Electric Ship

MSimon · Post by **MSimon** » Fri Oct 19, 2012 4:42 am

http://www.popsci.com/node/64726/

Note: that is not a person standing next to a shell. That is a Marine.

DeltaV · Post by **DeltaV** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 5:12 pm

Interesting use of balsa wood as a composite panel core (more fire resistant than foam).

This is Stealth?

DDG-1000 Zumwalt: Stealth warship

djolds1 · Post by **djolds1** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 7:00 pm

DeltaV wrote:Interesting use of balsa wood as a composite panel core (more fire resistant than foam).

This is Stealth?

DDG-1000 Zumwalt: Stealth warship

Same shaping principles used on Sea Shadow and Visby. But the DD-21 become DDG-1000 class is the same dead-end as the SSN-21 class; a three-ship placeholder while the real heir gets worked up.

choff · Post by **choff** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:48 pm

Balsa wood for stealth, reminds me of this.

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-first-steal ... tml?cat=37

choff · Post by **choff** » Sun Oct 21, 2012 9:50 pm

Zumwalt looks like a return to this earlier design form.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSS_Virginia

GIThruster · Post by **GIThruster** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 4:41 pm

Discussion of life on these ships made me curious so I went looking. What I turned up was very interesting, a 10 episode documentary of what life is like aboard a Nimitz class CVN. Originally aired on PBS.

http://www.hulu.com/search?q=Carrier

palladin9479 · Post by **palladin9479** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:12 am

Interesting ship, obviously not meant to be many of them kind of a special use "in case of war call these guys" system. Interesting use of automation technology to reduce the manpower required, as long as their are manual systems to fall back "just in case". Murphy's law being what it is.

ladajo · Post by **ladajo** » Mon Oct 29, 2012 11:47 am

Personally, I do not like being on CVNs. And I got to live it, not watch you tube about it. I much prefer smaller combatants.

As for Zumwalt and other "optimally manned" units. The jury is still out, but indications are not favorable.
One of the most argued points is a long tradition of requiring hands attached to brains to effectively combat system failures and combat damage. Interestingly enough, the primary driver for a manning document is the bodies directed to man up unrep stations. But that is another discussion.

Damage control is also manning intensive, and due to current manning policies, all ships must make a choice in priority between repair or fight when establishing where folks get assigned. Again, another discussion.

The complete irony in all this is that the one thing that mandates the most manning is actually fairly low, if not almost to the bottom of sourcing priorities. That would be the required manhours to perform routine and corrective maintenance. Some wonder if that is also part of the current readiness trending in the force. But again, that is another discussion as well.