USN/PLAN Development and Construction (PAC-focused)

[bayonetbrant]

The Navy Is Building a Stealth Battleship Strike Force

That's assuming the $7-billion-apiece Zumwalts don't simply capsize the first time a powerful wave strikes them from behind. The high-tech battleships feature a novel, downward-sloping "tumblehome" hull that's optimized for stealth not stability—and lacks the wave-resisting qualities of traditional ships with upward-flaring hulls.

"On the DDG-1000, with the waves coming at you from behind, when a ship pitches down, it can lose transverse stability as the stern comes out of the water—and basically roll over," naval architect Ken Brower told Defense News.

Even if they don't sink in heavy seas, the Zumwalts are controversial vessels. Besides being by far the biggest and most expensive surface combatants in memory, the Zumwalts are actually inferior to older, smaller ships in certain key stats, in particular radar performance and missile capacity.

But what they lack in weapons and sensors, the new battleships make up for with other enhancements, including space for their own robotic air forces plus massive electrical output that, in the near future, could support powerful laser weapons.

It's Boom Time for Naval Spy Planes

The reconnaissance flights are not all going one-way — the U.S. is boosting spy missions, too. This week Japanese news agency Kyodo News reported it had obtained a classified government document detailing flights by the Navy's P-3C Orion surveillance aircraft over the South China Sea.

The mission, according to the agency, is to snoop on Chinese frigates and surveillance ships operating near the Second Thomas Shoal, a group of islets 147 miles west of the Philippines and home to a rusting, beached hospital ship garrisoned by a small detachment of malnourished Philippine troops. China claims the shoal as its own.

The authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed, and the agency did not state which government the document came from. "The Navy routinely operates in international airspace around the world, namely as part of our continued forward presence to support security and stability," Senior Chief Michael Lewis, a Pacific Fleet spokesman, tells War is Boring. We're obliged to note this isn't a confirmation nor a flat denial of the spy flights.

The four-engine P-3Cs are reportedly based at Clark Air Base (a former U.S. airfield now owned by the Philippines), partly at the urging of a concerned Philippine president Benigno Aquino. Dozens of the Spratly Islands' reefs, islands and atolls are occupied by the military forces of five nations with overlapping claims over the sea's substantial mineral and natural gas reserves — there are more than 600 in total and they're largely uninhabited. The recent Chinese naval deployments have set off "alarm bells in Manila," Kyodo News reported.

According to one former U.S. airman who flew surveillance missions in the Pacific for the Air Force, these operations are not new. "This has definitely been going on in that area for as long as I remember. They literally just perform surveillance regularly. It's just sort of what they do," the aviator tells War is Boring. The airman did not want to be named nor disclose specific operations. "Now, if they were flying much more missions, then you could ask, is something heating up?"

Mystery Weapon Terrifies America's Admirals

That's according to a recent approval for up to $65 million over three years from the Naval Research Laboratory to defense contractor ITT Exelis. The funds, according to a Navy document, are for a suite of 24 electronic warfare systems to be mounted on U.S. warships sailing near Chinese waters.

The reason? It's "necessary to thwart an immediate threat for naval fleet operations," the Navy stated. The sailing branch wants the new defenses in place by March 2014.

The urgent notice, first spotted by Military & Aerospace Electronics, is an unusually stark warning for the planet's mightiest fleet. Navy officials told the magazine the undisclosed danger is a "newly discovered threat," which caused U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. Cecil Haney to fast-track the project.

The Navy isn't saying what the threat is, which country developed it or when it was discovered by the Americans. Requests to the Navy for comment were not returned.

But it's possible to make informed guesses. As the trade magazine notes, "shipboard electronic warfare systems typically are designed to detect and jam enemy radar threats — particularly the electronics in radar-guided anti-ship missiles." (Our emphasis.)

This War Game is a Warning to China

After 70 years Japan is finally building a true amphibious force and the means to support it. Another aspect of this year's Dawn Blitz is the presence of the largest contingent of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to ever exercise abroad. Japan sent a thousand personnel and a flotilla of its most important ships to San Diego.

Tokyo's participation in the exercise reflects the changing perception of threats to Japan, shifting from a Soviet tank attack in the north during the Cold War to recent Chinese claims on Japanese-held islands. In response, Japan has shifted to a "dynamic defense strategy," in which mobile forces can be deployed to defend — or retake — islands seized by hostile forces.

Three ships, the Aegis missile-defense destroyer Kongo, the helicopter-carrying destroyer Hyuga, and the landing ship Shimokita crossed the Pacific loaded with helicopters and the equipment of the Western Army Infantry Regiment.

The regiment, WAIR for short, is Japan's nascent amphibious force: a battalion-sized unit stationed near the southern Ryukyu islands and responsible for defending the contested Senkaku islands. For the past several years WAIR has been training in San Diego in increasingly complicated exercises as the Japanese re-learn the ropes of putting troops ashore.

It's a bitter historical irony: the U.S. Marine Corps teaching Japan how to conduct amphibious warfare. Japan in fact invented modern amphibious methods, particularly ramped, shallow-draft landing craft capable of beaching and offloading infantry. The Marines studied these developments in the 1920s and '30s and used Japan's own tactics against it in the Pacific.

Is This China's SECOND Aircraft Carrier?

More worrying for China's maritime rivals including America was Beijing's vow to build at least two more carriers. Bigger ones. With better systems. And maybe even stealth planes to fly off them.

