Naval Pictures X: Underway on Nuclear Power

[I am Belch II]

1. Ship classifications are as much politics as they are technical now.

2. When posting pictures, used {img width=500}url{/img}.
Like so:


Clicking the picture will embiggen.

10k tons but only 16VLS tubes. Kinda lightly armed for its sized.

[chanman]

10k tons but only 16VLS tubes. Kinda lightly armed for its sized.

It's not the displacement, it's what you do with it! 

I'm actually kinda curious where all that displacement is going to. The crew complement is tiny, and even the extra passenger/crew capacity only brings it up to the normal complement of something like a Type 45 or Hobart (~200ish), still well short of the ~300 you see on large AAW destroyers around the Pacific. Doubly so when you account for members of the air group.

The Pohjanmaa sure look like a Cold War-era frigate with a corvette-sized crew.

[Daryk]

With armament that light, it should have some impressive speed...

[chanman]

With armament that light, it should have some impressive speed...

No, they might actually a bit on the slow side for a surface warship, ditto the Pohjanmaa. Maybe they have an onboard brewery and beer hall?

[Daryk]

Hmmm... no idea what they put the mass toward then... :/

[chanman]

Hmmm... no idea what they put the mass toward then... :/

I think just the mess glassware is substantial

[Daryk]

LOL!  Good one! :D

[nerd]

A beer hall, mit Volkstuemlice Muisk band! 🤪

Also, today marks 41 years since USS Ohio (SSBN-726) completed her first deterrent patrol.

[Daryk]

She was only 8 years old when I did my Midshipman cruise in her... she was NOT fun to drive on the surface!

[Colt Ward]

One storm deserves another . . .



USS Essex (CV-9) Takes spray over the bow while steaming in heavy seas, Note S2-F at the rear of the flight deck, with its engines turning. Other planes visible, amidships, include AD and F4-D January 12th 1960 .

[kato]

I'm actually kinda curious where all that displacement is going to.

If i look at internal walkarounds of US ships (like this video for USS Sampson), by comparison:
[/list]

• Corridors, Stairways etc on F125/F126 are generally twice as wide. Or at least look that wide. Might be all the damage control equipment cluttering spaces on US ships.
• Enlisted berthing - despite one-third the crew - is about the same total space. 4-Man cabins for enlisted with own head and shower that are the size of staterooms on US ship.
• Control spaces seem to be more spacious on German ships, even before accounting for them also existing redundantly for resilience purposes.
• On F125 the four internal boat bays (and the two fully separate helicopter hangars) take up quite an amount of volume. On F126 the boat bays are reduced to two (slightly larger) with the rest of the space rearranged to be used for one of the flex decks.

[Daryk]

1 head per 4-man berthing space???  That's going to be HEAVY...

Even when I obtained a stateroom to myself (filling in for my O-6 boss for a couple of weeks), I still had to wander down the p-way for a head.  The tour before that, my office had a head attached to it, but that was only because the building used to be a barracks.

[chanman]

1 head per 4-man berthing space???  That's going to be HEAVY...

Even when I obtained a stateroom to myself (filling in for my O-6 boss for a couple of weeks), I still had to wander down the p-way for a head.  The tour before that, my office had a head attached to it, but that was only because the building used to be a barracks.

One of the big issues with simply making more Burkes is that Burkes have 1980s habitability and crew sizes. At a time when recruitment and retention are both pressing issues, I'd have a hard time arguing against better quarters.

If i look at internal walkarounds of US ships (like

this video for USS Sampson), by comparison:
[/list]

• Corridors, Stairways etc on F125/F126 are generally twice as wide. Or at least look that wide. Might be all the damage control equipment cluttering spaces on US ships.
• Enlisted berthing - despite one-third the crew - is about the same total space. 4-Man cabins for enlisted with own head and shower that are the size of staterooms on US ship.
• Control spaces seem to be more spacious on German ships, even before accounting for them also existing redundantly for resilience purposes.
• On F125 the four internal boat bays (and the two fully separate helicopter hangars) take up quite an amount of volume. On F126 the boat bays are reduced to two (slightly larger) with the rest of the space rearranged to be used for one of the flex decks.

There's also a lot of excess berthing if the preliminary spec sheet is correct with a normal crew of something like 120 and room for another 100ish. Just the additional heads and showers are going to require a lot more plumbing, so I can see that contributing for sure.

Type 45-class destroyer enlisted quarters:


I think it's going to be a general trend. Metal is also cheap, and everyone's learned better to have some extra space and displacement to grow into in future upgrades. That, and livability is both a health and morale factor, especially with retention/recruitment issues and increasingly older crews on average. It's just notable in that it seems to be true for everyone, but even in that context, the F126s are unusual.

