ROILO GOLEZ, Philippine National Security Adviser (2001-2004). The world and the Philippines as Roilo Golez sees it. With focus on national security, geopolitics, geo-security, economics, science and government.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
The Most Technologically Advanced Warship Ever Built When the Navy needs to surprise and overwhelm an inland enemy, it can send in its new Zumwalt-class destroyer.
When the USS Zumwalt rolls out of dry dock at Bath Iron Works in Maine next year, the Navy’s newest warship will be 100 feet longer than the destroyers currently serving around the globe—and nearly twice as massive—yet it will have a radar signature 50 times smaller and will carry half the crew. Packed bow to stern with state-of-the-art radar, stealth, weapons, and propulsion systems, the USS Zumwalt, which will be operational in mid-2016, will be the most technologically sophisticated warship ever to hit the water.
A complement to Arleigh Burke–class destroyers that currently protect the Navy’s prized aircraft carriers from aerial attacks, the Zumwalt-class destroyer is for laying waste to land. It can evade enemy detection; slip into the shallows along foreign coastlines; and deliver devastatingly accurate firepower hundreds of miles inland, supporting special operations ashore, clearing the way for amphibious troop landings, or knocking out air defenses. It’s a seaborne battering ram—a specialized piece of equipment for smashing in the enemy’s front door.
In the 1990s, the U.S. military carried out successful amphibious assaults in Somalia and elsewhere. But as coastal defenses around the world grew more advanced—not least those of Iraq, which would have been a serious threat to U.S. troops had they invaded Kuwait by sea during Operation Desert Storm—the Navy decided to build the Zumwalt.
Traditional destroyers create huge wakes and their hulls tend to light up radar dishes. By contrast, the angle of the Zumwalt’s hull reduces its radar signature 50-fold (on radar it looks like a fishing boat) and slices through the water like a 600-foot harpoon, creating little wake and making it more difficult to see from both above and below. Though it rides low, the Zumwalt can operate in just 30 feet of water, scanning for airborne and underwater threats with planar-array radar and advanced sonar.
If geopolitical events call for securing nuclear facilities in an unraveling North Korea or Iran, theZumwalt is the Navy’s surest way to arrive unannounced.From the shallows, the Zumwalt can then wipe out enemy defenses up to 72 miles away. Sailors don’t cram shells into the dual 155-millimeter guns nor do they clear the casings. The guns are controlled—point, click, boom—by a computer in the command center; they fire GPS-guided shells, considered by the Navy to be more like rockets than artillery because of their ability to adjust trajectory in flight. The ship also carries a battery of SM-2 antiaircraft missiles, surface-targeting Tomahawks, missile-destroying ESSM interceptors, and vertically launched ASROC antisubmarine torpedoes, all distributed among 80 missile cells that line the Zumwalt’s hull. The location of the cells ensures that the missiles can’t all be disabled by a single enemy strike and serves as an extra layer of defense around the ship.
Click through the slideshow below to see how one historic Korean War battle might have played out if the U.S. military had the Zumwalt in 1950:
The Zumwalt generates far more power than it needs. Unlike other Navy vessels, its all-electric integrated power system supports shipboard operations using a single massive energy source: four gas-turbine generators that collectively produce 78 megawatts of electricity, almost 10 times more than Arleigh Burke–class destroyers. Its dual 35-megawatt advanced induction motors produce a top speed of 30 knots, but at 20 knots the Zumwalt retains three quarters of its power (58 megawatts) for other systems. Those systems—everything from fire suppression to robotic cargo handling belowdecks—are largely automated, allowing the Zumwalt to operate with a crew of just 148, compared with the Arleigh Burke’s 276.
In spite of its sophistication, however, the ship will see limited service. Over the past decade, the Navy’s priorities have shifted away from a shallow-water, land-attack destroyer. Missile threats from North Korea, Iran, Russia, and China (which boasts of possessing a “carrier killer” missile) made it vital to protect aircraft carriers. And after a decade of land wars, the strategic emphasis is shifting to open-water conflict.
As a result, the U.S. military is currently moving 60 percent of its naval forces to the Pacific. TheZumwalt isn’t particularly suited to that sort of theater, and in an age of shrinking budgets, it makes less sense to continue pouring $3 billion apiece into untested amphibious battering rams than it does to buy a variety of smaller, less expensive boats armed with proven air-defense technologies.
