and manning. As stated previously...contractor quality control issues notwithstanding, the Legend Class is a very impressive design. The purpose of the post is not to bash that design, but rather to ask if that capability is worth the reduction in unit numbers it inevitably entails.
Welcome readers of Unofficial Coast Guard Blog and Information Dissemination . This blog has no format and generally deals with fluff, but, if this interests you, then you might peruse the category list, particularly weapons n' kit and Maritime Matters ....Thanks for stopping by!
The second of the Legend class, USCGC WAESCHE WMEC 751 is nearing completion and is naturally under considerable scrutiny regards quality control and design issues learned in BERTHOLF.
The Fiasco that has been the National Security Cutter program has led to some laypeople to propose putting a fork in it.
The response of course is that the ships are still needed, restarting the program would be expensive and would not take into account the hull specific lessons learned with the lead vessel.
If all lessons are learned and this ship is completed without the issues of its predecessor then the Coast Guard will have a very fine ship indeed. EVERYTHING I have hard about these vessels design is that they embody every thing that cuttermen have been asking for for 30 years.
Of course it is expensive, the best costs a lot.
The best can also be the enemy of the good.
These high endurance cutters, if they don't have any cost overruns will cost over 450 million dollars apiece....for offshore patrol vessels.
I recently blundered onto this PDF, which is concerned with the state of the Australian shipbuilding industry. This is interesting because at the bottom there is a list of most of the ships built in Australia in the last few years...and their costs....in US Dollars!
Australia has been building a lot of well regarded low end naval vessels for various countries....lets see what those countries are paying and what they get.
New Zealand has ordered a series of offshore patrol vessels from the Australian firm of Tenix.
These are actually designed by the Finnish firm of Aker which designed the Healy as well as the new Mackinaw. They are ice strengthened and designed to serve in the horrific conditions of the southern ocean, which is broadly comparable to the Bering Sea in sheer nastiness. A good overview of them is here.
They are slower than the WMEC 750's and they are certainly inferior in some respects, but they cost 45 million. The WMEC 750's cost 450+million (and the Bertholf is breaking 600 mil)..thus being generous and going with the promised rather than demonstrated cost one comes up with.....
10 of these for one NSC...or 60 of these vessels for the cost of the remaining 6 Legends.
The finest ship in the world can only be one place at a time...as the Russians like to say, quantity has a quality all its own.
Going down the scale we find another Tenix design. This time for the Philippine Coast Guard, the 56m San Juan class provides broadly similar capabilities to the Coast Guards 210' Reliance class. They are slightly smaller, have about half the crew and 6 knots faster. A company brochure on them is here and there is an industry analysis of their construction here.
They are fitted for (but not with) a 25-35mm auto-cannon on the foredeck (a strong point and provision for a magazine are provided) and carry such gold plated items as a decompression chamber for diver mishaps and a rescue/triage compartment for 300 people! At 25 knots they are slower than the USCG would like but unlike the Otago class mentioned above they are developed from a fast attack craft, thus their hulls are likely more amenable to high speed with uprated engines. Of course the Phillipine CG chose these engines for their outstanding fuel efficiency...something that is likely to become more pressing than 3-4 knots speed. No helicopter hangar but they have a pad and at any rate at 183 feet long are close to the USCGs high end patrol boats, of the Cyclone class. (The CG is short of patrol boats btw.)
The low balled cost of one WHEC750 would buy 23 of these vessels. All 6 would provide us with 138 patrol boats...with helicopter decks.
Golly....
This SAR vessel is the break point between the medium endurance cutter and patrol boat. The Australian firm of Austal, which is involved in the LCS contract provides the Royal Australian Navy with a similarly sized patrol boat, the Armidale class. These vessels have no helicopter deck but have a 30mm gun two large rescue/inspection craft, a speed of 26 knots and are designed for patrol in the hellish southern ocean as well as SAR ops in the teeth of Willie Willies. They are very seaworthy for their size and are reportedly highly regarded.
At 14 million apiece 32 could be purchased for the cost of one WHEC750 or 182 could be had for the cost of the rest of the program.
Golly willakers....
Tenix makes a broadly similar steel hulled, ice strengthened vessel for the Kiwis that is a bit more expensive at 20million a pop.
Due to the size restrictions of many small boat stations, the Coast Guard prefers its patrol boats to be somewhat smaller than this, which is one reason we didn't simply build more of the successful WPC179's.
Helpfully Tenix provides a smaller companion to its 56m Search and Rescue
Vessel....The 35 Meter patrol boat is very much more in line with USCG ideas on patrol boats....seen here behind one of her larger half sisters. 30 kts, a 30mm gun and a rescuee/triage area (not included in the PDF) . At 8 million dollars apiece thats 56 per NSC and for the program...336
Jeepers Golly Willakers!!
