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Two Sailors Injured When Drone Crashes Into US Navy Guided Missile Cruiser
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "CNN reports that two sailors were hurt when a drone malfunctioned and crashed into the Chancellorsville, a 567-foot Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser, as the ship operated off the Point Mugu area of Southern California in an area where BQM-74E aerial targets are widely used. The drone was being used to test the ship's radar tracking when it malfunctioned, veered out of control and struck the cruiser. 'No sailors were seriously injured, but two sailors were treated for minor burns,' the Navy said in a statement. 'The ship remains capable of operations. However, it did sustain some damage and will return to its homeport of San Diego to have the damage assessed. The Navy is investigating the cause of the malfunction.' Chancellorsville has one of the most advanced air defense systems in the Navy, and the ship regularly tests missiles off Southern California. In late August, Chancellorsville successfully used an SM-6 missile to hit a target drone off Point Mugu. The cruiser stocks a variety of missiles, including Tomahawks."
... From the Kama-Ke Tse factory?
Can you track me now?
Honey, I'm home!
Its just a matter of time, keep firing on those drones and eventually they will fight back.
Yeah but there were free picked-over muffin remnants in the breakroom!!
FREE MUFFINS!
Sheesh, I leave the console for like 2 seconds and everyone freaks out, I'm going to the washroom to play tetris on my phone for 20 minutes while you chill out
It's a 3 ton low speed aircraft crashing into an armored cruiser by definition designed to be shot at with things like shells and missiles and bombs and torpedoes. Surpising.
Those navy vessels are dangerous places to work, even in practice.
Time Bomber the Book coming soon.
Chancellorsville has one of the most advanced air defense systems in the Navy[...]
But it could not defend itself against a runaway drone. Very impressive.
Is there a possibility that the drone could have been compromised and purposely flown into the Chancellorsville?
I always thought that remote "anything" could be susceptible to, for lack of a better word, hijacking.
Actually - the drone was NOT being controlled by anyone aboard the ship. At least one article that I read specified that the drone was operated from a shore station. TFA doesn't make mention of that fact.
To put things in perspective - the ship's capability to detect and intercept stealth aircraft was being put to the test. The cruiser didn't have control of the drone, because that would have been "cheating". Instead, another command activity was responsible for the drone, ensuring that the cruiser's personnel had to do the actual work of spotting it, and calculating "kill" shots on it. Standard routine for ship's gunnery and missile exercises since long before I served.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
re: In late August, Chancellorsville successfully used an SM-6 missile to hit a target drone
Clearly, there is a history to be examined.
tone
Drones make the news these days, for obvious reasons. However, it is important to note that this was not a drone such as the ones we tend to think of these days, taking out terror suspects, etc. This was an old-fashioned target drone, the type the Navy has been using for forty years. Basically a step up from an RC aircraft, with not a lot of smarts, and designed to be shot up. If this accident had happened thirty years ago no one outside of the Navy would have taken note of it.
Proverbs 21:19
...a Beowolf cluster of drones!
I know these new Navy ships have had critics about various things, including the weakness of their armor. I thought that maybe they were overstating that, but I saw video today of the hole punched in the side of the ship and was surprised. That was just a drone crashing into the side (vs. some form of live ordinance - missile, artillery, etc. - designed to penetrate and destroy) and it punched a hole like it was a bullet going through a car door.
Maybe the Navy does need to take a second look at the armor on these boats?
Hack our drones and crash them into our own ships. Apparently, a navy cruiser with one of the most advanced air defense systems was no defense for a malfunctioning drone. This is how we lose the war folks.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/17/us/drone-malfunction-duplicate-2/ :-(
about the accident on a news site, but the news site didn't mention that sailors were injured. Thanks for posting the update.
I couldnt find the statistics on google. However unless otherwise noted, I doubt if the rate betweent he two aircraft types are that different.
...the ship's capability to detect and intercept stealth aircraft was being put to the test.
I'd say they found it and I suppose you could say the Chancellorsville "intercepted" it too.
