Brickmuppet Blog has mentioned the pitched battle between HMAS Sydney an Kormoran before and Commander Salamander some time ago did a fine post on this historic battle from a command perspective.

Now both wrecks have been found and they are being explored by the Finding Sydney Foundation. Here is a lengthy report on the ongoing examination of the Sydney wreck .

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A warm and beleated Brickmuppet cheer goes out to the Hardesty family for the birth of Claire Elizabeth Hardesty!



Stephen Hardesty is better known to bloggers as Buckethead (of the Ministry of Minor Perfidy).

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Before the prospect of sharks with FRICKING LAYYZERS on their heads became desireable, weapons designers had to make due with the technology at hand. In World War one that included things like this.....

Flaming Bayonet..... That’s right a flame throwing bayonet. It was called the "Flaming Bayonet, constructed and tested by the Army Chemical Service it was a unique weapon for it’s time. The idea was to launch a ten foot flame as you were about to close in with the enemy for a bayonet thrust.....

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Loyd's of London warns of a peril that most of us just hadn't seen coming.

Lloyd's warns of a lack of natural disasters

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Persepopolis, the autobiographical  graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi detailing her childhood in Iran in the years leading up to and during the revolution is now an animated film. The book is quite good and I'm looking forward to the movie. I'm glad to see they kept the look of the comic.

Here are some clips....




I'm pleasantly surprised that the film got made, but even more surprised to have found these .gifs on....er....4-chan of all places. 



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CDR. Salamander reports that the Ruskies have surged ahead in the most awesomest icebreaker bow competition!

 

The crews of Healy and the Polar rollers had best make for the paint locker stat! 

The article linked in CDR. Salamander piece is quit interesting and brings up a pressing issue facing the USCG.

What to do about the big icebreakers.

The Coast Guard is down to 3 polar capable icebreakers of which only the two Polar Class are really up to dealing with Antarctic conditions.

Designed during the cold war to be readily upgradeable to combat icebreakers for use clearing paths for allied ships in the arctic,the Polar Star class has given sterling service as research ships and tenders supporting the US presence in Antarctica.  Even with the many advances in icebreaker design since their commissioning the Polar Rollers have impressive stats. However, while still an excellent design  they are very old. More that 30 years of traveling to the antipodes to smash into freshwater ice that has been hardening for eons has taken its toll. Both the vessels are nearing the end of their useful lives.

Designed without any defence considerations and optimized for research, the Healy is a larger vessel with a smaller powerplant and predictably is not as good at crunching centuries old freshwater ice ice as the two older vessels. The ship is, however, capable of "getting by" in Antarctica and is quite adequate for Arctic operations. The ship is an outstanding research vessel.

With the Polar class on their last legs and the Healy really a research ship there has been talk of washing the Coast Guards hands of the whole (expensive) operation and adding Healy to the National Science Foundations Laurence M.Gould and Nathaniel B. Palmer.
This would involve finding a contractor to operate her as the NSF doesn't actually man those icebreakers.

As tempting as this might sound, icebreakers are not just science ships.Icebreaking is a Coast Guard function by statute. Antarctic support is as well and there are other issues that need addressing....

 For instance, Healy is seeing a LOT of use, not just hauling scientists around and providing sefvices for the North slope, but simultaneously showing the flag as the US, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Russia compete to explore the rapidly thawing arctic ocean and lay claim to navigation rights and resource deposits in their overlapping claims. This is an important area on national interest and the CG being a military, but also with civil responsibilities and expertise is probably the best positioned to deal with this.

It gets worse. The arctic is, as mentioned above, becoming far more busy. This means more people that need saving from icy waters,  polar bears and killer whales. While Many SAR functions can be done by aircraft, (airships might be a good fit here) nothing compares with the carrying capacity of a big ship. Additionally as commerce increases the Coast Guards statutory icebreaking responsibilities become more important to northern Alaska.

Pollution response in the delicate northern environment may need vessels with large skimming capacity and an incinerator for burning skimmed oil. While contractors handle most spill response today in accordance with federal law, the CG has a responsibility to be ready to respond if the contractor drops the ball, or if, unusual circumstances overwhelm the contractor (as does happen).

This doesn't even get into the Antarctic responsibilities the CG has (the US recently had to contract with the Russians for the use of Krassin) or the fact that sealift, both humanitarian and strategic (and, occasionally, sea control) can on occasion benefit from having an ability to break ice.

The National Academies agree and published this piece in 2006 recommending the construction of 2 full capability icebreakers to replace the Polar class. This is a minimalist approach IMHO. Two and 3/4 icebreakers arent going to cut it. Icebreakers require a lot of yard time (they deliberately run into ice after all).

I have no idea what the cycle times and maintenance requirements for these vessels are but six seems like a good number.

I arrive at this number by the scientific method of looking at the total number of National Security Lemons planned and subtracting the number built or too far along to terminate which is two. The problems with the class seem to be less with the design than with contractor quality control, but they are quite expensive vessels.

Reorder the remaining NSC's as icebreakers.

The NSC's cost  as much as the entire defense budget of Ecuador.

The proposed Offshore Patrol Cutters are roughly the size of the current Hamilton class...(which are very successful as high endurance cutters after all). 6 If a total of 33 cruising cutters is needed then order 33 OPC's and start building them in the very near future. There are plenty of decent designs for OPV's on the market and I suspect that the requirements for the NSC are rather gold plated. In another rant I mentioned that....

Something as expensive as the LCS is silly. A 45 knot warship with a full ECM suite is not needed for this. Indeed the USCG requires rather heavier scantlings and shell plating to survive in the worst sea states. It should also be lightly ice strengthened.

What is needed is an updated version of the 378 foot cutters seen above. Swap the gas turbines for diesels trading speed for fuel economy. 24-27 knots is really enough if the ship has a helicopter and  pursuit boats. This sounds very close to the actual characteristics of the new Offshore Patrol Cutters.

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April 2 Update:...actually no....

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April fools idiocy below fold...
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April foolery moved below fold.
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1 Wow, they must have total re-written their constitution and naval doctrine while I wasn't looking.

Posted by: Will at Tue Apr 1 10:21:39 2008 (WnBa/)

2 DDA = Destroyer Awesome!

Posted by: Wonderduck at Tue Apr 1 17:26:29 2008 (gwUM9)

3 France had a ship like this but with  two four gun main turrets and only small caliber guns on the rear. I think the Brits may have tried this with two three gun main turrets. The French scrapped theirs in  the early 60's I believe. I don't know the fate of the British ships. Is this a photograph of the French ship or just a juxtaposition.

Posted by: Bouff at Wed Apr 9 01:21:55 2008 (K3lFQ)

4 No this is a photo of IJNS Yamato that's been very heavily photo shopped.

The ships you are talking about are Jean Bart and Richelieu. Ton for ton they were among the best battleships ever built. Richelieu had a very active and interesting career in WW2.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Apr 9 06:44:33 2008 (NsNzF)

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