OK this is getting silly...pier space alone is an issue not to mention 6720 cuttermen if the vessels have a realistic crew of 20 in CG service.
There are lots of designs from around the world including, I'm sure the US, I just found numbers for the Aussie designs.
In an operational area as big as that of the USCG some large cutters are certainly necessary, and a far larger number of small patrol boats is desirable. Also the NSC program is not the alpha and omega of USCG budget.
The point of this above the paygrade rant is to suggest that we could spend the money better than on 8 ships, we plan to run ragged. This is true however fine the ships in question may be.
We could buy scads of cruising and inshore patrol cutters and use the money saved to buy a few icebreakers which we have to buy anyway, or even airships.....which are certainly cool , but I don't have any cost info.
UPDATE:
Spelling, syntax errors fixed.
There are many things that the linked PDF does not cover, including life cycle costs, such as fuel consumption and manning. As stated previously...contractor quality control issues notwithstanding, the Legend Class is a very impressive design. The purpose of the post is not to bash that design, but rather to ask if that capability is worth the reduction in unit numbers it inevitably entails.
Welcome readers of Unofficial Coast Guard Blog and Information Dissemination . This blog has no format and generally deals with fluff, but, if this interests you, then you might peruse the category list, particularly weapons n' kit and Maritime Matters ....Thanks for stopping by!
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May 10, 2008
Use What you Have...Or Throw a Fit?
Over at the Unofficial Coast Guard Blog, Peter Stinson is feeling played.
I am respectfully in disagreement.
Here is the deal. The Coast Guard bought a super whammodyne cutter some time ago. Named after the first Commandant of the Coast Guard, it is the largest vessel other than icebreakers the USCG has ever purchased.
It is bigger than a Perry Class frigate, has an innovative stern launch arrangement for its boats. It can conduct helicopter operations in Sea State 6. It brings together all the lessons learned from over 2 centuries of institutional expertise. It is ...on paper...a spectacular vessel.
As you likely guessed from the mention of paper in that sentence...it also has, as they say..."issues".
There have been concerns raised about weather the vessel will meet its planned 30 year service life (It won't unless it gets a structural refit in the next 4-6 years). The vessel costs more than the entire defense budget of Ecuador, and its C4I system is not secure.
This last is possibly the most important and expensive. The communication, command, control, computing and intelligence system needs to be absolutely secure electronically. The Bertholf's leaks like a sieve.
Now the Coast Guard has certified the Cutter as seaworthy and allowed her to be commissioned. The ship passed her trial run and was given a clean bill of health by the Navy and Coast Guard.
They did this despite the fact that the C4I system is insecure and cannot be used for any encrypted messages.
This has some people up in arms, and while their upsettedness over the Bertholf is understandable (this thing has been a fiasco) I think that the anger over this particular bureaucratic maneuver is misplaced.
A few weeks ago Admiral Rosa came and talked to our unit about various Coast Guard issues, inspected the troops and took questions.
Naturally, Deepwater came up.
The Admiral said that the aviation component of the Deepwater Program was proceeding quite well but that there had been many expensive lessons learned on the maritime side.
We were told that the structural issues on Bertholf were rather overblown and would not affect seaworthiness or safety and that the C4I issue was in fact the big problem. The ship will commission though it will take a long time to get the C4I stuff TEMPEST certified. The vessel is still a useful asset and will be capable of doing Search And Rescue and other operations without TEMPEST standards being met.
(TEMPEST is a set of standards for military communications and that is all we will say on that.)
This is jives pretty well with the facts as we know them.....no real sinister cover up going on regards this. Its the most obvious solution to the problem. It is heads and shoulders over David Axe's proposal.
While his idea has appeal on a visceral level, the cathartic payoff of such a drama queen temper tantrum does not compensate for the loss of a still useful ship at a time the USCG's assets are stretched thin and at the end of their operational lives.
Despite the expense and gravity of the procurement debacle, I see no reason to get the vapors over this particular decision. Getting the ship certified for sea duty sans its full C4I suite was, IMHO, the correct thing to do. I assume the ship can even operate with bolt on encrypted radios from, say, the Army if it comes down to it.
Having a 500 million dollar "Building 750" sitting as a humiliation to the Coast Guard does not save any mariners in distress nor leverage any good out of this situation.
Now lots of people are anxious to see the heads of Admirals roll over this debacle. This is understandable. However, it now seems that most, if not all of the wrongdoing was on the civilian side, in particular a civilian who signed a document waiving the security standards for the contract....which he was not authorized to do, but is a get out of jail free card for the contractor.
The Coast Guard has not had much experience in procurement for the simple reason that we haven't been able to buy a lot. The only recent experience was with the 87's, the buoy tenders and the Healy. All went (er...relatively) smoothly as I understand it in part because the shipyards in question were small, civilian and generally ethically run....certainly in comparison with those who make money off the byzantine DOD procurement system.
