Anyone serve on a battleship?

[SubieRubyRoo]

I only got to see the Wisconsin sitting in the shipyard during my time in the Navy, but you gotta respect something with guns so big that the percussion cone in the water is half as big as the ship carrying that gun!

Pim- I was on the George Washington (CVN-73), and during my last deployment we were at 108,000 tons displacement- the 280,000shp could get it moving at speeds a good bit faster than 33 knots

Being in engineering, our berthing was 2 decks above the props, it gave quite the vibrating bed effect when the ship was conducting flight ops in calm weather. Four 26' tall, 66,000lb solid brass props spinning at 170+ RPM generate a lot of turbulence LOL...

 

[DeepFriar]

Originally Posted by CT8
Originally Posted by JHZR2
Originally Posted by 53' Stude
I can see why they re-commissioned them in the 1980's too. They would put fear in anyone



Range of a 16" just isn't that great for any aspect of modern war fighting... But it is a BIG projectile!!
The Battle ships were made from thick steel and can take hits better than the tin cans . The main gun turrets are 17 inch steel and it is amazing when you go through the hatches.


The guns weren't the thing in the 80's. Weinberger and Reagan were indeed battleship "fanboys" but not without reason. They were to be long range cruise and and anti-ship missile carriers and were upfitted with all the necesaries for that. The strategy was for the battleships to go right at the Kola Peninsula and Northern Fleet in Murmansk. The thickness of the armor would not save them in the end but consider that most, if not all, antiship missiles have been designed to kill modern ships with next to no armor. Short of going nuclear sinking an Iowa class, well protected by air defense from both guided missile cruisers and Norwegian/other land based support, would be no small undertaking. Speaking from certain knowledge this was a very worrying thing for the Soviets. And it was one more expensive-thing-to-counter that helped bring the USSR down.

After the 80's came the first Persian Gulf War where, since they were available, participated in the feint that the invasion was coming from the sea (as well as puttig a lot of steel on the Iraqi front line units prepping for that) likely contributed much to the low casualty count in the 100 hours war. I think, in the end, we got more than our money's worth out of these boats! Amazing really.

Cheers

Larry

 

[gman2304]

I remember as a kid donating pennies to a state wide campaign to save the USS North Carolina from being scrapped. She was saved and moored at Wilmington, N.C. where she is a floating battleship museum. With 15 battle flags, she's the most decorated battleship of WWll. It's an amazing site to drive into downtown Wilmington and see her moored there with all her battle flags flying and all the zero fighter insignias on her side.

 

[PimTac]

"- I was on the George Washington (CVN-73), and during my last deployment we were at 108,000 tons displacement- the 280,000shp could get it moving at speeds a good bit faster than 33 knots smile Being in engineering, our berthing was 2 decks above the props, it gave quite the vibrating bed effect when the ship was conducting flight ops in calm weather. Four 26' tall, 66,000lb solid brass props spinning at 170+ RPM generate a lot of turbulence LOL.."




The numbers are impressive to say the least. Of course, everything is impressive about a carrier.

 

[Jarlaxle]

The Lexington-class were rated at 34 knots, but would touch 37 with a clean hull. Not bad for 50,000 tons, 1920's technology, and eight big electric motors! (Rated at about 25,000 horsepower. Each.)

 

[DeepFriar]

There's a good relatively recent video of the Russian Kirov class, of which there will be four updated, on YouTube. Impressive to say the least and a modern battleship in all but name. Armed to the teeth and deep magazines to boot..... If she had enough attack sub support I wouldn't want her parked off Norfolk. Manned air attack against them looks like a nightmare with the SAM systems onboard (S300+). Same could be said for slow movers like Harpoon. I hope we have things up our sleeve to deal with them.

The other arrow in their quiver that worries me is the 150kt rocket propelled torpedo although I have no way of knowing its targeting effectiveness. Going that fast has got to be noisy. Might just be an old school-like "point blank" weapon. Slow surface targets won't move very far during the short "flight time".

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Yes, the armor on a battleship was certainly impressive. Being on a carrier, that's obviously not something there is an excess of, other than maybe the flight deck itself. Probably the biggest unknown would be what a torpedo would bring, but considering there were many friends below the waves watching our literal butts, and birds in the sky keeping an eye out as well, it's not something you worried about. CBR controls and incoming missiles actually were, especially when Saddam kicked out the UN inspectors. 1000'+ of sovereign American warship (& friends) cruising just off your country has a way of making you double-think your poor choices.

On the inbound danger front, all I've got to say is two words: CIWS/Phalanx. If you've never seen one in action in first person, let's just say you're missing out

 

[HM12460]

Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
Yes, the armor on a battleship was certainly impressive. Being on a carrier, that's obviously not something there is an excess of, other than maybe the flight deck itself. Probably the biggest unknown would be what a torpedo would bring, but considering there were many friends below the waves watching our literal butts, and birds in the sky keeping an eye out as well, it's not something you worried about. CBR controls and incoming missiles actually were, especially when Saddam kicked out the UN inspectors. 1000'+ of sovereign American warship (& friends) cruising just off your country has a way of making you double-think your poor choices.

On the inbound danger front, all I've got to say is two words: CIWS/Phalanx. If you've never seen one in action in first person, let's just say you're missing out

Yes, I'll never forget how they sound either.

 

[marine65]

Originally Posted by GOPHER FREAK
My Dad always said the most Awesome thing he saw in his 3 years in Vietnam was sitting on a mountain side watching the USS New Jersey and the USS Newport News (a heavy cruiser) fire shells over them 10-15 miles inland at NVA troops in the dark. He said the Newport could fire 3 salvos per minute with it's automated loading systems, 3 times faster than the New Jersey. But you REALLY knew when the New Jersey was firing.


I saw the same thing but only a battleship when i was in the Nam.
It was at night and it was truly awesome and scary at the same time.
second to that was watching the bombs from a flight of B-52s impact. the ground shook.

 

[dave1251]

My second LPO on my first ship was a deck Seaman on the Mighty Mo. This is the closest I will get to serving on a Battleship.

 

[dave1251]

Originally Posted by SubieRubyRoo
I only got to see the Wisconsin sitting in the shipyard during my time in the Navy, but you gotta respect something with guns so big that the percussion cone in the water is half as big as the ship carrying that gun!

Pim- I was on the George Washington (CVN-73), and during my last deployment we were at 108,000 tons displacement- the 280,000shp could get it moving at speeds a good bit faster than 33 knots

Being in engineering, our berthing was 2 decks above the props, it gave quite the vibrating bed effect when the ship was conducting flight ops in calm weather. Four 26' tall, 66,000lb solid brass props spinning at 170+ RPM generate a lot of turbulence LOL...



Trust me the G.W can go quite a bit faster. I was on an DDG with about a 7NM head start going full flank "escorting" the Nimitz. Well the Nimitz went from nearly DIW to overtaking us and out of sight in the time it took me to enjoy a cigarette. I believe this was the Navy's way of reminding Iran what we could do at anytime we feel the need.