New Fast-Attack Nuclear Submarines to be Named Arizona and Oklahoma

[Jared0425]

We need our own version of a Kirov it sounds like, but with more VLS and hangar space!

 

[Wookie]

We need our own version of a Kirov it sounds like, but with more VLS and hangar space!

I don’t see the need for a hanger.

The carrier can send a LAMPS helo over if necessary.

The ticos are extremely top heavy. We spend a lot of time worrying about stability on the flight 1 and II. The Flight III are 13 feet wider.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Ich. The Kirov-class were something of a Soviet flex; I have to admit I've been somehwat amused over the years about the Russian assertions that the first three ships would eventually be reactivated. Kirov itself had a reactor casualty in 1990 and was sitting pierside for almost 30 years afterwards before the Russians finally gave in and said they were going to scrap her; in that timeframe they didn't even bother to pull the old Soviet name off of her or defuel the compromised reactors. Admiral Nakhimov (ex-Kalinin) may see service again with a lot of upgrades, although given that Russian sources have said she would be returned to service in 2012 2018 2020 2021 2022 2023 I'll believe it when I see it. The answer we had to them at the time was modernizing and reactivating the four Iowa-class BBs, and that proved to be something of a short-term money sink even if it did make a lot of naval enthusiasts deliriously happy. The closest US proposal I've seen since then was for something based on the LPD-17 amphib hull and possibly nuclear-powered.

Having helo hangars on the DDGs is a sound move; remember they won't always be operating with a CVN.

Speaking of possible Russian shenanigans, I'd like to think at present there are a bunch of Norwegian marine scientists currently formulating plans to go Viking on their neighbors the next time something happens to their equipment: Surveillance cables mysteriously cut

Side note, one of the reasons book series like Randy Wayne White's Doc Ford books never quite caught on with me was that it wasn't enough to make the protagonist a marine biologist; he has to be an ex-SEAL, ex-NSA (never mind that they're codebreaking geeks and not wetwork types) guy with a safe full of fake passports, a silenced pistol, and a love child with a Central American head of state. The marine biologists I'm familiar with are more out of Christopher Moore's "Beta Male Manifesto" - "The Beta male, can, in fact, be dangerous, not so much in the Jet-Li-entire-body-is-a-deadly-weapon way but more in the drunk-on-the-riding-mower-making-a-Luke Skywalker-assault-on-the-tool-shed sort of way."

 

[Akimbo]

Admiral Nakhimov (ex-Kalinin) may see service again with a lot of upgrades, although given that Russian sources have said she would be returned to service in 2012 2018 2020 2021 2022 2023 I'll believe it when I see it.

You would think that they would consider retiring the name Admiral Nakhimov. The first one was lost in the Battle of Tsushima reportedly loaded with gold bullion. The second one was sent to the bottom by Nazi aircraft. The third one was launched in 1953 and "disarmed and expelled" from the Navy in 1960. There might be a hidden message in there somewhere.

 

[Jared0425]

Ich. The Kirov-class were something of a Soviet flex; I have to admit I've been somehwat amused over the years about the Russian assertions that the first three ships would eventually be reactivated.

Probably one of the most beautiful warships ever made. Pretty on the outside but rotten on the inside describes being Russian to a T.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Probably one of the most beautiful warships ever made. Pretty on the outside but rotten on the inside describes being Russian to a T.

I'm not sure about rotten on the inside; while it certainly describes how the first two ships ended up the last vessel in the class (Pyotr Velikiy, a.k.a. Peter the Great) is generally the showpiece of the Russian fleet and I'd be willing to bet it's in the best shape of any of their surface ships (however high that bar is). They're more a flex in the sense that while they are bristling with offensive and defensive missiles, figure that between them and the smaller Slava-class the Soviets really concentrated their area AAW escorts into eight hulls versus the US cranking out swarms of smaller AEGIS cruisers and destroyers.

You would think that they would consider retiring the name Admiral Nakhimov. The first one was lost in the Battle of Tsushima reportedly loaded with gold bullion. The second one was sent to the bottom by Nazi aircraft. The third one was launched in 1953 and "disarmed and expelled" from the Navy in 1960. There might be a hidden message in there somewhere.

The third example was a Sverdlov-class cruiser, which was something of a bugbear for Royal Navy planners in the early 50s (Lionel "Buster" Crabb allegedly went missing while covertly inspecting her sister ship Ordzhonikidze in Portsmouth). They were a pet project of Stalin's and originally intended to be a class of 40 ships; among their roles they were intended to be fast raiders. Khrushchev on the other hand thought they were obsolete in the age of missiles and cut production to 14 ships; besides being vulnerable to modern air attack the USN still had 8"-gun heavy cruisers that could run them down and kill them. The Admiral Nakhimov belonging to the class was modified as a missile trials ship two years after commissioning; after five years she was taken out of service and ironically enough used as a target ship. The next vessel to get the name was a Kresta-II ASW cruiser that lasted from 1971 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, so better luck there.

As for the first example, well ... nothing flying the Imperial Russian ensign came out of Tsushima (or the voyage to get there) particularly covered in glory. I don't think there's ever been another Kamchatka in the Russian or Soviet navy rolls ...

 

[Akimbo]

@HalcyonDaze

The width and depth of your knowledge never fails to impress, thank you.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I'm good at internet searches, remembering sources (Drach's videos being excellent and entertaining), and compiling what I find. Nothing particularly special, especially since we have a number of "been there done that" folks here.

In other news, USS Connecticut has left Guam under her own power (whether surfaced or submerged is unknown; might be headed stateside for repairs or just conducting testing of temporary repairs), and there's a bit of a treasure hunt on in the Med off Crete: Britain Wants America’s Help In The Race To Retrieve Its Crashed F-35 Off The Seafloor

 

[Bob DBF]

USS Connecticut Underway off Guam After Undergoing Repairs - USNI News

The damage to the submarine was localized to the forward portions and may have damaged the ballast tanks, USNI News understands

If the damage isn't major, they will transit submerged, it's easier on everyone. Subs wallow like a pig on the surface,

Connecticut’s underway comes as the submarine force has announced a navigation stand down in what the Navy has determined was a preventable collision, Vice Adm. William Houston, commander of Naval Submarine Forces said on Wednesday.

It's probably like the San Francisco, we knew the seamout was out there, around where the chart said it was, so you should have been more carefull.

 

[Jared0425]

USS Connecticut Underway off Guam After Undergoing Repairs - USNI News

The damage to the submarine was localized to the forward portions and may have damaged the ballast tanks, USNI News understands

If the damage isn't major, they will transit submerged, it's easier on everyone. Subs wallow like a pig on the surface,

Connecticut’s underway comes as the submarine force has announced a navigation stand down in what the Navy has determined was a preventable collision, Vice Adm. William Houston, commander of Naval Submarine Forces said on Wednesday.

It's probably like the San Francisco, we knew the seamout was out there, around where the chart said it was, so you should have been more carefull.

I wouldn't dive with damaged ballast tanks. I'd send that floating drydock ship and cover her under tarps and take a southern route back home.

As for the sea mount issue, I wonder how they would have avoided it without using active sonar? If it was uncharted or poorly charted its quite possible that the sub slammed into a pretty steep mound and not a gently sloped hill. We publicize our f@#kups, the other powers not so much. I'm sure there are Russian submariner jokes out there that are unknown in the west