The Navy's next-generation destroyer (photos)

PORTSMOUTH, R.I.--When someone says that a new Naval vessel will be "the centerpiece of seapower for the next 50 years," it's tempting to be skeptical. But with the U.S. Navy's next-generation Zumwalt-class destroyer, known as DDG 1000, it's worth keeping an open mind.

Source

This ship looks intimidating! I would hate to be on the receiving end of the firepower that thing will be carrying. The CNET article has 14 pictures with short descriptions and bits of info on each one.

reply to post by ninthaxis


Looks neat. Looks almost like a futuristic Civil War ironclad or a submarine/destroyer hybrid..



[edit on 4-8-2010 by Watcher-In-The-Shadows]

reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows


You are right, it does resemble one of the old civil war ships. Interesting that the Navy wants to build a bigger ship but plans to cut down on detectability, noise level and increase efficiency. I wonder how you can make something bigger less detectable when its made out of metal and displacing large amounts of water?

I think they should utilize the wave piercing technology that was present in Earth Race/Ady Gil before the whale whores destroyed it.

It looks very.... non imposing from the outside... The insides look pretty cool though

Imagine if it had active stealth, we'd never know. Could account for extra weight. Looks sort of radar reducing by shape.

It oddly reminds me of a throw-back to the old iron-clads of the 19th century. Pretty cool, though I'm sure it's going to take the fun out of being a sailor. If I was a sailor, I'd enjoy breathing in the salty air that a traditional ship would provide. Instead, it would seem that these new ships will only be dark rooms that the sailors operate out of. Might as well be in a basement somewhere, IMO.

--airspoon

Originally posted by ninthaxis
reply to post by Watcher-In-The-Shadows

 

You are right, it does resemble one of the old civil war ships. Interesting that the Navy wants to build a bigger ship but plans to cut down on detectability, noise level and increase efficiency. I wonder how you can make something bigger less detectable when its made out of metal and displacing large amounts of water?

Making something 'stealthy' to radar is more a function of shape than size, as counter-intuitive as that might seem. Shape the hull and superstructure in such a way as to minimize / control signal reflection, and use radar-absorbing materials in the ship's skin, and she'll be stealthier than a more conventionally shaped ship half her size. Better ways to eliminate vibration, or at least isolate vibration from the actual hull will cut down on the acoustic signature. Cooling the stack gasses before they are vented and minimizing hull openings can reduce the thermal signature. I'm sure there are other things that aren't open-source, but those are the easy ways to make something both bigger and stealthier. Note that 'easy' in this context means easy to write about, not necessarily easy to implement! :-D

So much for "swab the deck". Pretty cool vessel though. looks like a hybrid sub & ship.

You forgot to add the aforementioned pictures...

Here ya go.

Man o Man she is a Beauty!!

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Peace Out,

Korg.

reply to post by Korg Trinity

Thank you for embedding the pictures, star for the effort!

Half of these are not photos, unless they are photos of fairly poor 3d graphics.

The photos that are there are studio shots, meaningless technical looking shiny things and a model.

Utter piffle.

Just to start things off, I am a sailor. So my perceptions may be a bit different than yours.

First: Swabbing the deck will never go away, though we dont do it the same (obviously) as the old timers did in say the WWII era.

Second: The new navy has sailors spend alot more time inside the skin of the ship, with maintenance and operation of the systems required. For example, I am a Gas Turbine Electrical Tech. I rarely if ever would see daylight, unless I took some of my rack time during my off watch hours to go bask in it.

We had a joke on one of my previous ships that, we got all our sun from the stack cam. Really was sad when I think about it. \

Third: There is also a problem I see with reduced crew size, when something breaks you dont have the manpower to utilize on repairs. There are times we have 12 guys working in shifts sleeping next to the repair site just to get something from OOC (out of commission) to fixed. This can last a few days... so what happens when you cut the crew in more than half? All that knowledge and experience gathered by all the senior sailors will have to be concentrated into just a handful of go to guys.