We just ordered a whole bunch of "ice hardened" corvettes (I thought they were supposed to be frigates, but I don't really know the difference anyway).
I can see how this will influence Canadian naval Strategy...
1st Officer: "Sir radar detects an enemy vessel off our port bow!"
Captain: "Yar! Tis be time for battle me maties! Ahead full to ramming speed, we'll stave in this gobber good!"
Enemy radarman: "Um, there appears to be a ship coming towards us slowly..."
Enemy Captain: "Distance?!"
Enemy radarman: "17 Kilometers, estimated impact in about an hour or so?"
Enemy Captain: "Um... fire a missile?"
Mr. Prosser: Do you know how much damage this battleship would sustain if I just let the drone fly right into it?
Arthur: How much?
Mr. Prosser: Some!
I blame it on a lightning strike.
You say things that offend me and I can deal with it. Can you?
Please use only the oven specifically designated for this purpose. Thank you.
And yet their defences proved futile to the surprise kamikaze attack... How did they know it wasn't hacked and controlled by terrorists from Atlantis? Or Pacifica for that matter?
Proving once again, nothing is safe to fly without TSA agents screening all those on board.
Dr. Charles Luther strikes again!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Hi folks, anonymous Fire Control education available here.
A little research will show that the Chancellorsville received an Aegis Modernization upgrade last year, and earlier this year also had their combat system software patched again.
The ship was likely involved in a Detect-to-Engage scenario with the BQM-74 drone acting in an anti-ship missile profile, or enhanced to provide a radar return like a strike aircraft (Source: wikipedia)
In this sort of scenario, whether off the California or Hawaiian coasts, the ship's weapons systems are SAFED. The firing inhibt keys are in place. The ship cannot actually fire. There are scenarios where the drone would be fired upon, but generally with dummy munitions, and the telemetry would be recovered from the drone to indicate if the ship would have had a successful hit.
Given that I've done these particular exercises before in my (previous) career, it sounds like the first scenario. They were testing the newest software to ensure that the combat system internally processed the drone's attack profile correctly and the ship was able to successfully send engagement and targeting data to the weapons systems, without actually releasing any munitions.
Having served on an identical guided missile cruiser to the Chancellorsville, I can also discuss conjecture about ship's armor. We're not really armored like people think of anymore. The superstructure on modern ships contains a lot of aluminium, to save weight. (this also causes significant corrosion problems in older ships) Especially in the case of the top-heavy deckhouses of an Aegis Cruiser. The critical spaces in the superstructure DO have armor, but this is more to ensure that blast fragments don't penetrate. A direct hit on a critical equipment room would still cause significant damage.
http://www.10news.com/news/military/malfunctioning-drone-hits-san-diego-based-navy-ship-uss-chancellorsville-while-training-2-injured
This link contains video showing the puncture from the drone striking the ship. It punctured like this because you're looking at a thin bulkhead; there's a covered exterior passageway right there through the deckhouse on both port and starboard side. Interior to that are a couple of gear lockers; again, inconsequential and unarmored. Deeper in than that you would find some armored spaces.
Likely the fuel from the drone ignited, causing a small fire and damaging these gear lockers and assorted deck equipment kept within. My ship kept the small skiff used for painting the hull inport stored there, along with rope and other lines.
I'm interested in how/why Point Mugu lost control of the drone.
And yet their defences proved futile to the surprise kamikaze attack...
It was likely not a live-fire exercise. As such, a "kill" wouldn't have stopped it. It was identified as a "friend", even though treated as a "foe" for the exercise. The real defenses were not activated.
Learn to love Alaska
when one of these things slams into a residential area.
Circle the wagons and fire inward. Entropy increases without bounds.
"What *kind* of Tomahawks?"
"12 of them were specials... nuclear tipped."
Some perople get injured by a drone and it makes Slashdot?
What about the hundreds of innocent people killed by the cowardly people operating these things?
Wild guess: drone operator was texting?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."