But the ship should still be valuable. Any conflict that spills from the open water to, say, the many contested islands in the South Pacific is one that the Zumwalt could settle. The Navy could also be called into action in the Strait of Hormuz, where tensions with Iran are coming to a boil. And, in fact, a recent report commissioned by the Pentagon did recommend that the U.S. deploy more amphibious-ready ships to the Pacific to ensure that Marines in the region have the right tools for intervention. If geopolitical events call for the securing of certain sensitive assets, such as the nuclear facilities of an unraveling North Korea or Iran, the Zumwalt is the Navy’s surest way to arrive unannounced and open the way inland.
The ship’s most immediate role will likely be that of an incubator for advanced technologies as the Navy updates its fleet for 21st-century conflict. The Zumwalt is an ideal platform for power-intensive future weapons systems, such as lasers and electromagnetic rail guns. And just as changing threats and shrinking budgets pushed the Zumwalt class out of favor over the past decade, future conflicts could call the destroyers into action should the Navy need to kick in anyone’s door.
Ship Shape:The Zumwalt's LRLAP (long-range land-attack projectile) (right) and shell scaled next to a person. Nick Jacques
The Navy should consider that they could be proving their land attack capability with this craft by excavating swimming pools in our backyards. Save us all money. We just return the depleted uranium chunks.
The USS Zumwalt sounds great in this article and on paper. The truth is the Navy is a mess. Like Courtney Love on crack,vodka and mothballs kinda mess. It's wasted billions of taxpayers dollars on the Littoral Class warships. The Navy actually accepted ownership of the Freedom. It's had over 260 known major problems and or failure with the largest one being that the entire ship lost power at sea. It's spent more time at the dock than at sea. The F-35B slated for the Navy is years behind schedule, plagued with problems,and billions of dollars over budget.It is currently the most problematic and costly weapon system to date.The USS Independence is not much better being delivered with corrosion and crack problems and is also substandard in terms of being ready for duty.
The Navy needs to hold it's contractors accountable and not hand over a dime of taxpayers money until the contractor delivers working prototypes !
The Navy would get the most bang for its buck in small, fast nuclear-powered pocket carriers that carried 10-20 aircraft/helo's, has anti-sub capability and firepower in terms of torpedo's, tomahawks, harpoon's, sm-2's, and two dozen or more CIWS for self defense. Sort of like an highly upgraded and heavily armed Wasp or Tarawa class ship.
By combining the firepower of a destroyer or cruiser and the capabilities of an air wing, not only do you reduce the number of ships needed for a mission, you have a new versatile class and you would save money as well. Nimitz class and Ford class carriers with their huge battle groups are a thing of the past just like battleships. They are big juicy targets waiting to be hit with an anti-ship missile or a blast from a nuke.
Cost management seems to be the biggest enemy the Navy has vs fighting an adversary from a foreign country.
The whole conversation is pointless. We've been fighting land wars for 10 years in Afghanistan, Iraq and other spots, but the Army is still forced to weld steel onto it's Humvee's to properly armor them, make do with substandard rifles and body armor,crappy camouflage, and still has yet to field a systems for detection or remote detonation of IED's. Yep, Congress will authorize to go buy more ships that don't work without any specified mission......
The extreme design of the Zumwalt class resembles the stealth aircraft the Serb's successfully shot down. Another issue the article fails to address is the seaworthiness of the design. The "tumbledown" hull has failed repeatedly during design model testing even with calm seas. As an ex Navy man, in my youth, I would not willingly accept assignment to such a ship. It looks "cool" but "cool" will not keep the ship on top of the waves during a hurricane or similar type storm at sea. The current BuShips designers have not thoroughly tested the ship. Before ordering more of this design it needs sea trials in all types of weather.
@Flyshipsoup, i hate to flame you but you need it. You have no idea how federal aquisition programs work. The gov. can't just ask for prototypes, thats illegal. All work done in research & development, and construction of that prototype has to be paid for, no pro-bono work. While I can't comment becausei have no knowledge of the problems with the litoral class ships, or the USS Independence, you can just "The Navy needs to hold it's contractors accountable and not hand over a dime of taxpayers money until the contractor delivers working prototypes" that is illegal. There ways of holding contractors responsible for failures to meet requirements on programs but they usually take 10-20 years to resolve. The are still fighting over payment from a prototype bomber from the 70's a precursor to the B-2.
I will agree our military has historically moved closer to 'death star" acquisitions, and silver bullet solutions. Which i find problamatic.