Fourth: I will quit bitching cuz the tech looks like it will be quite deadly to opposing forces. I guess that is what the real determination of a war machines overall quality is about in the end.

reply to post by Y2KJMan


So sailors are just as isolated as sub crews? I never really thought much about what life on a naval ship was like, I always pictured the majority of work to go on the deck or bridge, now that I read your post I feel a bit ridiculous!

Originally posted by firegrind
Half of these are not photos, unless they are photos of fairly poor 3d graphics.

The photos that are there are studio shots, meaningless technical looking shiny things and a model.

Utter piffle.

The thing is under wraps, currently being built... unless you have a time machine how do you propose to take photos of the actual unit in operation??

Korg.

Originally posted by Y2KJMan
Just to start things off, I am a sailor. So my perceptions may be a bit different than yours.

I just got to say it... Awesome Dude!!

Although I hear you when you talk about reduced crew, but I think the idea was not to reduce below operating minimum or to automate a lot of the running of the ship. I just think it means most of the ship can be managed at ops with a minimum of man hours required to run the ship.

I'm not a sailor btw so sorry if my terminology is not up to scratch... but do you follow me?

Korg.

An interesting anecdote
from the Vietnam Era Master
Chief that I talked too, he said
"Used to be, if you got your job done
early, you could go on liberty early, but
now it's all about the clock, keep em busy.
Busy work busy work. I was thinking of thirty
but now I'm gonna retire early. This time punching
Navy is not for me. The work quality suffers when you
remove the reward, and the tasks are becoming mindless."

I look at this new design and see no reason to have people on it.
Send it out like a drone and run it from an Apartment complex in New Mexico.
Rotate out three or four ships, and just have one crew that does maintenance on all.


David Grouchy

www.gizmag.com...

Another "very cool" ship being built for the navy...It is The Trimaran Littoral Combat Ship....I am very proud to say my husband works at Bath Iron Works and it's quite an amazing sight to travel across the bridge and see the shipyard and all it's powerful glory....my boys love seeing it and are in awe of the fact that dad works there (of course, dad tells them not to be in such awe that they want to work there-LOL) For ANYONE who lives or works in or near a shipyard such as this, it truly is "very cool" ....There is a sign that hangs above the yard entrance that states "Through these gates pass the BEST shipbuilders in the world" and knowing alot of the men and woman who work there, I for one, believe it!! I take great pride in my husband and what he does... Thanks OP...star and flag!

Edit to add...there are only 2 of these LCS built to date...and the program is not a sure thing at the moment...the navy is quite often cancelling, re-arranging, and scrapping ship construction.

www.gdlcs.com...
this link gives you a much better pic of the LCS

[edit on 4-8-2010 by rockhndr]

[edit on 4-8-2010 by rockhndr]

I cant say that we are as isolated on surface ships as subsurface ships, I wasnt trying to make that case. I was however saying that for the most part dependng on your job, you arent going to see the sun or breathe the air on a regular basis.

Main Machinery Spaces, Combat Central and a few others are watch stations in the skin of the ship with watch rotations of 4-8 hours or so. We have the opportunity to get fresh air. Sometimes you just need sleep though.


In response to you Korg, I say this... a warship is meant for exactly that. There are certain things such as damage control that require lots of manpower, I can see it now... the Chinese hack into the OS of the ship somehow and upload a virus. Where now does all this vaunted technology get us then?

Automation for watchstations is a good idea honestly, why would we have 9 engineers per engine room on watch with only 1 boiler lit off? I agree with that point. However, even with reduced man hours etc, when it comes to ships and any other piece of extremely complicated machinery. There is almost no time when one person is able to diagnose and fix any problem, and in the case of a ship, one department may own hundreds of pieces of equipment. I just dont see it working very well with that knowledge being lost to the crew.

reply to post by Korg Trinity


Thanks for embedding the pictures.

To me the one with the 2 workstations (bridge or CIC?) reminds me a little of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Maybe THAT wasn't so far-fetched after all.