The officers who took this job certainly did not cover themselves in glory, but it is unclear that they were incompetent or negligent as opposed to simply being inexperienced and unsupported in these matters. The contractor in question successfully butt-raped the Navy with regards to the LPD 17. Keep in mind that the USN has far more experience in dealing with defense contractors.
In the military, discipline and professional development is not about vengeance, it is about correcting mistakes and preventing their repetition.
Throwing senior officers overboard because they got set up for failure might give David Axe a woody, but it is not good leadership. To the extent that the Commandant is standing by and protecting his officers, many of whom have had long and honorable careers in the service of their country, he is doing exactly what good chiefs do for their enlisted people every day.
The priority now is to learn what went wrong, apply those lessons, see that this doesn't happen again and get the ship and her sister operational.
If there WAS wrongdoing on the part of any USCG officers then there is always a dark place in Leavenworth, but I think the Commandant is doing the proper thing trying to fix the problem rather than hunt for scapegoats.
I'm a third class enlisted and these issues are waaay above my paygrade, but the whole thing at this point seems to be beating a dead horse.
The ship has defective, insecure coms, and I would expect that the repair of the C4I system is going to be along the lines of George Washington's Axe.
However, it is not unseaworthy, it is new, big and capable of doing many things but is of limited use at a pier.
The USCG certified the ship as commissioned so they can use an imperfect asset to save lives and such. In order to do so they used "Yeoman-fu" to bend the pencil so they could ignore the broken radios and yet still accept the ship.
This seems like a reasonable response to a bad situation.
Of all the mistakes and screw ups that have occurred with the construction of this vessel, this pragmatic decision seems to be the last thing one would get upset about.
I am respectfully in disagreement.
Here is the deal. The Coast Guard bought a super whammodyne cutter some time ago. Named after the first Commandant of the Coast Guard, it is the largest vessel other than icebreakers the USCG has ever purchased.
It is bigger than a Perry Class frigate, has an innovative stern launch arrangement for its boats. It can conduct helicopter operations in Sea State 6. It brings together all the lessons learned from over 2 centuries of institutional expertise. It is ...on paper...a spectacular vessel.
As you likely guessed from the mention of paper in that sentence...it also has, as they say..."issues".
There have been concerns raised about weather the vessel will meet its planned 30 year service life (It won't unless it gets a structural refit in the next 4-6 years). The vessel costs more than the entire defense budget of Ecuador, and its C4I system is not secure.
This last is possibly the most important and expensive. The communication, command, control, computing and intelligence system needs to be absolutely secure electronically. The Bertholf's leaks like a sieve.
Now the Coast Guard has certified the Cutter as seaworthy and allowed her to be commissioned. The ship passed her trial run and was given a clean bill of health by the Navy and Coast Guard.
They did this despite the fact that the C4I system is insecure and cannot be used for any encrypted messages.
This has some people up in arms, and while their upsettedness over the Bertholf is understandable (this thing has been a fiasco) I think that the anger over this particular bureaucratic maneuver is misplaced.
A few weeks ago Admiral Rosa came and talked to our unit about various Coast Guard issues, inspected the troops and took questions.
Naturally, Deepwater came up.
The Admiral said that the aviation component of the Deepwater Program was proceeding quite well but that there had been many expensive lessons learned on the maritime side.
We were told that the structural issues on Bertholf were rather overblown and would not affect seaworthiness or safety and that the C4I issue was in fact the big problem. The ship will commission though it will take a long time to get the C4I stuff TEMPEST certified. The vessel is still a useful asset and will be capable of doing Search And Rescue and other operations without TEMPEST standards being met.
(TEMPEST is a set of standards for military communications and that is all we will say on that.)
This is jives pretty well with the facts as we know them.....no real sinister cover up going on regards this. Its the most obvious solution to the problem. It is heads and shoulders over David Axe's proposal.
If the Coast Guard were truly responsible stewards of the taxpayer’s money, the service would have rejected the ship, returned it to builder Northrop and electronics maker Lockheed, and demanded a refund.
While his idea has appeal on a visceral level, the cathartic payoff of such a drama queen temper tantrum does not compensate for the loss of a still useful ship at a time the USCG's assets are stretched thin and at the end of their operational lives.
Despite the expense and gravity of the procurement debacle, I see no reason to get the vapors over this particular decision. Getting the ship certified for sea duty sans its full C4I suite was, IMHO, the correct thing to do. I assume the ship can even operate with bolt on encrypted radios from, say, the Army if it comes down to it.
Having a 500 million dollar "Building 750" sitting as a humiliation to the Coast Guard does not save any mariners in distress nor leverage any good out of this situation.
Now lots of people are anxious to see the heads of Admirals roll over this debacle. This is understandable. However, it now seems that most, if not all of the wrongdoing was on the civilian side, in particular a civilian who signed a document waiving the security standards for the contract....which he was not authorized to do, but is a get out of jail free card for the contractor.