Also your assumption of the current status of Army equipment is outdated by 10 years, Humvee's have been professionaly up armored, with increased suspension, more armor, automated turretes etc. let along the replacement of the Humvee with the MRAP a highly armored highly sophisticated vehicle, and the advancements in IED detetion have been tremedous, jsut do a google search. Also the Army is moving from the ACU(crappy) to the MultiCam uniform (awesome)
@ Ianredneck, I've got to disagree with you. I was in the USMC and I can tell you from experience that there is more fraud and waste than you can shake a stick at. I've personally been to awards ceremonies for fellow Sergeants whose only accomplishments were defrauding the federal government by spending all of the allocated budget on unnecessary items in the last week before the end of the fiscal year so the bean counters would increase the squadron budget. BTW, the squadron is MALS-39, formerly the Magicians and currently the Hell Hounds. My unit was a maintenance and supply squadron serving several rotary wing squadrons.
Trust me when I say that the money we pay in taxes for the ONLY thing this bureaucracy is mandated to do in the Constitution is being frivolously squandered and I cannot stand it. If there is some regulation that says we cannot withhold payment until a product or service is delivered in full as per a contractual obligation, then it is about time to destroy that regulation. Because that is all it is, excess regulation.
As an aside, I think that this is one of the few things that our nation can legitimately spend taxpayer dollars on. Not like social security, welfare, farm subsidies, or any other market intervention. Man do I hate Keynesians and people who like to think they can spend my money better than I can. Oh, and just so we're clear, social security is an unconstitutional... No, let's just say this... Any system that will create slaves out of subsequent generations of sovereign citizens for the retirement privileges of the current generation, should be destroyed and all those who supported it, condoned it, and abide by it should be cast out on the rocks as well. It is no more lawful for the federal government to take 15% of my income to "provide welfare for the elderly" than it would be for a local church, city, or person to confiscate my income and give it away. It is lunacy that so many are willing to do give in to such tyrannical behavior. Further, for those of you who are of the mind that "my" social security portion of FICA taxes is an investment in my retirement, I'd like to tell you right now that ALL investments made by the soc. security admin. are made in federal bonds. When a corporation issues a savings bond, IT SPENDS THE MONEY ON THE PROMISE IT WILL PAY YOU BACK FROM ITS PROCEEDS!!! The only proceeds that government has are TAXES! If I pay soc. sec. taxes now, they are spent on anything and everything the bureaucracy wishes and then I or my children will have to repay that spent money with interest to get a portion of it back in my retirement.
In summation, I'd rather see money going to fund superior weaponry (within the limitations set forth in the Constitution) that we never have to use or man than to see my money wasted on my own enslavement and debt propagation.
It is this technology our military power, our USA genius manufacturing ability and all other talents of USA we need to pull back from the world, keep secret and not share in its knowledge.
Our country being so gigantically in debt, but at the same time, the world has and always is envy of our FREEDOMS and us!
We need to make our self a rare commodity in the world and in this we can get out of dept and be valued again! We give away ourselves to easy!
But hwave been generous for so many years, the world just looks down on us, as if it was a spoiled child resenting its parents that the child so much!
@ SgtB, is it really necessary to comment on social services in this article? Anyways, you may not see the benefits of social securities now, but when you retire they may be much more valuable to you, depending on what your pension plan has set out. What is wrong with supporting the weaker and poorer members in society?
Complaining about farm subsidies? Where do you want to get your food from? China, where the environment takes second place to development and the water is filthy. No, I'd rather get my food from nice, relatively clean American soil, thank you very much.
Apparently there are quite a number of people who can spend your tax dollars a lot better than you. Plus, if you are so upset about the way this country runs itself, why don't you leave it? Somewhere out there must be a country with a better tax and spending policy than America's. The first one that comes to my mind is Antartica.
This is what the US government puts the most resources in, so this is what America excels at. If the Pentagon budget was spent on NASA, we'd be talking about "the most technologically advanced space ship" instead.
t.Chosen1 - "@ SgtB, is it really necessary to comment on social services in this article? Anyways, you may not see the benefits of social securities now, but when you retire they may be much more valuable to you, depending on what your pension plan has set out. What is wrong with supporting the weaker and poorer members in society?
Complaining about farm subsidies? Where do you want to get your food from? China, where the environment takes second place to development and the water is filthy. No, I'd rather get my food from nice, relatively clean American soil, thank you very much.
Apparently there are quite a number of people who can spend your tax dollars a lot better than you. Plus, if you are so upset about the way this country runs itself, why don't you leave it? Somewhere out there must be a country with a better tax and spending policy than America's. The first one that comes to my mind is Antartica."
