Naval Pictures X: Underway on Nuclear Power

[truetanker]

Looks like we are getting some BB's ready for something, even the Texas could be counted on...

Maybe.

TT

[worktroll]

Put back on the NVR in 1997. Haven't seen a lot of movement since then, barring one movie appearance ;)

[Daryk]

There was an article in a professional journal around that time outlining why WWII ships are NOT suitable anymore... safety was good for its time, but not anymore...

[nerd]

Biggest issue: we don't have the skilled manpower to operate those systems. There's exactly 6 ships that still have steam turbine propulsion systems in the Fleet manned by Sailor. Four more have CIVMARS manning steam plants. There were still men young enough who had used bagged charge guns and the 5"/38s in the 1980s for active service as well as establishing training.

[worktroll]

Let's be honest - submarines are the new capital ships for good reasons. The old battlewagons deserve preservation and honouring, but returning them to service in any meaningful manner would consume far too much of limited resources, both material and manpower. My 2 M-bill's worth, anyway.

[Charlie 6]

Looks like we are getting some BB's ready for something, even the Texas could be counted on...

Maybe.

TT

It could be late, it could be the gin and tonic, but I'm fairly certain that the Iowa is a soon to be commissioned Virginia-class SSN and the Wisconsin will be a Columbia-class SSBN.  So, yes, the names have returned to the NVR.

[truetanker]

Look at it this way, from the pages of the Seventh Carrier, WWIII could be EMP enhanced, to the point of old boilers being the new nuclear.

TT

[Daryk]

Rickover built reactors that were EMP hardened.

[Giovanni Blasini]

Looks like we are getting some BB's ready for something, even the Texas could be counted on...

Maybe.

TT

Somehow one of the bot-driven news sites that feed into MSN picked up an old article from 1997 and ran it as brand new, ignoring the source's dateline.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

MSN's newsfeed really turned to absolute pure garbage in the last few years.

[Colt Ward]

Somehow one of the bot-driven news sites that feed into MSN picked up an old article from 1997 and ran it as brand new, ignoring the source's dateline.

Might have que'd off of the Texas undergoing re-conditioning and the New Jersey going in for maintenance as I mentioned.

[truetanker]

That is a shame...

Would have been nice if this was true. Like the scuttlebutt of a flying carrier from Avengers being built in Nevada of all places.

TT

[Ruger]

Look at it this way, from the pages of the Seventh Carrier, WWIII could be EMP enhanced, to the point of old boilers being the new nuclear.

TT

I didn’t know anyone else even knew about that series.

Loved all the novels (I think I have all of them).

Edit: nope. Missing the last one. Have to correct that.

Ruger

[Colt Ward]

Gives a interesting look into how they built the main gun turrets since you can see A open in this photo.

[ANS Kamas P81]

"Guided missile frigate USS Halyburton receiving fuel from battleship USS Iowa in the North Atlantic, 6 Sep 1985"

https://twitter.com/HiddenHistoryYT/status/1772398210092265924

[JadeHellbringer]

There's a good story from when New Jersey first went back into service in the 1980s, an escort came alongside to refuel during her shakedown, the lines were sent over, and men on deck were assembled to start rigging bags of coal to send over to the destroyer as a joke.

[Daryk]

That is HILARIOUS!! :D

[Weirdo]

Battleship North Carolina!

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBiWYg

[ANS Kamas P81]

Awesome photos!

[Daryk]

Awesome indeed! :)

[I am Belch II]

The North Carolina is the Showboat.

[Wrangler]

This is the Italian Auxiliary Monitor Monte Sabotino. The ship was armed with a single 15" gun that fired a 1,949-pound shell to a range of 21,000 yards.  The thing range finder is on the mast.  I have no idea how accurate this ship's gun is...



I begin to question if back propulsion is its gun.  that thing firing....is akin to me anyways...wacky racers Army Surplus Special firing it's cannon backwards

[glitterboy2098]

coastal monitors are a great source of weird warship designs, due to their cramming such big guns into such small hulls.

the HMS Lord Clive always caught my eye for it's fixed side mounted 18inch gun.. which apparently was done because the turreted twin 12inch guns weren't seen as enough firepower..