Now we might have glimpsed the earliest evidence of the first of these homegrown flattops, in hazy photos from northern China's Dalian shipyard leaked online—presumably by the legions of government-sponsored Internet users who function as Beijing's street-level propagandists.

The photos seems to depict one of the new carrier's blocks — that is, a section of the hull that later will be welded to other sections to produce the entire vessel.



What's most compelling is the divot in the deck, identified by the red square on the photo above. That's apparently a trench for a steam-powered airplane catapult.

[LongBlade]

Stealth ships?

Am I missing something? Isn't that called a "submarine?"

[Airborne Rifles]

Looks like the US grand strategy of using the islands off mainland Asia as a buffer zone to our own continent is taking shape again. The Philippines are inviting us back into their country. I saw an article a couple days ago about the Philippines opening up Clark field to us again and today there's this one about the Philippines wanting to increase military corporation with us. 

http://news.yahoo.com/ap-newsbreak-us-philippines-open-troops-talks-115331804.html

I remember reading that our Cold War strategy was to use the Philippines, Taiwan and Japan as a buffer against Russia and China. Looks like that's shaping up again.

[GDS_Starfury]

Stealth ships?

Am I missing something? Isn't that called a "submarine?"

the Zumwalt supposedly has a RCS similar to a small fishing boat.  small being under 50 feet.  considering its size thats pretty impressive.

[GDS_Starfury]

congratulations your carrier has one steam catapult.   ::)

[LongBlade]

Stealth ships?

Am I missing something? Isn't that called a "submarine?"

the Zumwalt supposedly has a RCS similar to a small fishing boat.  small being under 50 feet.  considering its size thats pretty impressive.

Yeah, but I'm thinking all the sound they put out along with the fact that they're pretty visible floating on the water.

Yeah, every bit helps. But I wonder.

[GDS_Starfury]

you might want to go back and read the naval parts of Red Storm Rising about the sound issue.  ;)
and I would submit that you have to get close enough to see something.

[mirth]

Star's right about the sound issue. Prairie/Masker does a good job of taking care of that. Also the Zumwalts have that electric drive system which I imagine is pretty damn quiet.

[Staggerwing]

Do the Zumwalts use traditional external props or do they use internal impellers or impeller nacelles? That could also have an impact on noise.

[GDS_Starfury]

a two part answer:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/zumwalt5.htm

Propulsion
Most warships today use a traditional mechanical-drive propulsion system with two separate sets of turbines - one for propulsion, the other for generating electricity for shipboard use. The drawback to this type of propulsion system is an inability to shift power to where it's needed most on the ship. Weapons, for example, can't borrow power from the propellers during battle. The Zumwalt class destroyer will overcome this problem with an Integrated Power System, or IPS.

Here's how the IPS works. The ship's engines will no longer be connected to the propellers. Instead, the engines - four marine gas turbines that Rolls-Royce describes as the most powerful gas turbines available today - will power generators that produce a total of 80 megawatts of electricity. That electrical power will then be distributed to most of the ship's systems and the electric motors that will drive the propellers. Because the power is centralized, it can be distributed as necessary to high-demand systems.

I cant find a construction picture of the rear but all the drawings and models show a normal propeller set up.  having said that it wouldnt surprise me if the props were at least shrouded.

[LongBlade]

a two part answer:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/zumwalt5.htm

Propulsion
Most warships today use a traditional mechanical-drive propulsion system with two separate sets of turbines - one for propulsion, the other for generating electricity for shipboard use. The drawback to this type of propulsion system is an inability to shift power to where it's needed most on the ship. Weapons, for example, can't borrow power from the propellers during battle. The Zumwalt class destroyer will overcome this problem with an Integrated Power System, or IPS.

Here's how the IPS works. The ship's engines will no longer be connected to the propellers. Instead, the engines - four marine gas turbines that Rolls-Royce describes as the most powerful gas turbines available today - will power generators that produce a total of 80 megawatts of electricity. That electrical power will then be distributed to most of the ship's systems and the electric motors that will drive the propellers. Because the power is centralized, it can be distributed as necessary to high-demand systems.

I cant find a construction picture of the rear but all the drawings and models show a normal propeller set up.  having said that it wouldnt surprise me if the props were at least shrouded.

That comes pretty close to modeling Starfleet Battles/Federation Commander's model.

[Windigo]

[GDS_Starfury]

a two part answer:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/zumwalt5.htm

Propulsion
Most warships today use a traditional mechanical-drive propulsion system with two separate sets of turbines - one for propulsion, the other for generating electricity for shipboard use. The drawback to this type of propulsion system is an inability to shift power to where it's needed most on the ship. Weapons, for example, can't borrow power from the propellers during battle. The Zumwalt class destroyer will overcome this problem with an Integrated Power System, or IPS.

Here's how the IPS works. The ship's engines will no longer be connected to the propellers. Instead, the engines - four marine gas turbines that Rolls-Royce describes as the most powerful gas turbines available today - will power generators that produce a total of 80 megawatts of electricity. That electrical power will then be distributed to most of the ship's systems and the electric motors that will drive the propellers. Because the power is centralized, it can be distributed as necessary to high-demand systems.

I cant find a construction picture of the rear but all the drawings and models show a normal propeller set up.  having said that it wouldnt surprise me if the props were at least shrouded.

That comes pretty close to modeling Starfleet Battles/Federation Commander's model.

in todays Navy it'll be More Power to the Playstation Mr. Scott!