U.S. Navy's Largest Destroyer Ever Heads Out to Sea for First Time

[Car Nut]

:sFl_america2:

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/u-s-navys-largest-destroyer-ever-heads-out-sea-first-n475901

 

[1962polara]

Sure looks upside down to me?? 4.4 billion ...wow.
Crazy futuristic vessel

 

[kallio67]

the ship's skipper, Navy Capt. James Kirk?.....This can't be right. I wonder if his middle name is Tiberius. Pretty badass either way.

 

[Bruzilla]

As a sailor myself, I think this ship's gonna be a floating disaster. Like most military equipment these days, it's primarily designed to work in peacetime and not wartime. Sophisticated electronics and extensive damage from enemy fire are two things that do not co-exist well.

Funny that the skipper is Capt. Kirk. How many times did we see the USS Enterprise on Star Trek get into a battle and this system and that system were always getting knocked offline at critical times? That's what I expect will happen here, just as we saw with the M-1 tank and Bradley fighting vehicle, and I suspect we'll see with the F-35. Hell, our USS Enterprise lost all of its fire control, communications, and navigation because a young RM-21 tried to load the wrong software on a server. Imagine what damage an anti-ship missile will do to these floating Best Buys... especially with a reduced crew where there are fewer folks who know how to do anything.

 

[super-bee_ski]

I'll bet you a Case of Beer on that Bruzilla!

PS: HOW ABOUT THOSE PITTSBURGH STEELERS!
(From a lowly Pats' fan)

 

[2059]

As a sailor myself, I think this ship's gonna be a floating disaster. Like most military equipment these days, it's primarily designed to work in peacetime and not wartime. Sophisticated electronics and extensive damage from enemy fire are two things that do not co-exist well.

Funny that the skipper is Capt. Kirk. How many times did we see the USS Enterprise on Star Trek get into a battle and this system and that system were always getting knocked offline at critical times? That's what I expect will happen here, just as we saw with the M-1 tank and Bradley fighting vehicle, and I suspect we'll see with the F-35. Hell, our USS Enterprise lost all of its fire control, communications, and navigation because a young RM-21 tried to load the wrong software on a server. Imagine what damage an anti-ship missile will do to these floating Best Buys... especially with a reduced crew where there are fewer folks who know how to do anything.

Not just Capt. Kirk; Capt. James A. Kirk....

- - - Updated - - -

Sure looks upside down to me?? 4.4 billion ...wow.
Crazy futuristic vessel

Ya I saw this too. Reminded me of the Merrimac..

http://www.everythinglincoln.com/images/articles/Merrimac-deck.jpg

 

[patrick66]

That is the ugliest naval vessel I've ever seen. I understand the stealth technology and all, but I really wonder what the real advantages are of this ship over normal vessels. And $4.4B, to boot. Wow.

 

[super-bee_ski]

I'm at a loss
Being fortunate to work on the United States Air Forces' Flight Test Center AND working with the F-22, I have come to realize that the "pundits" and critics just do not "GET IT"
-Read some Defense News periodicals at your Local library folks.
1. Air to Air and surface to Air technology is far more advanced NOW (2016, yes, its right around the corner) than it was during the Viet Nam war and the 80's Cold war.
2. Naval "surface to ship" offensive technology has improved 10 fold in the past 15 years.

Conventional or "LEGACY' platforms ARE AT RISK!
-China and India are Hi Tech "powers" designing (China: Stealing and designing) a new generation of capabilities that impose a threat to our Legacy systems.
BELIEVE IT
-Iran is purchasing
-Russia is selling/purchasing
-North Korea is purchasing

We NEED the most advanced systems to gain the edge.

Just check out what China is doing in the South China sea...the Spratly Islands.

The threat is real and advanced war machines are needed in this day and age.

Don't believe me?
Hell, we almost lost the USS Cole to Terrorists in a motorboat with heavy load of dynamite.

 

[patrick66]

I understand that, ****, I'm retired AF and worked with plenty of both legacy systems and advanced systems. $4.4 Billion dollars??? I don't understand that.

Does this have more firepower? Longer range? Operate with a crew of ten? What bang are we getting for $4.4B???

It's still an ugly-*** ship, regardless of what it can do.

 

[super-bee_ski]

You are kidding right?

More Fire power AND longer range is NOT what its about.

Are you clueless on what is going on in the South China sea?

1. The United States has agreed with Singapore on a first deployment of the U.S. P8 Poseidon spy plane in Singapore this month, in a fresh response to China over its pursuit of territorial claims in the South China Sea.
-China, which is at odds with Washington over the South China Sea, said on Tuesday the move was aimed at militarizing the region.
2. The risk of conflict in the South China Sea is significant. China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines have competing territorial and jurisdictional claims, particularly over rights to exploit the region's possibly extensive reserves of oil and gas. Freedom of navigation in the region is also a contentious issue, especially between the United States and China over the right of U.S. military vessels to operate in China's two-hundred-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). These tensions are shaping—and being shaped by—rising apprehensions about the growth of China's military power and its regional intentions.
3. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...a.html&usg=AFQjCNFBQeMFvpHn1h2Gu39NUYkIflwjZA
4.