The Coast Guard has not had much experience in procurement for the simple reason that we haven't been able to buy a lot. The only recent experience was with the 87's, the buoy tenders and the Healy. All went (er...relatively) smoothly as I understand it in part because the shipyards in question were small, civilian and generally ethically run....certainly in comparison with those who make money off the byzantine DOD procurement system.
The officers who took this job certainly did not cover themselves in glory, but it is unclear that they were incompetent or negligent as opposed to simply being inexperienced and unsupported in these matters. The contractor in question successfully butt-raped the Navy with regards to the LPD 17. Keep in mind that the USN has far more experience in dealing with defense contractors.
In the military, discipline and professional development is not about vengeance, it is about correcting mistakes and preventing their repetition.
Throwing senior officers overboard because they got set up for failure might give David Axe a woody, but it is not good leadership. To the extent that the Commandant is standing by and protecting his officers, many of whom have had long and honorable careers in the service of their country, he is doing exactly what good chiefs do for their enlisted people every day.
The priority now is to learn what went wrong, apply those lessons, see that this doesn't happen again and get the ship and her sister operational.
If there WAS wrongdoing on the part of any USCG officers then there is always a dark place in Leavenworth, but I think the Commandant is doing the proper thing trying to fix the problem rather than hunt for scapegoats.
I'm a third class enlisted and these issues are waaay above my paygrade, but the whole thing at this point seems to be beating a dead horse.
The ship has defective, insecure coms, and I would expect that the repair of the C4I system is going to be along the lines of George Washington's Axe.
However, it is not unseaworthy, it is new, big and capable of doing many things but is of limited use at a pier.
The USCG certified the ship as commissioned so they can use an imperfect asset to save lives and such. In order to do so they used "Yeoman-fu" to bend the pencil so they could ignore the broken radios and yet still accept the ship.
This seems like a reasonable response to a bad situation.
Of all the mistakes and screw ups that have occurred with the construction of this vessel, this pragmatic decision seems to be the last thing one would get upset about.
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Rearanging
An attempt at an animated banner that failed....
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May 09, 2008
Weather Bleg
God loves Virginia, we get to have ALL the weather.
Picture taken by my sister of the obnoxious thing as it swept across Portsmouth.
Amazingly, despite the fact that it hit the hospital in Suffolk, destroyed over a hundred homes, a strip mall, damaged the container terminals, the navy base and crossed the bay to wreak damage on the eastern shore....nobody was killed.
Picture taken by my sister of the obnoxious thing as it swept across Portsmouth.
Amazingly, despite the fact that it hit the hospital in Suffolk, destroyed over a hundred homes, a strip mall, damaged the container terminals, the navy base and crossed the bay to wreak damage on the eastern shore....nobody was killed.
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May 01, 2008
Hey!!? Where Are the Posts!?
Not that any cute stalker girls in dungaree skirts are ever likely to inquire...but in case any of the rest of you were wondering.
5 days till the first of 2 Japanese exams...Japanese is currently kicking my arse, so these are crucial. I'm also doing an extra shift at work, some minor repairs around my parents house and looking at further extensive repairs to my highest level artifact....the +4 trailer of money banishment.
Anyway, As I'm bleeding from the eyes from kanji induced wounds I'm vegging for a few hours before bed, here are a few random thoughts, observations and links from around the web.
Steven has a post on a forlorn lawsuit that is nevertheless worthy of lowbrow comment.
Colleen Doran posts on the aftermath of a presumed Whooping Cough outbreak at the New York Comic Con....namely her....with whooping cough...ugh.
The whooping cough vaccine does wear out after time, so all Brickmuppeteers should get boosters. In the meantime, hit the Colleen Doran store and partake of the art.
Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of links concerning the man who is reported to have regrown a finger with an experimental treatment.
The anniversary edition of Carnival of Space is up, and is the biggest ever with scads of space related news.
Via RLV News comes information on an Austrian suborbital spaceship design, as well as this Russian effort.
In the world of naval matters Eagle One has an extensive primer on the threat of sea mines. And SteelJaw Scribe reminds us that a proud warrior had a birthday yesterday.
Yay...growth....
Don has good things to say about Kaiba.
Wonderduck has posted a Swedish anime video (!?) that is superbly edited...
... and leaves me strangely intrigued about an odd show concerning a duck that is granted her wish of becoming a human ballerina......This despite my deep aversion to any show with the words "Princess" or "Tutu" in the title.
Also well edited and absolutely astonishing in its execution is this fan-produced J-Pop music video concerning a alternate Star Trek history where the...well...watch...
Wow...just wow...
Anyway....that's it for now....enough time wasted back to the books.