So, it is not logical for someone to dislike social security because they will someday use it? If SgtB is having 15% of his pay confiscated, why whould he be thankful when it is returned to him, years later, at little to no interest? If he dies young, his investment will dissapear and if he lives long he will come out ahead, but what he has lost is choice. Wanting to keep that 15% and provide for his own retirement is admirable and keeping with the American spirit of independence.
Caring for the weak? If he chooses to do so, there are no shortage of charities to donate to - if he believes it is immoral to support the weak and weaking the genetic strength of the population (a belief held by every farmer who raises livestock), why should the goverment make that decision for him?
Farm subsidies? What happens without them? Food costs more. If Mr. SgtB isn't paying those food subsidies, he would have the money to purchase the food. The looser isn't SgtB, it is whoever is recieving food without paying taxes (charities, food stamps, foriegn aid, etc). Anyone paying taxes would have tax reduced by more than the increase in food costs.
Why question StgB's qualifications for spending his own money? Sure, someone smarter might spend it better, but unless you have more knowledge of what SgtB is spending his money on, you are speculating. That SgtB is upset with the system and speaking against it (and assumedly voting to change it) is living up to two of the cores of the American system (free speech and the vote to change government). The idea that people who don't like the system should leave is the opposite of democracy - which holds that those who do not like the system have the power and responsibility of changing it.
As for countries with better tax systems and codes, most countries have more taxes and more government control (you could only think of one - Antartica - with less). If, as you seem to believe, America is the greatest of the countries to live in, and it has the least tax and government control - then greatness would seem to be measured by the freedom of choice granted to citizens through low tax a little government control. SgtB, would then, only be seeking to increase what you have highlighted as America's greatness, by making America an even freer, lower tax, and less controlled country.
Zumwalt is a warmed over version of the Navy's "Arsenal Ship" concept. Not a terrible idea actually, but not without it's flaws either: * - The 'tumblehome' hull shape, while providing a degree of stealth, also is inherently unstable should the ship begin to list - a real possibility for a warship. * - The crew is too small for effective damage control. The Navy insisted on a small crew to reduce operational costs, but what happens when this thing takes a hit? It's a hundred feet larger than an Arleigh Burke with not even half the crew. And how many of THEM will be effective at old-school damage control, shoring and emergency welding? * - Since this version of the 'Arsenal Ship' is NOT a semi-submersible, just how stealthy CAN IT BE in daylight? Truth is, to perform it's mission, it needs to approach hostile shorelines where - you know - someone *might* SEE IT. * - That small crew size, by the way, means that many of the ships essential services are highly automated and centralized. Translation: one lucky hit to the central computer network and this thing is reef material.
The silver lining here: even the Navy was smart enough to realize this was a B-A-D idea, and capped production at 3 ships.
This floating beast is an automatic missile firing beast. The ship who sees the bad guy first and fires their missiles first in a battle wins the battle. It all comes down to minutes.
Considering how modern this boat is, I bet it is very configurable to shoot down satellites or international ballistic missiles.
Not today, but way in the future, should the North Korea or Iran actually have a nuclear missiles, this kind of ship maybe sitting as close as possible off their coast.
Peace through strength. Other people and nations will think twice about messing with us if we have a strong military and actually follow through with our warnings.
I joined the Navy in 1981 and got out in 95, and I have a hard time accepting these new so called "stealth" hull designs. I personally think their ugly but it is all about suriveability of our ships and sailors so this I can accept for the uglyness of the ship. That being said, in my opinion the Zumwalt looks more like a submersible than a destoyer and I feel sorry for todays sailors having less deskspace to walk around on.
And for you nay sayers the Navy's ship designs are so redundant in compartmentation that todays ships are very, very difficult to sink.
Also minimizing crew sizes like the Perry Class Frigate was supposed to do created a very tired and overworked sailor, with watch standing, maintance work, drills,yard repairs, and replenishments, the big wigs in Washington could care less about how overworked the lower ranked enlisted are on these so called small crew ships at sea...
What the Navy also needs to invest in is a vessel capable of launching and retrieving UAV Combat Drones. Such a vessel with a compliment of around 20 UAV Combat Drones which can fire ASM such as the Hellfire Missile, which I am certain a hardened complex version based off of the tank killer design could be used to devasting effect against terrorist targets as well as a deterent against foreign vessels of China, North Korea, Iran, etc. entering into disputed areas.
Basically the design of such a UAV Combat Drone would be based off of the scout planes used during WWII by Battleship Class vessels.
