Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Cold-War Era Naval Vessels Up For Grabs

Posted by kdawson on from the yours-for-a-dock dept.

mcleland lets us in on a Wall Street Journal story about two cold-war era, formerly top-secret vessels the US Navy is trying to give away. At issue are the Sea Shadow (the ancestor of all modern naval radar-evading technology) and the Hughes Mining Barge (a floating dry-dock and more-or-less base for the Sea Shadow). While the ships are being 'given away,' there are multiple regulations involved, making the gift a very costly one. "A Naval Museum is 'a bloodthirsty, paper-work ridden, permit-infested, money-sucking hole,' warns the Historic Naval Ships Association. Because the Navy won't pay for anything — not rust-scraping or curating — to keep museums afloat, survival depends on big crowds."

10 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. First Boats by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    I hope they come with sharks with lasers on their frikkin' heads.

  2. Skunk Works by SnarfQuest · · Score: 2, Informative

    This boat is described in the book "Skink Works". The navy didn't want it because it didn't have a paint locker.

    --
    Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
    1. Re:Skunk Works by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, the Navy didn't want it because it was very expensive and of limited combat utility. It might have been of some use to a primarily coastal defense navy, but it's useless to a power projection navy like the USN.

      The paint locker story reflects Ben Rich's ignorance of the Navy and inability (or unwillingness) to listen to people other than himself. Had he asked, he'd have found that the paint locker is an important space on a warship - because the paint locker is where volatiles and flammables are stored. It has special ventilation and fire fighting provisions, something quite important on a ship that goes in harm's way.

  3. The jennifer morgue by lessthan · · Score: 2, Informative

    What is really weird is that I'm reading the Jennifer Morgue right now. The book starts with the operations.

    --
    Space Shuttle was a program that strapped humans to an explosion and tried to stab through the sky with fire and math
  4. Anyone else intereted in forming a Naval Fleet? by ipc0nfig · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the webpage: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2006/09/fr091406.html Other ships that are currently available for donation include: (1) Patrol Combat ex-CANON (PG 90), Philadelphia, PA. (2) Guided Missile Destroyer ex-CHARLES F. ADAMS (DDG 2), Philadelphia, PA. (3) Destroyer ex-CONOLLY (DD 979), Philadelphia, PA. (4) Destroyer ex-EDSON (DD 946), Philadelphia, PA. (5) Submarine ex-TROUT (SS 566), Philadelphia, PA. (6) Guided Missile Cruiser ex-TICONDEROGA (CG 47), Philadelphia, PA. (7) Aircraft Carrier ex-RANGER (CV 61),Bremerton, WA.

  5. Re:Batleships for sale too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Not as awesome as you'd think. They somehow get classified as munitions, and so they're not sold in working order. If they are in working order at the time of sale, they will be rendered non-functional in a way that should be very costly to reverse, if it's even possible.

  6. Re:Batleships for sale too by StikyPad · · Score: 3, Informative

    https://www.drms.dla.mil/sales/

    --
    https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
  7. Re:Batleships for sale too by couchslug · · Score: 4, Informative

    "In all seriousness, where are those $15 jeeps?"

    They were scrapped carcasses back many decades ago. For example, M151s were demilled by being torchcut into chunks. "Jeeps" of the actual "Jeep" persuasion are ancient history.

    http://www.govliquidation.com/

    is where to directly bid online for much of what Uncle Sugar no longer needs, but bulk buyers drive up costs quite a bit. If you collect military vehicles, large trucks are often bargains, but fun stuff like CUCVs tend to go high. Lots of interesting stuff, and well worth a browse.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  8. Re:That bad, eh? by Chyeld · · Score: 3, Informative

    Funny thing about that... Spain doesn't think you can.

  9. Sea Shadow was by Brain_Recall · · Score: 2, Informative
    From what I remember, the Sea Shadow was actually mostly a failure, in terms of radar signature. Sure, it was damn stealthy. In fact, too stealthy. Water naturally reflects radar, so when they took Sea Shadow out, all they had to do was look for the hole where they weren't getting any reflection. :-/

    In other ways it was a success. It did have a very low noise signature. The hull design did help it greatly reduce the ships wake, keeping it from turning up too much water.