Inquisitive Stalkergrrrl is, Misaki Nakahara of from the delightfully dark Welcome to the NHK, one of the best shows in recent years which is driving me mad as I await the release of volume four on May13th.
Not that any cute stalker girls in dungaree skirts are ever likely to inquire...but in case any of the rest of you were wondering.
5 days till the first of 2 Japanese exams...Japanese is currently kicking my arse, so these are crucial. I'm also doing an extra shift at work, some minor repairs around my parents house and looking at further extensive repairs to my highest level artifact....the +4 trailer of money banishment.
Anyway, As I'm bleeding from the eyes from kanji induced wounds I'm vegging for a few hours before bed, here are a few random thoughts, observations and links from around the web.
Steven has a post on a forlorn lawsuit that is nevertheless worthy of lowbrow comment.
Colleen Doran posts on the aftermath of a presumed Whooping Cough outbreak at the New York Comic Con....namely her....with whooping cough...ugh.
The whooping cough vaccine does wear out after time, so all Brickmuppeteers should get boosters. In the meantime, hit the Colleen Doran store and partake of the art.
Glenn Reynolds has a roundup of links concerning the man who is reported to have regrown a finger with an experimental treatment.
The anniversary edition of Carnival of Space is up, and is the biggest ever with scads of space related news.
Via RLV News comes information on an Austrian suborbital spaceship design, as well as this Russian effort.
In the world of naval matters Eagle One has an extensive primer on the threat of sea mines. And SteelJaw Scribe reminds us that a proud warrior had a birthday yesterday.
Yay...growth....
Don has good things to say about Kaiba.
Wonderduck has posted a Swedish anime video (!?) that is superbly edited...
... and leaves me strangely intrigued about an odd show concerning a duck that is granted her wish of becoming a human ballerina......This despite my deep aversion to any show with the words "Princess" or "Tutu" in the title.
Also well edited and absolutely astonishing in its execution is this fan-produced J-Pop music video concerning a alternate Star Trek history where the...well...watch...
Wow...just wow...
Anyway....that's it for now....enough time wasted back to the books.
Inquisitive Stalkergrrrl is, Misaki Nakahara of from the delightfully dark Welcome to the NHK, one of the best shows in recent years which is driving me mad as I await the release of volume four on May13th.
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Buckets of Suck.....
Over at the A Distant Soil Blog, is this post on the PlagueCon
NYCC
which, despite its, er, 'horrifying' illustrations is well worth a
read as a whole. However, of particular interest to many here, is this paragraph...
I suspect that this is what was involved in the recent ADV scare. And I'm pretty sure it was involved in the decisions that killed Geneon.
The sad thing is I know of some people who will take pride in that.
We've had 50 or so years of socialists denigrating the very concept of property rights and now technology that has advanced to make intellectual property very difficult to protect without the very social pressures and norms that such rhetoric erodes. This is a perfect storm of suck for creators and those who otherwise innovate.
The bitch of it is that intellectual property, that is invention and creativity, is far more valuable to a society in the long run than tangible property. It is how innovation and creativity happen.
This is bigger than comic books, or film.
If copyrights and patents have no ability to be enforced then the act of creating looses its market value except in the rare cases where the inventor/ creator has access to production and distribution infrastructure to turn a profit imediately on said innovation/creation....before it is copied by those who do not have the costs associated with invention to pay back.
The enforcement of patents and copyrights was one of the primary things that made western civilization possible, because it encouraged rather than discouraged innovation...the vast majority of history was not graced with this and tended to be pretty stagnant.
The products might have value, but inventing new things makes no economic sense if there is not some exclusivity for the creator to profit from his/her invention for a time.
This is rather bigger than our little hobby.
I'm not sure what the ultimate solution is, or if there is one, and if so, if there is one that doesn't involve some pretty draconian and intrusive measures.
And as sick and cold as it makes me to say it....said measures could possibly be the best of a set of bad options...anyway...discuss.
which, despite its, er, 'horrifying' illustrations is well worth a
read as a whole. However, of particular interest to many here, is this paragraph...I spoke with a number of the manga/anime sellers, and while all said their manga sales were OK, they had nothing but sad stories about the fansubs on the internet killing the market for anime. So much for “Free on the internet will get you customers!†Several said that they had a number of titles they could not bring to the US commercially because pirating had killed anime sales. However, scanlations of manga did not appear to have had the same effect. Hm.
I suspect that this is what was involved in the recent ADV scare. And I'm pretty sure it was involved in the decisions that killed Geneon.
The sad thing is I know of some people who will take pride in that.
We've had 50 or so years of socialists denigrating the very concept of property rights and now technology that has advanced to make intellectual property very difficult to protect without the very social pressures and norms that such rhetoric erodes. This is a perfect storm of suck for creators and those who otherwise innovate.
The bitch of it is that intellectual property, that is invention and creativity, is far more valuable to a society in the long run than tangible property. It is how innovation and creativity happen.