The UAV Combat Drone is launched is launched using a catapult system. Once the mission has been completed the UAV Combat Drone would be retrieved by the vessel by using retrieval craft to fish the Drone from the ocean.
Who said the old timers still don't have anything to offer?
Behold, the Leviathan!!! Submersible aircraft carrier, designed to take ONLY the F-35, and similar jump-jet aircraft. It also has over 16 pebble-bed nuclear reactors, nearly impossible to melt down so no worries on a hit. In addition, it carries several MetalStorm systems with regular dumb-fire ordinance, and a few of the conventional cannons with GPS rounds. E.M. Railguns are a must, as would be a typr of E.M. disruption, to attempt to mess with the radio waves so that the entire thing is garbled beyoned explanation.
Engineerdad, mind lending a... well not hand, but you understansd the analogy.
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. Mark Twain
Wars and rumors of wars. When the Government is up to looting the nation's money it first has to generate a fear of something, in the general population, to garner its support. Hence the fear of the Commie pinko fags, etc popular in the 1960s, when we had the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that led us into the Vietnam Disaster. About the time Americans said never again will we launch a vague war of dubious merit or of uncertainty as to its cost, length, or legitimate protection of our National "Interests." along comes G.W. Bush who had to finish the war his daddy started. He also brought on this recession by letting the VP and his Halaburtin Cronies skip the DOD requirements for bidding for defense spending. Anyone who asked why was immediately branded a traitor to the USA under the Patriot act and accused of supporting Al-Quaida and there imminent threat of launching WMDs including Nukes and Bio weapons at the USA. Well we've had 2 wars, one the longest in U.S. history, and it took almost a decade to get Osamma Bin Laden, Now we are in real National danger. The communists said they would break us from within. We've now gotten the best Government in the world that money can buy and we've sold our future to countries like China. It's time to recognize the biggest threat to our Democracy is Lobbyists and corrupt Politicians. We can't even keep one fifth of all low tech Mexico from invading America and taking away the jobs. We have on the books TODAY, tax laws that still reward big Business for moving their jobs off-shore. Our leaders acknowledge that, and say we need to "create jobs and stimulate the economic base" , but all they do is talk about the problem and argue over who is doing what and who is planning what to correct the problem. I'm a third generation military vet, who has sent one son off to Afghanistan. I've been an ex-pat in the Middle East and South Korea. I've fought the Vietnam war and the Cold War, and now am fighting the VA and Social Security to get what they promised. It is time to bring the boys home. Circle the wagons, seal the boarders, and become isolationist enough to force start American manufacturing, and in the mean time go green with technology and go hard as hell on anyone who takes that oath to support the Constitution, then sells out to any special interest group. I mean both Legislative and Administrative and Judicial bodies right down to Judges and Policemen. We have to let 2/3rds of the corporate prison populations free, end the prohibition on Hemp, and ban all lobbying. Until we protect the boarders, we cannot be free from foreign influence. If the UN can't understand that, then they need to be tossed out with the illegal masses in this country. It's sad but true.
That's a great idea, Cyberscriber. Let's ban all lobbying. You can start by repealing most of the 1st Amendment. Why is that? It's due to the simple fact of what lobbying is: petitioning elected representatives to address issues you care about. A ban on lobbying would not only silence corporations, but also environmental groups, scientific advocacy organizations, and other civic organizations from the ACLU to the NRA. In fact, your post is a form of lobbying (however ineffective).
From a practical standpoint, without lobbying of any kind, how are our elected representatives to know what matters to us? Polls? Unless you want to trust the elected officials to just use their best judgment. I don't. I don't trust a single one of them (or anyone else for that matter) to "do the right thing" unless there is the specter of intense public scrutiny hanging over their heads. Would you like to guess what one of the first casualties of a lobbyist free Congress would be? I'd wager it would result in a diminishing of what little transparency we have now.
Decry lobbyists all you like, but if you're truly interested in implementing change in our government, find a group you agree with and donate your time and money to helping them help your cause.
And we have gotten WAY off topic from the awesomeness of this new vessel, problems notwithstanding.
Sadly another too expensive ship that is too easy to sink.
Far better would be a trimaran with about equal length hulls of 350' would take far more hits, draw less water, be far more comfortable, stable.
The weapons too are too expensive. For long range a 16-24'' dia 50-75' long low pressure fixed gun for launching inexpensive guided and if nessasary boosted shells would lob far more weight at 10% of the cost of 6'' units.
