Russian Sub hit Towed Array 2020
A-T-G I find it hard to imagine that the gun mounting would have an asymetrical ability to withstand the force of the waves, not least as they need to be able to withstand the recoil of the gun in any potential firing position. Turning it 90 degrees would have done the trick. If you are saying the gun mountings can only withstand waves breaking over the bow if it is pointing straight ahead, it makes the design of the gaiter even more lamentable.
There is - somewhere - a fairly interesting photo from a T23 who did what you suggested, and it was entirely stoved in.
Im happy to admit that I am no naval architect, but would the GRP not have been a better solution than the hole in the gaiter? Would speed have needed to be reduced by so much?
My principal question remains: surely there must be a way to have designed around this issue? The scenario of waves breaking over the bow in heavy seas is hardly a black swan event.
My principal question remains: surely there must be a way to have designed around this issue? The scenario of waves breaking over the bow in heavy seas is hardly a black swan event.
Having just managed to watch the latest episode of Warship - Life at sea, I am again struck by what an omnishambles the whole thing makes the Navy look. Leaving aside the now obligatory fire , and extraction of crew members by Merlin for drug taking, this episode's drama of the flooding caused by a torn seal around the base of the gun barrel and the consequent hand bailing out exercise verged on the comical. Given how vital the mission was said to be, with the attendant and inevitable for channel 5 race against time, the 50% reduction in speed did seem like an obvious handicap, Why did they not rotate the gun to move the seal out of the way on the onrushing waves? On planet earth in 2022. there must surely be a better understanding of how to design ships than this, and better and more effective ways to remove flooding.
Returning to the main event, it is surely not without relevance that while the sub was at close quarters, and before any damage to the towed array, the system went U/S. The Merlin was still not deployed . When the circuit boards had been shuffled to restore the system, the sub was nowhere to be found.
Are Channel 5 documentary makers a Jinx on any vessel they are aboard, or is it really as bad as it seems?
Next episode awaited with baited breath and a deep sense of foreboding......
Returning to the main event, it is surely not without relevance that while the sub was at close quarters, and before any damage to the towed array, the system went U/S. The Merlin was still not deployed . When the circuit boards had been shuffled to restore the system, the sub was nowhere to be found.
Are Channel 5 documentary makers a Jinx on any vessel they are aboard, or is it really as bad as it seems?
Next episode awaited with baited breath and a deep sense of foreboding......
A-T-G I find it hard to imagine that the gun mounting would have an asymetrical ability to withstand the force of the waves, not least as they need to be able to withstand the recoil of the gun in any potential firing position. Turning it 90 degrees would have done the trick. If you are saying the gun mountings can only withstand waves breaking over the bow if it is pointing straight ahead, it makes the design of the gaiter even more lamentable.
Jack
Thanks Jack, that was an interesting read, from which I would deduce that the leaking barrel shroud is a common, known problem, and that rotating the turret is a known mitigant of the water ingress, albeit it may not have been possible without sending someone on deck, which looked quite precarious.
Suspicion breeds confidence
Im happy to admit that I am no naval architect, but would the GRP not have been a better solution than the hole in the gaiter? Would speed have needed to be reduced by so much?
My principal question remains: surely there must be a way to have designed around this issue? The scenario of waves breaking over the bow in heavy seas is hardly a black swan event.
My principal question remains: surely there must be a way to have designed around this issue? The scenario of waves breaking over the bow in heavy seas is hardly a black swan event.
It doesn't always work though. HMS Sheffield had the armoured roof of her foremost turret ripped off in a storm in WW2!
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Very little of what was shown was TA.
"Can't find a reference, but I'd have thought it'd be pretty difficult to steal a TA given size, weight, reeled up in winch, etc. - might have been a towed body?"
IIRC you're right - they got some of the cable and maybe the paravane type steering body at the end of the cable.
IIRC you're right - they got some of the cable and maybe the paravane type steering body at the end of the cable.