Aw, c'mon Patrick66
Just do some reading instead of having idiots like me hand the data over to you by "cut N paste"

Uh, Yeah, it's ugly
There...

That's the end of it

The World is a peaceful place
There is no threat against the united States of America
F-16s and F-15s can and will fight the adversaries (Even though they are meeting and or exceeding their shelf-life)
Our current fleet of naval vessels is sufficient to withstand any upcoming threat from any power.

PS: If you didn't work on the F-22 or the F-35, you worked Legacy

 

[Speedbird]

the ship's skipper, Navy Capt. James Kirk?.....This can't be right. I wonder if his middle
name is Tiberius. Pretty badass either way.

Yea. When I got to that if chuckled and looked at the link to be sure I wasn't reading the Onion.
The had to do a search because I couldn't believe I was at NBC.

 

[Budnicks]

Fancy Smanshy, new cutting edge tech stuff, takes time to get use to, grows on you...
I thought the F-117 was Fugly at 1st too, until I saw what it could do, made me a fan...

I like we're updating the fleet...
I'd rather have the $4.4 Billion spent on that, than wasted on yet some redundant social welfare crap,
that doesn't ever work {how it's intended}, nothing tangible to get out of it,
other than debt & breeding more dependency...

my $0.02 cents

 

[Bruzilla]

I'm at a loss
Being fortunate to work on the United States Air Forces' Flight Test Center AND working with the F-22, I have come to realize that the "pundits" and critics just do not "GET IT"
-Read some Defense News periodicals at your Local library folks.
1. Air to Air and surface to Air technology is far more advanced NOW (2016, yes, its right around the corner) than it was during the Viet Nam war and the 80's Cold war.
2. Naval "surface to ship" offensive technology has improved 10 fold in the past 15 years.

Conventional or "LEGACY' platforms ARE AT RISK!
-China and India are Hi Tech "powers" designing (China: Stealing and designing) a new generation of capabilities that impose a threat to our Legacy systems.
BELIEVE IT
-Iran is purchasing
-Russia is selling/purchasing
-North Korea is purchasing

We NEED the most advanced systems to gain the edge.

Just check out what China is doing in the South China sea...the Spratly Islands.

The threat is real and advanced war machines are needed in this day and age.

Don't believe me?
Hell, we almost lost the USS Cole to Terrorists in a motorboat with heavy load of dynamite.

The problem with "the most advanced systems" is most of these are either based on, or actually are, Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) systems. All the crap that happens to all our electronics is the same crap that happens to the systems installed aboard our aircraft and ships, especially this ship, and no one is shooting bullets or missile shrapnel through our equipment. How many times have you had a network go down? How many times have you had one go down because someone did something stupid? Now factor people doing stupid stuff and being in combat.

Then we have all the crap that happens that no one ever thought could happen. Now we have the F-35s having issues with low fuel states because the aircraft is designed to use fuel as a coolant and I guess no one wondered how much cooling there would be when the fuel state is low.

What I'm seeing is a repeat of what did the Germans in. Their equipment was over-engineered, state-of-the-art, and worked great when it was running about the parade ground. But put it into actual combat in bad conditions, and all that engineering became a point of failure. Then factor in that we could make a dozen Sherman tanks, and the Russians close to 20 T-34 tanks, in the time it took the Germans to make one tank, and it was just a matter of time until the numbers became untenable. It doesn't matter if the F-35 can achieve a five to one kill ratio if the bad guys can crank out seven planes for every F-35.

 

[GetX'd]

I agree with super-bee-ski. We've got real problems in Asia. And China is the majority of it. They're basically claiming the entire South China Sea as their territory. We need to counter that threat somehow. They're hard at work hogging the worlds resources on nearly every continent.

That destroyer looks like a fortress - you almost expect to see superman flying of the deck....

 

[patrick66]

I know exactly what the damn Red Chinese are doing, building their bases from nothing in the highly-disputed Spratley Island group, trying their best to stir **** up and show that they have bigger balls than the other kids on the playground. I follow that. I am aware of all of that. Don't have to g--gle ****, either.

And you have no idea what I worked on or with, either.

 

[Bruzilla]

I'm not too worried about their little build-a-bases in the Pacific. I suspect they'll be history after the first typhoon goes by or earthquake hits. They're not the top of a mountain, they're just a pile of sand and coral. They are not of much real military value due to their tenuous design, but more of a political item by ostensibly allowing them to claim territory that isn't theirs.