This is bigger than comic books, or film.
If copyrights and patents have no ability to be enforced then the act of creating looses its market value except in the rare cases where the inventor/ creator has access to production and distribution infrastructure to turn a profit imediately on said innovation/creation....before it is copied by those who do not have the costs associated with invention to pay back.
The enforcement of patents and copyrights was one of the primary things that made western civilization possible, because it encouraged rather than discouraged innovation...the vast majority of history was not graced with this and tended to be pretty stagnant.
The products might have value, but inventing new things makes no economic sense if there is not some exclusivity for the creator to profit from his/her invention for a time.
This is rather bigger than our little hobby.
I'm not sure what the ultimate solution is, or if there is one, and if so, if there is one that doesn't involve some pretty draconian and intrusive measures.
And as sick and cold as it makes me to say it....said measures could possibly be the best of a set of bad options...anyway...discuss.
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April 27, 2008
Master of None To be sure...but a Jack of All Trades is Damned Useful.
Over at Information Dissemination. Galhran and others have been talking about the dwindling numbers of ships in the USN and in particular escorts as well as the need to wage wars "of all temperatures". Galhran is particularly fond of mother ship concepts.
With regards to a general war, the USN NEEDS anti-submarine and and anti mine forces.Such missions and peacetime showing the flag missions, also require a fair number of ships.
One of the most effective ASW aside from a hunter killer submarine is the helicopter, which is a good minesweeping tool as well.
Escorts to carry helicopters such as the Perrys' are being decommissioned faster than they are replaced and the Littoral Combat Ship is far too expensive to buy in bulk.
The LCS is in some ways too big for close inshore operations, and it is too small to act as a mother ship for a large number of manned and unmanned vehicles. Both versions use experimental hulls that push computer design capacities to the limit, with possibly unfortunate results and are weight sensitive in regards to their design speed....which seems inexplicably high.
First a bit of review...
The US and UK determined in the '50s and '60s that helicopters were disruptive to more conventional flight operations, I assume that this is still the case. I also assume STOVL aircraft with their takeoff runs are only marginally less affected by this. The original UK solution, if I understand it, was to put the helicopter assets on an escorting light carrier (dubbed a cruiser).
These designs
had varying degrees of armament but most IIRC had through decks as this
maximizes
helicopter landing spots for surge operations. As it was, the CVA01 was
canceled and the only aviation asset that could be salvaged was the
cruiser which was
saved in part by its designation. To maximize its aviation capability
and save money in an ever shrinking budget, most of the multipurpose
capability aside
from commando carrying was sacrificed. This was HMS Invincible.
The USNs answer to the same issue was to have scads of escorts operating one or two helicopters so that a carrier (or a convoy) would be accompanied by 15-20 helicopters robustly dispersed in ones and twos amongst the escorts. This made sense when we could afford ~10 escorts per CV or convoy,but on a ton for ton and likely expense basis the helicopter cruiser might be more economical.
Steel is cheap in comparison to the electronics system of a warship. The size of a vessel does not dictate its affordability, systems do.
So...what should we build? What should it have?
This vessel needs an air defence capability beyond that offered by RAM, but it does not need an air defence system in the same class as an all-up Aegis system. Something like NTU firing fire and forget missiles (such as the mooted ESSM
with the AMRAAM seeker) would give it a decent defence
capability. The commercial, very austere, Aegis system like that used on the Norweigian Aegis Frigates might be a good way to leverage existing training and spares.
If a through deck is not utilized then JDS Haruna or the Danish Absalon would be close to what we're looking for. Note that Absalon costs between one half to one third what the LCS does without its canceled weapons kits.
This brings up the question regards weather or not to use a through deck. This would give the following nontrivial advantages :
3-4 extra spots to get helicopters in the air quickly for mass rescue, troop landing or whatever.
Even airflow over the deck, uninterrupted by a centerline superstructure. This is important as it affects landing safety far more than is appreciated and while not nearly as crucial for helicopters as fixed wing planes it is still a concern.
The ability to land amidships at the point of minimum pitching allows helicopter operations in far worse weather than a stern landing pad.
Small fixed wing UAV's can use it like an old fashioned carrier, and possibly even small coin airplanes in a pinch if the government ever deigns to buy them for close air support.
On the debit side, a flight deck is...well.. a flight deck, and to uninformed or malevolent congresscritters looking to knick money for their idiotic Ponzi schemes it is a "carrier" and there will be a temptation to use it as a replacement for a CV which it certainly is not.
That concern aside, the versatility of the through deck is pretty compelling. It just needs to be made clear that this is not really a carrier, but a general purpose vessel.
One further thing that should be considered would be utterly without merit on an actual carrier. On a general purpose ship an effective gun is generally desirable.
