By: AegisFC - 28th November 2006 at 08:56
I was refering to the “not used underway anymore” part. I figured they would use a crane at the harbour when in harbour. But USN dont reload underway anymore or what?
/Dan
Ah, I should of been more clear, the USN doesn’t reload VLS at sea anymore, in fact the new Burkes have 6 more VLS cells because they do not have a crane at all.
As I said pretty much the only thing the Flight 1 Burkes use it for is to reload the torpedo tubes, though I suppose if one of your missiles missfired a crane would be useful to get the cell out of the launcher and over the side, but I sure wouldn’t want to be the guy in the crane seat!
By: Bager1968 - 28th November 2006 at 08:06
They didn’t use it very much even in the 1980s… it was there for those “shoot everything you have at the Red Horde, then pull back a few miles to re-arm from the munitions ships… no time to go to port” Cold War WW3 scenarios.
In practice, they found it too dangerous for peacetime, and now they don’t think it will ever actually be needed, even if we get into a major war.
By: Z1pp0 - 27th November 2006 at 22:38
…
The Mk41 crane isn’t used underway anymore…
I was refering to the “not used underway anymore” part. I figured they would use a crane at the harbour when in harbour. But USN dont reload underway anymore or what?
/Dan
By: AegisFC - 26th November 2006 at 01:37
A civillian crane on the pier.
By: Z1pp0 - 25th November 2006 at 23:51
…
The Mk41 crane isn’t used underway anymore, in fact on the Burkes the foward one is pretty much not used any more and the aft one is just used to help move torps from the magazine up to next to the tubes.
So what are they using now? How do they get the missiles in there if they dont use that crane?
/Dan
By: AegisFC - 25th November 2006 at 16:10
I’ve been lurking here for a few months now but this is my first post…
The Mk41 crane isn’t used underway anymore, in fact on the Burkes the foward one is pretty much not used any more and the aft one is just used to help move torps from the magazine up to next to the tubes.
By: Turbinia - 24th November 2006 at 16:13
Has anybody ever seen the way the Supermarine Walrus was recovered at sea? That must’ve been a bit scary!
By: sferrin - 24th November 2006 at 04:02
AFAIK, the RUssians did SSBN reloading at sea too. They had a serious accident a couple of times too. I remember they had a missile banging between the SSBN and the reloading ship. Not a nice feeling I guess.
I imagine being liquid fueled didn’t help things either. 😮
By: Neptune - 23rd November 2006 at 23:27
AFAIK, the RUssians did SSBN reloading at sea too. They had a serious accident a couple of times too. I remember they had a missile banging between the SSBN and the reloading ship. Not a nice feeling I guess.
By: rickusn - 23rd November 2006 at 18:02
You do know what NAVY stands for dont you????
Never
Again
Volunteer
Yourself
LOL
By: FAR - 23rd November 2006 at 18:00
I cant see there being many volunteers for that one! 😮
Perhaps that was a situation where 1 pressed man was worth 10 volunteers!
By: sealordlawrence - 23rd November 2006 at 17:59
Back in the Polaris days they even planned to reload SSBNs at sea.
I cant see there being many volunteers for that one! 😮
By: sferrin - 23rd November 2006 at 17:51
Back in the Polaris days they even planned to reload SSBNs at sea.
By: TinWing - 23rd November 2006 at 17:32
Don’t see too many shots of the crane. Looks like they’re having fun :p
It is amazing that this crane took the place of only 3 VLS cells.
In the high threat environment of the cold war, reloading at sea must have seemed to be a valuable capability.
It reminds me of the early claims that gas turbine powered destroyers could literally swap out turbines in the middle of the open ocean.
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November 22, 2006 at 11:04 pm