One could launch Army, Airforce bombs, missiles because the G forces are much lower.
Another is with so much deck on top and below it carry more aircraft, fast boats, etc or troops, mine warefare, etc instead of being a one trick pony this craft is. You could afford 2 of these smaller more flexible ships for the price of the example.
We can no longer afford powering with oil and should go to lead cooled reactors which are far cheaper and in port can help run the base, port plus make various fuels onboard for other craft when the power isn't needed.
In just 500' these could be full aircraft carriers or assault ships and more survivable and again you could get 2 for the same price and not to mention faster on the same power.
Cool looking ship. Obviously ship builders are begining to develop consciousness of radar which is always a good thing especially if you ever get into a shootemup. But this ship aint there yet. As an exNavy man and a Firecontrolman I can tell you what the issues are as to how a ship should be designed. I think I decided halfway through radar school that the surface navy was obsolete. Learning about submarines and their stealth capabiltys and destructive power even more added to the conclusion that the surface navy is obsolete. Ya know antiship missiles can lock on to small targets. So hiding a ship while its a step in the right direction is somewhat futile. Ya just cant make em that small. Or can you? I have seen developmental ships which were basically missile launcher platforms with no superstructure and very minimal crew if any and this is the right idea I think. Take a page from success and look at the cocaine submarine type ships which bring the drugs in under the radar. Their hulls are all under water and the maindeck sets at water level with waves breaking over the ship. Now if you made a nuclear propelled ship such as this about 2 or 3 hundred foot with missile systems remote controlled by the carrier or via satellite then you'd be faceing the facts. Why nuclear? Antiship missiles w heat seeker heads can see exhaust from gas turbines. Again ya cant hide that much heat. But this would be a weapon for all out war, a fine rifle, a Beretta with a laser scope. Our ships dont just sail in wartime. So ya gotta consider what else the ship does and then US Navy warships become more like a Crown Victoria or Chevrolet Caprice, given that we are the police force of the world. Personally I'd rather go into a fight with a M1A1 Abrams Main Battle Tank covered in Chovum and the best weapons and stealth available than your fathers sedan with a police interceptor package but I digress. lol
Going "Green" the Opposing force(Chinese navy) doesn't need radar sonar, all they are required to do is be Downwind of our new Military (Navy), French Fries Anyone? A Promise this week, The President to Asia, $ 6 Billion. His money? Nope. The Military s Primary Function Fight, not Functionaries of Fringe Ideologies.
Our inventions of the year: a plane powered by the sun, a bike made from recycled parts, and a home-brew spacesuit for high-flying tourists. We also look at a team of researchers tracking sharks to save them from extinction, a group that created a real-life Mario Kart, and a plan for high-tech roads.
While I can't comment becausei have no knowledge of the problems with the litoral class ships, or the USS Independence, you can just "The Navy needs to hold it's contractors accountable and not hand over a dime of taxpayers money until the contractor delivers working prototypes" that is illegal. There ways of holding contractors responsible for failures to meet requirements on programs but they usually take 10-20 years to resolve. The are still fighting over payment from a prototype bomber from the 70's a precursor to the B-2.
We give away ourselves to easy!
Anyways, you may not see the benefits of social securities now, but when you retire they may be much more valuable to you, depending on what your pension plan has set out. What is wrong with supporting the weaker and poorer members in society?
Anyways, you may not see the benefits of social securities now, but when you retire they may be much more valuable to you, depending on what your pension plan has set out. What is wrong with supporting the weaker and poorer members in society?
* - The 'tumblehome' hull shape, while providing a degree of stealth, also is inherently unstable should the ship begin to list - a real possibility for a warship.
* - The crew is too small for effective damage control. The Navy insisted on a small crew to reduce operational costs, but what happens when this thing takes a hit? It's a hundred feet larger than an Arleigh Burke with not even half the crew. And how many of THEM will be effective at old-school damage control, shoring and emergency welding?
* - Since this version of the 'Arsenal Ship' is NOT a semi-submersible, just how stealthy CAN IT BE in daylight? Truth is, to perform it's mission, it needs to approach hostile shorelines where - you know - someone *might* SEE IT.
* - That small crew size, by the way, means that many of the ships essential services are highly automated and centralized. Translation: one lucky hit to the central computer network and this thing is reef material.
Mark Twain
ignorantia legis non excusat
A Promise this week, The President to Asia, $ 6 Billion. His money? Nope.
The Military s Primary Function Fight, not Functionaries of Fringe Ideologies.