[JadeHellbringer]

The Soviets played with this as well in WWII, with at least two destroyers being fitted with side-mounted 12" guns (I believe salvaged from the sunken Marat, though I'm not 100% sure on the source) for bombarding German shore positions. Keep the starboard side pointed at the beach, make very limited horizontal adjustments (major ones relied on turning the whole ship), and put heavy shells down on the beach outside the range of return fire. Neat idea, and a better use of old pre-Revolution DDs than just sending them in close to the beach to get savaged by shore batteries or Z-boats.

I've seen a reference to a similar idea being considered for old Wickes and Clemson-class DDs early in WWII for the Pacific island-invasion campaigns, but by the time anyone really worked on solid plans for it the Pearl Harbor ships were coming back into service, and provided the needed fire support instead. (This is also the reason the idea to salvage the aft half of the Arizona to turn into a shore bombardment ship, with a new front end, came to nothing.) A similar idea to convert Omaha-class CLs into jury-rigged Atlanta-style CLAAs, with 5"38s and quad-40mms replacing the 6-inch guns, also died off due to new-construction ships coming into service and making the Omahas- AA ships or standard- completely irrelevant for further use.

[Daryk]

That gun arrangement makes me wonder if it was faster to circle back around, or simply reverse along the bombardment track... ;)

[I am Belch II]

Always like the Sub with the big gun. British Sub H1

[JadeHellbringer]

That gun arrangement makes me wonder if it was faster to circle back around, or simply reverse along the bombardment track... ;)

The risk of air/sub attack would be serious enough to warrant circling- stopping to reverse would leave one very vulnerable, and while ships like this were intended to operate with support, there's not a good way to declare a zero-threat level from enemy activity, as the Americans learned repeatedly off Iwo Jima and Okinawa from air attack.

Circling around also gives time to prep the weapon again- there's no ammo hoist bringing shells up from below decks the way a battleship does, everything is more ad-hoc. In the Soviet case, shells were stored in a deckhouse next to the gun- so, you know, above the main deck, and manhandled viaa small gantry and sheer conscript muscle to bring a few of them to the breech area at a time. (I'm actually unsure about the layout of ships like the Lord Clive, but the sheer size of those shells likely warranted a less manpower-oriented approach). So by circling, you get off your three or four shots, putter around to a refreshed position, and while you're in transit prep your next few salvos.

....Or just slow to essentially steerage speeds, hope the Stukas and U-boats are busy elsewhere, and blaze away at the Wermacht ashore until either you run out of ammo, or find the ship has foundered. Let's be real here, the Soviets were a little more about crude-but-aggressive tactics during that war.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

Red Army?  More like redshirt army.

[glitterboy2098]

The risk of air/sub attack would be serious enough to warrant circling- stopping to reverse would leave one very vulnerable, and while ships like this were intended to operate with support, there's not a good way to declare a zero-threat level from enemy activity, as the Americans learned repeatedly off Iwo Jima and Okinawa from air attack.

Circling around also gives time to prep the weapon again- there's no ammo hoist bringing shells up from below decks the way a battleship does, everything is more ad-hoc. In the Soviet case, shells were stored in a deckhouse next to the gun- so, you know, above the main deck, and manhandled viaa small gantry and sheer conscript muscle to bring a few of them to the breech area at a time. (I'm actually unsure about the layout of ships like the Lord Clive, but the sheer size of those shells likely warranted a less manpower-oriented approach). So by circling, you get off your three or four shots, putter around to a refreshed position, and while you're in transit prep your next few salvos.

....Or just slow to essentially steerage speeds, hope the Stukas and U-boats are busy elsewhere, and blaze away at the Wermacht ashore until either you run out of ammo, or find the ship has foundered. Let's be real here, the Soviets were a little more about crude-but-aggressive tactics during that war.

risk of air attack would be minimal since it was built in 1915, fitted with the 18in gun in 1918, and was scrapped in 1927.

submarines would have been a concern, but subs were much more unreliable then. she spent most of WW1 guarding various british harbors. participated in a couple of amphibious raids (well escorted), and was meant to be involved in some amphibious landings but they kept getting cancelled.

[Daryk]

That's probably the best use of that gun arrangement, then... ;D