Guns are fairly economical in both expense and volume. Ideally, for littoral warfare, fire support guns should be on a small inshore vessel, a monitor of sorts, like the UK and Italians used in WW1, but this is unlikely to be afforded.Its also possible that "netfires" from small craft perhaps even drones will replace tube artillery for fire support, but I doubt it.
So stick a 127-155mm gun on our escort. Assuming its main gun is fairly economical like the UKs' 155mm project and not a gold plated tube to shoot money out of (like our AGS) the gun should be an economical fit. There are issues with blast and interference with other ship functions, but helicopter ops can be kept well away from the gun during firing.
A carrier with a gun is certainly anachronistic but...again...this is not a carrier. It's a gunboat with helicopters...an aviso perhaps.
This leaves us with something akin to the Japanese Osumi or this off the shelf design from HDW. Osumi has one disadvantage, she cannot land helicopters amidships due to blade clearance issues, but is otherwise very interesting. She has 2 and potential for 3 landing spots, a big hangar and a well deck that can accomodate 2 LCACs, yet at 8,900 tons she is smaller than a DDG 51 and far cheaper than an LCS.
This ship was reportedly based on the smaller Italian San Giorgio, which boasts a 76mm gun, a well deck and an LST style bow ramp(!?)
A large fairly austere hull is inherently versatile. Troop carrying, the ability to act as mothership or tender for small craft like the CB90's or perhaps FACs, or loaned Coast Guard patrol boats looking for pesky pirates are all possibilities. ISO containers for disaster relief or just greatly expanded medical facilities would greatly facilitate the sort of "soft power" operations that are so important in "peacetime". In a hot war provision for a big VDS fish and ASW helicopters would give the sort of ASW capability that everybody except the Japanese seems to be either ignoring or selling to Chile.
Regardless of configuration, such a project would need absolutely ruthless oversight to keep people from adding whistles and bells and pricing it out of reach.
With every shipbuilding project going through the roof what references do we have for how cheap should it realistically be?
Well, at the high end, note that the above linked HDW design (which, is by far the largest of the three linked) is 15,000 tons, which is less than 4 times the size of a USN FFG 7. This vessel only needs one AAW system (though more modern obviously).
Aviation maintenance facilities carry a certain price tag associated with them but if built at least partially to commercial specs such a vessel could be fairly cheap. Additionally, 4 FFG7s already require 8 helicopters, so, given the fact that larger ships are more economical per ton, it is not unreasonable to assume that costs might be within the ballpark of 3-5 FFG7's...or 1- 1.5 LCS's... for a far more versatile ship that could act as an escort carrier in a major war. That is for the big one, though given the need for a fire control system and weapons the costs do not scale down linearly with size.
Nevertheless, this could be an economical and versatile solution indeed.
An earlier post on related matters is here.
* image of UK escort cruiser proposal is from Richard Beedal's superb Navy Matters site, which is about the best place on the web for info regards the UK Royal Navy.
With regards to a general war, the USN NEEDS anti-submarine and and anti mine forces.Such missions and peacetime showing the flag missions, also require a fair number of ships.
One of the most effective ASW aside from a hunter killer submarine is the helicopter, which is a good minesweeping tool as well.
Escorts to carry helicopters such as the Perrys' are being decommissioned faster than they are replaced and the Littoral Combat Ship is far too expensive to buy in bulk.
The LCS is in some ways too big for close inshore operations, and it is too small to act as a mother ship for a large number of manned and unmanned vehicles. Both versions use experimental hulls that push computer design capacities to the limit, with possibly unfortunate results and are weight sensitive in regards to their design speed....which seems inexplicably high.
First a bit of review...
The US and UK determined in the '50s and '60s that helicopters were disruptive to more conventional flight operations, I assume that this is still the case. I also assume STOVL aircraft with their takeoff runs are only marginally less affected by this. The original UK solution, if I understand it, was to put the helicopter assets on an escorting light carrier (dubbed a cruiser).
These designs
had varying degrees of armament but most IIRC had through decks as this
maximizes
helicopter landing spots for surge operations. As it was, the CVA01 was
canceled and the only aviation asset that could be salvaged was the
cruiser which was
saved in part by its designation. To maximize its aviation capability
and save money in an ever shrinking budget, most of the multipurpose
capability aside
from commando carrying was sacrificed. This was HMS Invincible.
The USNs answer to the same issue was to have scads of escorts operating one or two helicopters so that a carrier (or a convoy) would be accompanied by 15-20 helicopters robustly dispersed in ones and twos amongst the escorts. This made sense when we could afford ~10 escorts per CV or convoy,but on a ton for ton and likely expense basis the helicopter cruiser might be more economical.
Steel is cheap in comparison to the electronics system of a warship. The size of a vessel does not dictate its affordability, systems do.
So...what should we build? What should it have?
