USNavys new ship. Fastest ship afloat!

[PJ]

I saw the TV video of this ship during it's initial sea trials and they were awesome to say the least! Reported to have on board every conceivable hi-tec piece of equipment available, I think she'll make the world of ship building proud! At 60+ knots, it's the fastest ship afloat. I heard a hushed statement the the ship will go considerably faster than reported but no advertised speed increase. Can you imagine standing on the bow while it's at full throttle, Wow! There's a hangar deck below the helo pad for helicopter storage.

[Rich Waugh]

Radical looking ship! Years ago when I owned a bar here in the Virgin Islands, one of the Aegis-class destroyers came into port for a 3-day liberty. The CO and XO spent a good bit of time in my bar and when they were ready to pull out of port they asked if I'd like to come along while they did a couple of test runs. That was definitely an E-ticket ride!

When they dropped the hammer on that boat it squatted down and produced about a three-story rooster tail in the process of getting to flank speed - in its own length! Stopping was the same story; did it in its own length. Needless to say, I had to hang on for dear life on the afterdeck while all this was happening. What a blast! What astonished me most was learning that the screw on that thing only turned about 78rpm flat out, (or something ridiculously slow like that). Must have had one helluva pitch to move enough water to make that thing scoot like that. Of course, those nukes were probably worth a million horsepower each or something equally unimaginable to a country boy who thinks a Dodge Hemi is the acme of power. :-)

If they actually admit that new one will do 60 kts then it damn sure will go faster. The Arleigh Burke (my ride) admitted something like 40 kts but I know damn well it was doing more like 50+ flat out. So fast I'd have been terrified to ski behind it, for sure, and way too fast for trolling. Cool ship, but would make a lousy sportfishing boat. (grin) Hey, we all gots different priorities, right?

Many years ago in Phoenix I had a sign company and lettered a decommissioned jet fighter for a guy who was going to use it for high speed aerial photo work. When it was all done he took me along when he did the test flight. No matter how I begged and pleaded, (even offered a small bribe), he wasn't willing to take it over Mach 1 - something to do with the military airspace we were right next to and commercial flight paths all around, and not wanting to get shot down or jailed or something timid like that. Drat! I've never been above Mach 1 and now I'll probably never get the chance. Still, that was another sho-nuf E-ticket ride. He stood that thing on its tail and lit it off and I thought my cheeks were going to wrap around my ears! Eyes were bloodshot for a couple days afterward, too. Worth it too, definitely.

I recall he said the thing burned something like 25,000 pound of fuel an hour at full thrust - expensive little toy to fly, it would seem. I think he said that his full load of fuel was good for maybe eight minutes of full burn, but that after that he would be able to coast the rest of the way to the East coast or somewhere like that. Mind-boggling stuff.

Man, the military sure has cool toys! If they let high school kids go for rides like I got, they'd have lines around the block at every recruiting office. I probably would have signed up if I was young enough at the time.

Rich

[bradblazer]

I like the Freedom better.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Freedom_(LCS-1)
(It's made in WI)

Cool stories Rich!
When I was a nuclear power instructor I took an overnight ride on the SSN Oklahoma City fast attack sub. It had a destroyer sized reactor - about twice the power of the original plant for that hull. We got to stand on the fair weather planes during high speed maneuvers on the surface. The whole hull was awash and the wake looked like 100 yards wide of froth.
When we went high speed at depth the sub would lean about 45 degrees into the turn. I was in maneuvering (the reactor/engine/electrical control room) and was quite impressed by the EOOW and operators as they put it through it's paces. Cool stuff!