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Insider's Look at High-Tech High-Speed Navy Vessel
Xidus writes "Computerworld is running an article on the technology behind the US Navy's newest HSV (High Speed Vessel), focusing on interfaces designed to reduce the number of personnel needed on the bridge. Lots of pretty pictures. No word on OSes, although Mozilla is mentioned, and UNIX-ish desktops are visible, along with some nifty virtual-reality tactical displays. Would you like to play a game?"
But what if the US went to war with China or India? All your sub no longer belong to US, all you sub belong to China or India.
The advantages of a dual hull in a ship of this size outweigh the disadvantages. A multihull rocks less in rough seas, giving it a more stable platform for operating helicopters, maintaining satellite links, launching weapons, etc.
It's also more maneuverable due to having its twin screws so widely separated. Forward on one screw and reverse on the other and the ship comes about in its own length (pretty much).
The ship also doesn't need to be ballasted in the same manner as a monohull, because of the inherent stability of its broad beam.
The disadvantages include the inability to right itself if capsized and a more complex compartment layout.
Also, I hope these servers are protected against EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) bomb
With everything being "off the shelf" hardware, how much emp it can take is a good question. There are test facilities.
I can understand mil-rad hardened transistors surviving, but all that stuff clearly has to use low voltage CMOS that can be blown if there is a nearby lightning strike.
I think most worrisome is a computer glitch (not to mention a bullet) hitting the right server at the right place to cause the ship to be dead in the water because engine/navigation controls don't work.
If it could bring down an Osprey helicopter, one has to wonder about ships also.
Being the military, they probably (or should) have taken such things into account when deploying the systems.
You also have to wonder how much time they spend patching all the software.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I was on it for some experiments in 02 and it was a real impressive boat. The vessel is a proof of concept for what a future command and control ship would be like. Basically the budget is large and they throw everything they can on it to see what good solutions come out.
Not to be outdone the Army also has it's on vessel aptly called the TSV (Theater Support Vessel).
On the HSV the exercise servers/work stations run Windows, if there were "UNIX-ish" systems there they must have been hiding.
The boat itself is sweet, actually very similar to the "Cat" in Maine. That's the ferry from Nova Scotia to Bar Harbor with a top speed of 55(?) knots or so.
Finally!!!!! A military carreer for the overweight masses of X-box, Nintendo and PlayStation owning couch-potatos.
Not so far out as you might think. This may be Urban Legend (tell me if so), but there is a tale of exactly this.
About 20 years ago, in the days of Pac-Man and similar, when computer games were only available in bars and arcades, the people building the North Sea oil rigs were having trouble: the Remote Operated Vehicles they used for deep-water inspection and minor repairs were too difficult for the operators to control. So they sent out recruiters to hire the top players in the arcades of Aberdeen. And, allegedly, it worked: the arcade warriors were much better ROV operators than the serious engineers.
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
Computer navigation and steering is not new.
Tell me about it... many modern ships employ the use of electrnoic throttle and rudder controls. Works just fine, unless you pop a fuse, then you're stuck with last speed and rudder settings, at least from the ferries i've seen. You would think they would employ some form of dead man's switch, where throttle is cut in the event this happens, but that would make far too much sense.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Looks cool. I always wondered why navies never seemed to use multi-hulled ships, given their speed and handling characteristics. I guess in the days when all that mattered was the size of your gun and the thickness of your armour, it was a bit irrelevent.
If the rules are changing and speed/tactical operations are the New Way, I wonder whether high manoeuvrability "tanks" will be back on the agenda as well, then? They were never much good in the old days, when the accuracy of your opponent's gun was so bad that even if you dodged you might take an unlucky hit anyway (when armour would still protect you, of course) but if we're all about agile units able to get in and out quickly and stealthily now...?
Incidentally, am I the only one who spotted loads of cool things about the ship in the original article... except for any offensive capability (other than via aircraft)? If it's a multi-role vessel, you'd have thought it would carry some sort of firepower, even if only for self-defence!
If you'd have to kill me, don't tell me. :o)
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
Two silly stories spring to mind. Both are from memory so I can't give precise details and have probably got others wrong. Oh well, they're still funny :-)
First was a warship patrolling in the Arctic during one of the world wars (think first), and saw an enemy ship in the distance - so fired a torpedo. Problem was, the torpedo's rudder mechanism wasn't designed to handle the cold water and jammed. Described a beautiful arc while the ship carried on steaming ahead and hit the ship that had fired it in the engine room, putting it out of commission for the rest of the war.
Second was a training vessel running exercises in Portsmouth harbour in the UK. Fairly old ship with a mechanical signalling device from bridge to engine rooms - which jammed at half speed astern, and when attempting to unjam it was stuck on full astern. So, first mate sent down to engine room to countermand the order - made no headway against most of the ship's company bailing out having realised what was happening in a fairly small space too late to stop it. The ship rammed a concrete jetty at something like 15 knots in reverse. This compressed it by several feet and resulted in the only injury - one unfortunate seaman was halfway through a deck hatch at the point of impact and the pressure difference this caused shot him out like a bullet from a gun and quite a way into the air.
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!