I look at the fact that China becomes a Third World shithole the second the US decides to default on all our debt they hold, and I can't see China ever doing anything more serious than saber rattling. That's why they've never dared move on Taiwan.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Budnick's statement: Fancy Smanshy, new cutting edge tech stuff, takes time to get use to, grows on you...
I thought the F-117 was Fugly at 1st too, until I saw what it could do, made me a fan...

This statement sums it up, and even the F-117 pilots who flew into Baghdad in 1991 with ALL the Air Defenses and FLAK going off, lighting up the sky like the 4th of July didn't realize that they ALL would return safely to base.
Not one 177 was lost, much to the pilots surprise.

They finally realized technology can beat the odds.

Patrick66,
This isn't personal, just please do not mitigate the ever increasing attack on America.
CHINA IS SHUTTING DOWN THE SOUTH CHINA SEAs
Its not just a little Island in the So China Seas....They are building huge airfields on many Islands Bruzilla.

Now, every foreign country has the equivalent on the AIM 9 and the AIM 7 and even better!
Also, SAM technology has leaped into a new generation.

The threats are real, current defensive systems are now "run of the mill" leaving our current technologies at a disadvantage.

We must pursue war systems that are capable of penetrating our adversaries boundaries in order to gain the edge.

 

[patrick66]

I'm well aware of what the ChiComs are up to. They own America's debt - in fact, they hold the lion's share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage debt! They're using that leverage to try and frighten the region (to include US) into submission. Pretty simple.

 

[Bruzilla]

Its not just a little Island in the So China Seas....They are building huge airfields on many Islands Bruzilla.[/B]

Now, every foreign country has the equivalent on the AIM 9 and the AIM 7 and even better!
Also, SAM technology has leaped into a new generation.

The threats are real, current defensive systems are now "run of the mill" leaving our current technologies at a disadvantage.

We must pursue war systems that are capable of penetrating our adversaries boundaries in order to gain the edge.

Have you seen these "islands" they are building? Let's look at one...

First, it's not an actual island. It is a sandbar, and as us Navy guys learn, sandbars come and go. They aren't made out of a base rock like a real island is, so wind, rain, wave action, and heavy weather can destroy them rather quickly. Plus they're built in the Pacific volcanic region and one minor tidal wave that would do nothing to a real island would return that whole area back to ocean in seconds. So the reality is their little bases could be there ten years from now, or wiped out tomorrow.

Second, since the base has no real underlying structure, all its logistics is either above the surface or under sand, which makes it very susceptible to attack. A base with aircraft but no fuel, ordnance, potable water, or even food isn't much good. A couple of cruise missiles would make this base unusable in short order.

Third, given the instability of the foundation, how long do you think that runway is gonna stay useable? You're a wing wiper right? What's the life expectancy of a concrete runway on terra firma? I know we have to overhaul ours every five or six years and they aren't built on sand.

These bases don'y worry me in the least. The only thing the Chinese have that I worry about is their growing submarine force. Now that is a threat.

As for pursuing new systems, I agree we need newer and better ones. The problem with that is we used to design and build our own newer and better systems, but that's no longer the case. Everyone is getting pushed more and more into finding COTS solutions instead of GOTS, so we're taking more and more system hardware, software, cabling, and other components that were designed to function in offices or factories and sticking them into combat vehicles that are going to be subjected to shocks, damage, and environmental conditions that they were never designed to withstand. That's a recipie for disaster.

 

[super-bee_ski]

Bru
They are building 5 of these man made Islands.

Also, they have taken over Subi Reef and are building that up also. The Philippines cant prevent the buildup. No support.

China is building airfields and SAM sights.

LOOK: Sept 15th, (Air Defense Review) When Gen. Herbert Carlisle, head of the Air Force’s Air Combat Command, learned that China had unveiled a deadly new high-tech air missile, the PL-15, one question immediately came to mind.

“How do we counter that?” he asked while speaking in front of the Center For Strategies In International Studies on Sept. 18.

The PL-15 reportedly features an upgraded radar seeker and rocket motor, the combination of which permits it to hit targets from 60 miles or more.

As Patrick66 states: "I'm well aware of what the ChiComs are up to. They own America's debt - in fact, they hold the lion's share of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage debt! They're using that leverage to try and frighten the region (to include US) into submission. Pretty simple."

Well said Patrick.
All Im saying is: "There is an existing and growing threat "WE" the public do not see. We need new and advanced Weapons systems with "SURVIVALIBILITY" in a new ERA where our Adversaries have gained a technological edge."
Heck, wait till you see what Russia has just placed in Syria! Talk about upgraded Air Defense systems.

We are struggling to stay "on-top" of the Super Power Pyramid.

Why?
Simple, no funding.
So, perhaps a 4 Billion dollar Naval War ship just might survive an attack from a adversarial country trying to shut down the all important So China sea.

Anyway, great subject Bruzilla, it brought about some very interesting comments and observations!
Great topic gentlemen!