USS Sioux City, LCS-11 has been launched. In awhile, she'll begin her naval career of sitting alongside a pier, awaiting repairs.
Pretty sad that it took two years of construction to get to the launch date. The eleventh ship of the Perry class, which went to the Aussies, was laid down on March 1, 1978 and launched on December 1st of that year. The eleventh ship of the Knox class was laid down on January 6, 1969 and launched on August 1, 1970. The eleventh Sprucan was laid down on April 4, 1975 and launched on March 26, 1976.
Either the Navy is pretty fucked, the LCS design is fucked, or American shipbuilders can't build shit anymore.
CDR Salamander has had a lot to say about the LCS.
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The navy if screwed because while steel is a great material to build a warship out of - it stands up to ABUSE! - it isn't a great material to put in salt water. The grunts spend a lot of time scraping rust, applying acid to neutralize it and painting the result.
You can't get kids to stay in beyond their initial sign-up to deal with that stuff.
So no matter how you slice it... Hence all of the aluminum. Which depending on alloy involved is more like stainless as far as salt is concerned. Though you should be able to weld it in the same time.
Systems integration is probably a big contributor as well. Gotta fight smarter you know.
Aluminum has its own corrosion issues in marine service. It can kind of delaminate. And in a fire, well, the USS Belknap showed how well aluminum did.
But that's not an issue, the LCS is neither built nor manned to take a punch. Sad to say, because for decades, the pride of the Navy was that they did damage control better than anyone else.
We just had the Burkes with the serious aluminum superstructure reduction.
Little crappy ships, polyester working uniforms- wtf, Nav
DId the Navy see those FTN coffee cups and decide "fuck you right back, squids"?
About polyester working uniforms.
3383, you're likely correct.
Comrade,
The term you're searching for regarding aluminium for is exfoliation corrosion.
Regarding polyester or any other synthetic fabric, don't go near an airplane wearing it. Synthetics build up static charges, especially in Arctic winds, that can ignite fuel vapours. Natural fabrics will char when exposed to flame while synthetics will melt into your skin as they burn.
Al_in_Ottawa
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