Bismark, only lived a few days before going to the bottom of the Atlantic.
Big shots, left to right. General MacArthur, Admiral Halsey, unknown, seated is Admiral Nimitz. I'm taking a WAG here, but the one i called "unknown" could be Admiral King, Chief of Naval Operations.The next class of battleships was the Iowa class beginning with BB-61.
This is BB-63 USS Missouri The surrender of Japan and the end of ww2 on her decks.
Anyone ever wonder why was the ceremony done on the Missouri and not the big "E". A capitol ship more deserving than any other?
Pres Harry S. Truman born in Lamar, Missouri... Symbolism is everything to some.
Chester Nimitz
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"When were you in Vietnam?"
I spent almost a year at Dam Neck for my C school. Middle of a swamp down wind of a pig farm.Did anyone else work on Harpoon missiles? They were surface to surface and air to surface missiles. They were pretty dumb, point and shoot, had it's own guidance system. It was designed primarily for hunting subs but shipping was fair game also. I was surprised it's still in use today. It's gotten smarter with age.
I was looking at an old photo, hadn't though of Harpoons in years. Once stationed aboard a destroyer I was sent to a class (yet another). Seems like it was at Dam Neck Naval Air station. Wasn't very long, couple of weeks maybe (don't quote me, attendened several schools at Dam Neck).
Anyway, I couldn't remember much about it. I did maintenance every month or so, only guy on the ship who was trained on it. I remember there was a control box with a cable I had to connect missiles to test them. I didn't like sitting at the bottom of a launch tube while testing one, that memory stands out.
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Our trials for Sea Sparrow we loaded up 3 telemetry birds. First bird was a kill. Second destroyed the drone. They called off the third missile to save drones.We had a missile shoot drill on the USS Ranger. It took 3 tries over 2 days to get the missile to actually fire.
They did hit the target drone.
There was a new officer in charge of the missile department and a week later they did it again.
The missile fired the first time and hit the drone.
Those guys drilled and practiced constantly from then on.
Did anyone else work on Harpoon missiles? They were surface to surface and air to surface missiles. They were pretty dumb, point and shoot, had it's own guidance system. It was designed primarily for hunting subs but shipping was fair game also. I was surprised it's still in use today. It's gotten smarter with age.
I was looking at an old photo, hadn't though of Harpoons in years. Once stationed aboard a destroyer I was sent to a class (yet another). Seems like it was at Dam Neck Naval Air station. Wasn't very long, couple of weeks maybe (don't quote me, attendened several schools at Dam Neck).
Anyway, I couldn't remember much about it. I did maintenance every month or so, only guy on the ship who was trained on it. I remember there was a control box with a cable I had to connect missiles to test them. I didn't like sitting at the bottom of a launch tube while testing one, that memory stands out.
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I spent almost a year at Dam Neck for my C school. Middle of a swamp down wind of a pig farm.
Ben
Cool Pics. Best I recall the Harpoon's were one bad a$$ weapons system. Maybe similar to the French Exocet
I worked a project to test Tomahawk missiles. When we were being evaluated for the job I was the lead architect and was questioned about my qualifications. I mention Sea Sparrow and they responded "Sea chicken! We want you on the project!"I was at Mare Island CA for C school (a Tas Hole) (mk23 target acquisition system). The first thing handed to me on my destroyer was a stack of manuals for the Sea Sparrow missile system... which TAS was designed to work closely with. I've stood lots of watches in CIC sitting at the Sparrow console. I had to qualify on phalanx also but was sent to school for Harpoon. My dept, combat systems, pushed cross training big time. They wanted everyone trained on multiple systems.
It's a lot of work, like having 2 full time jobs. It took me a year to qualify on Sparrow. Working on an operational system is the best way to learn though, at least it was for me.
Exactly like the Exocet, Nato had to have a response to a russian "accident" that revealed the need for a ship to ship, over the horizon missile that could take out a frigate or destroyer. The Brits had their version also, don't recall the name.
The US produced the Harpoon (almost over night). By the time it got to the fleet parts of the "Cruise Missile" system were in very early testing. The cruise missile is the really smart "bad boy", came out in '85.
The Harpoon was simple and cheap, not "smart" but it didn't have to be. Send a dozen down range and the enemy will kill themselves trying to get out of the way. One hit could take out a destroyer.
I got ahead of myselfI worked a project to test Tomahawk missiles. When we were being evaluated for the job I was the lead architect and was questioned about my qualifications. I mention Sea Sparrow and they responded "Sea chicken! We want you on the project!"
To test the Tomahawks there were over 5000 variables signals parameters from the fusing system missile guidance and simulated GPS satellite etc. Changes to the interfaces specifications were made almost weekly and it was my job to review all of them and advise the developers on how to handle the changes.
That work gave me a chance to dig into all of the dirty little details of all of the subsystems and features. Two of which were...
1
Tomahawks use GPS for navigating which is common knowledge but what surprised me was they have "way points" to control the flight path. They could be launched from a ship in the Atlantic and navigate to the Straights of Gibraltar pass through, avoid Italian air space, then find the target. They also used GPS for precision timing. All of those explosions that was part of "Shock and Awe" in gulf war 1 started out on different planes, ships and subs but all showed up in Baghdad at the same time.
2
The test system was intended for more than Tomahawks. There was a robot loaded artillery system in development capable of putting multiple rounds down range in a short period of time. It was called MRSI pronounced Mercy. It was capable of launching multiple rounds and by adjusting the trajectory so they all git the target at the same time. Mercy was anything but.
Ben
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