This vessel needs an air defence capability beyond that offered by RAM, but it does not need an air defence system in the same class as an all-up Aegis system. Something like NTU firing fire and forget missiles (such as the mooted ESSM
If a through deck is not utilized then JDS Haruna or the Danish Absalon would be close to what we're looking for. Note that Absalon costs between one half to one third what the LCS does without its canceled weapons kits.
This brings up the question regards weather or not to use a through deck. This would give the following nontrivial advantages :
3-4 extra spots to get helicopters in the air quickly for mass rescue, troop landing or whatever.
Even airflow over the deck, uninterrupted by a centerline superstructure. This is important as it affects landing safety far more than is appreciated and while not nearly as crucial for helicopters as fixed wing planes it is still a concern.
The ability to land amidships at the point of minimum pitching allows helicopter operations in far worse weather than a stern landing pad.
Small fixed wing UAV's can use it like an old fashioned carrier, and possibly even small coin airplanes in a pinch if the government ever deigns to buy them for close air support.
On the debit side, a flight deck is...well.. a flight deck, and to uninformed or malevolent congresscritters looking to knick money for their idiotic Ponzi schemes it is a "carrier" and there will be a temptation to use it as a replacement for a CV which it certainly is not.
That concern aside, the versatility of the through deck is pretty compelling. It just needs to be made clear that this is not really a carrier, but a general purpose vessel.
One further thing that should be considered would be utterly without merit on an actual carrier. On a general purpose ship an effective gun is generally desirable.
Guns are fairly economical in both expense and volume. Ideally, for littoral warfare, fire support guns should be on a small inshore vessel, a monitor of sorts, like the UK and Italians used in WW1, but this is unlikely to be afforded.Its also possible that "netfires" from small craft perhaps even drones will replace tube artillery for fire support, but I doubt it.
So stick a 127-155mm gun on our escort. Assuming its main gun is fairly economical like the UKs' 155mm project and not a gold plated tube to shoot money out of (like our AGS) the gun should be an economical fit. There are issues with blast and interference with other ship functions, but helicopter ops can be kept well away from the gun during firing.
A carrier with a gun is certainly anachronistic but...again...this is not a carrier. It's a gunboat with helicopters...an aviso perhaps.
This leaves us with something akin to the Japanese Osumi or this off the shelf design from HDW. Osumi has one disadvantage, she cannot land helicopters amidships due to blade clearance issues, but is otherwise very interesting. She has 2 and potential for 3 landing spots, a big hangar and a well deck that can accomodate 2 LCACs, yet at 8,900 tons she is smaller than a DDG 51 and far cheaper than an LCS.
This ship was reportedly based on the smaller Italian San Giorgio, which boasts a 76mm gun, a well deck and an LST style bow ramp(!?)
A large fairly austere hull is inherently versatile. Troop carrying, the ability to act as mothership or tender for small craft like the CB90's or perhaps FACs, or loaned Coast Guard patrol boats looking for pesky pirates are all possibilities. ISO containers for disaster relief or just greatly expanded medical facilities would greatly facilitate the sort of "soft power" operations that are so important in "peacetime". In a hot war provision for a big VDS fish and ASW helicopters would give the sort of ASW capability that everybody except the Japanese seems to be either ignoring or selling to Chile.
Regardless of configuration, such a project would need absolutely ruthless oversight to keep people from adding whistles and bells and pricing it out of reach.
With every shipbuilding project going through the roof what references do we have for how cheap should it realistically be?
Well, at the high end, note that the above linked HDW design (which, is by far the largest of the three linked) is 15,000 tons, which is less than 4 times the size of a USN FFG 7. This vessel only needs one AAW system (though more modern obviously).
Aviation maintenance facilities carry a certain price tag associated with them but if built at least partially to commercial specs such a vessel could be fairly cheap. Additionally, 4 FFG7s already require 8 helicopters, so, given the fact that larger ships are more economical per ton, it is not unreasonable to assume that costs might be within the ballpark of 3-5 FFG7's...or 1- 1.5 LCS's... for a far more versatile ship that could act as an escort carrier in a major war. That is for the big one, though given the need for a fire control system and weapons the costs do not scale down linearly with size.
Nevertheless, this could be an economical and versatile solution indeed.
An earlier post on related matters is here.
* image of UK escort cruiser proposal is from Richard Beedal's superb Navy Matters site, which is about the best place on the web for info regards the UK Royal Navy.
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April 26, 2008
That Other Negativeish Verb-Type Film
Everybody in the Rightosphere is talking about the IDiocy that is Expelled.
Enough...
Now is time to show your support for Ben Stein by going out and purchasing a DVD of Rejected.
The film is brilliant.
It has even inspired snow sculptors....
more...
Enough...
Now is time to show your support for Ben Stein by going out and purchasing a DVD of Rejected.
The film is brilliant.
It has even inspired snow sculptors....
more...
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