Type 055 quarters. Not sure if it's junior/senior enlisted


Type 055 mess with some eye-searing upholstery (seems to be used everywhere including the wardroom)


Still though, I suspect they're a much more desired posting than the old Sovremenny class destroyers.

Some more crew quarters: https://www.reddit.com/gallery/10mcdqe

My big takeaway is that the urge to issue camo to sailors transcends national borders. Apparently it's just the kind of good idea that admirals everywhere can't stop having.
https://www.reddit.com/r/WarshipPorn/comments/10o8jdo/album_life_aboard_plan_type_052dl_destroyer_132/

[Charlie 6]

1 head per 4-man berthing space???  That's going to be HEAVY...

Even when I obtained a stateroom to myself (filling in for my O-6 boss for a couple of weeks), I still had to wander down the p-way for a head.  The tour before that, my office had a head attached to it, but that was only because the building used to be a barracks.

See, I peaked back in '03 when I was Commanding Officer of Troops (C.O.T. but not "cot" oddly) on USS ASHLAND for 2.5 months; I had a stateroom, a cabin, and a head with shower.

[Daryk]

Nice!  I do remember the old Marine berthing spaces on USS NIMITZ when she was in the yards.  The "Major's" quarters were MUCH better than my stateroom... ;)

[chanman]

Tuo Chiang class corvette. Displaces around 700 tonnes with 41 crew. Looks chonky because it's pretty wide at 14-15m


And the Coast Guard version:

[Colt Ward]

The Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Inflexible standing by to pick up survivors from the German cruiser SMS Gneisenau after the Battle of the Falkland Islands, December 1914.

Not the sort of picture you see every day.

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

And the Coast Guard version:

That looks like a cruise ship.

[Cannonshop]

The Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS Inflexible standing by to pick up survivors from the German cruiser SMS Gneisenau after the Battle of the Falkland Islands, December 1914.

Not the sort of picture you see every day.

True, but it's a story that happened several times over the years, and there's a reason why, too.

nobody wants to be left in that situation.  The Royal Navy picked up the survivors of Bismarck for the same reason-they understood that it could've been them, and they'd want to be picked up too. 

[Colt Ward]

Oh I get that, I meant pictures of that many men floating in the water.

[Colt Ward]

The once mighty and feared Soviet fleet sits abandoned in the ice of the so-called "submarine cemetery", Vladivostok, Russia, 2001.

We talk about the Special K's condition . . . but it applied to other ships & boats too.

[Daryk]

Wow... those are some amazing pictures!  I can't say more without violating Rule 4...

[glitterboy2098]

The once mighty and feared Soviet fleet sits abandoned in the ice of the so-called "submarine cemetery", Vladivostok, Russia, 2001.

We talk about the Special K's condition . . . but it applied to other ships & boats too.

except the Special K was still in service, which made its "pending salvage on the move" condition more notable.

[Colt Ward]

Everyone has seen the photo of the four Iowa class battleships sailing together. Here is an equally cool photo of the French Richelieu class battleships sailing together on January 30, 1956. This was the first and only time the sisters sailed together during their careers.
Jean Bart, easily distinguished by her superstructure and heavier secondary weaponry, is leading her sister Richelieu on exercises.
France hoped to modernize Richelieu to the same standard as her younger sister. However, funding was not available for such a massive project. Therefore, it was decided to give Richelieu a more austere refit during 1950/1951 and turn her into a gunnery training ship. She continued in this role until February of 1956, the month after this photo was taken.   She would be laid up in Brest, serving as a floating barracks and school ship until 1967.

[Colt Ward]

Forward 12" turret of USS Ohio (BB-12). The effort to keep the barrels in such a high state of shine must have been considerable

[Daryk]

No kidding!  Salt spray is no joke...

[MoneyLovinOgre4Hire]

I remember when I was in college- I took a film class that included watching Battleship Potemkin.  In the scene that showed all the sailors scrubbing the deck, most of the class thought it was some sort of punishment for complaining instead of just a vital part of maintaining a steel warship on the ocean.

[Daryk]

Heh... there's plenty of routine work at sea that those unfamiliar would think of as punishment.

[Wrangler]

Nevermind the ships from Predreadnought era.  I've not really seen a picture where these ships are rusting hard or in disrepair.   

It must be the materials their using.   Teak decks like the Ohio has take alot elbow grease (aka alot mopping) keep salt water from rotting it.
I was side cleaner in the US Navy, It was a lot endless scrubbing, frankly we were only 6 man team.  We barely kept head of it.

[glitterboy2098]

I remember when I was in college- I took a film class that included watching Battleship Potemkin.  In the scene that showed all the sailors scrubbing the deck, most of the class thought it was some sort of punishment for complaining instead of just a vital part of maintaining a steel warship on the ocean.

yep, there is a reason that sailors were called 'swabbies".