The shock wave created by either method can travel several miles and can be used for several purposes. One would be for one-way communication with underwater vessels. Triggering pressure waves in a specific order could allow a plane to communicate with underwater vessels via basic Morse code, or, more likely, says Jones, with a complex, encoded pattern of pulses.Every once in a while, you read some story about how lasers are going to make submarines obsolete by making the ocean "transparent" and easily finding submarines. Somehow, these systems never end up working out. The reason, of course, if that you would get huge rates of false "positives" for any such system. One thing about ASW exercises that's always bugged me is how skimmers get a false sense of how good they are because they get cued to where the submarine is to start with -- otherwise, of course, it would turn such exercises into a waste of time because they'd never find the sub. Still, in the real world, they're not going to know where the subs are at to start their search, or even if one is there. When I was on the Carrier Group staff, during workups I saw many "positive submarine" detections called that weren't anywhere close to where the submarine actually was; in wartime, each of these would have likely resulted in wasted ordnance. Ships only carry so many ASW weapons. I think that to make skimmers aware of this, we should occasionally do ASW exercises where no submarine is present. That could be a valuable teaching lesson that could save ordnance for when it's actually needed during wartime.
Another use for laser-induced sound waves would be for mapping the ocean floor. When they hit a submerged object, the pressure waves bounce back. A nearby submarine or buoy could detect the pattern of those waves and create a map of the ocean floor, or the location of other submarines in the area.
Using Lasers To Find Submarines
Check out this story about how a scientist from the Naval Research Laboratory is investigating the use of lasers for finding or communicating with submerged submarines:
Navy Working Uniform Now Allowed Out In Town
I haven't seen the NAVADMIN yet, but the MCPON reports, on his Facebook page no less, that the CNO has approved the wearing of the Navy Working Uniform (NWU) out in town in some circumstances:
Update 1824 26 June: Here's a more "official" version of the announcement, from the Navy webpage.
Today our CNO approved a revision to the policy that governs the wear of the Navy Working Uniform. Effective immediately, Sailors in most locations can now wear our newest uniform outside the lifelines of our bases and our ships. They can wear it for short routine stops and even at restaurants out in town as long as it's during working hours.This is a policy change that really makes sense. As you might recall, none of us really liked the old "can't wear it out in town at all" policy that was first promulgated. I like how the MCPON tries to exonerate the CNO and CNP for the original idiocy, basically saying the previous policy was only in place until Sailors learned to "wear this uniform". I'm sure our Sailors were very challenged on this point. [/sarcasm]
This is a big win for our Sailors and for our Navy. The American public is going to be introduced to this new uniform and our men and women have been eager to get out there and show it off.
Much of the credit for this decision goes to our CNO, Admiral Roughead, and our Chief of Naval Personnel, Vice Admiral Fitzgerald. They recognized a need early on to make sure our Sailors knew exactly how to wear this uniform before we sent them out in front of the American public. Our Chiefs trained them and provided the feedback. Now we're ready to move forward and let communities around the country see what a United States Sailor looks like in blue and gray camouflage.
Also, BZ to Fleet Master Chief Scott Benning and the Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Chief's Mess. They led the way in getting their Sailors trained up on the NWU and set the standard for the entire Navy.
More details on this can be found in NAVADMIN 188/09.
Have a great weekend.
HOOYAH,
MCPON
Update 1824 26 June: Here's a more "official" version of the announcement, from the Navy webpage.
Good Ship Topeka Deploys
My first boat, USS Topeka (SSN 754), left on deployment earlier this week; here's a picture:
According to this story, Topeka was featured in the new movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Even when we first got around to San Diego in 1991, the Topeka was kind of the "go-to" boat when it came to media availabilities. With her recent appearance on "24", along with this movie, it looks like they're still using her as the local Media Darling. (I won't see the movie until Saturday, but from what I've heard from some family members, who went to the midnight showing Tuesday night, the boat doesn't fare so well.)
Update 1701 27 June: I saw the movie. I didn't have enough thoughts about it to make it worth writing a full "Movie Review" post, but I liked it OK. It was basically a huge advertisement for American servicepeople and advanced U.S. military gear, and I was cool with that. (That's probably also why a lot of media critics don't like it.) The movie was pretty long (almost 3 hours) so I should have looked it up on RunPee before I went. As usual, there were some technical problems with the submarine sections: the submarine is shown as being on the surface while "on station", but is able to submerge within about 30 seconds. The ocean where Megatron is buried, the Laurentian Abyss, is described as being "9,600 fathoms" deep -- it's actually about just over 2,000 fathoms deep, and the deepest point in the actual ocean is 5,900 fathoms. The 3-D capabilities of the shipboard sonar are at least explainable if one assumes that they've instrumented the area where a submarine is on duty "at all times". They also showed my old carrier, USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), right before she somehow changed into CVN 71. (The Stennis shows up again later as herself.) Except for the part where the sub was on the surface, the gaffes weren't actually too distracting, so I give the movie three Hot Decepticons Coeds out of five.
According to this story, Topeka was featured in the new movie "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen". Even when we first got around to San Diego in 1991, the Topeka was kind of the "go-to" boat when it came to media availabilities. With her recent appearance on "24", along with this movie, it looks like they're still using her as the local Media Darling. (I won't see the movie until Saturday, but from what I've heard from some family members, who went to the midnight showing Tuesday night, the boat doesn't fare so well.)Update 1701 27 June: I saw the movie. I didn't have enough thoughts about it to make it worth writing a full "Movie Review" post, but I liked it OK. It was basically a huge advertisement for American servicepeople and advanced U.S. military gear, and I was cool with that. (That's probably also why a lot of media critics don't like it.) The movie was pretty long (almost 3 hours) so I should have looked it up on RunPee before I went. As usual, there were some technical problems with the submarine sections: the submarine is shown as being on the surface while "on station", but is able to submerge within about 30 seconds. The ocean where Megatron is buried, the Laurentian Abyss, is described as being "9,600 fathoms" deep -- it's actually about just over 2,000 fathoms deep, and the deepest point in the actual ocean is 5,900 fathoms. The 3-D capabilities of the shipboard sonar are at least explainable if one assumes that they've instrumented the area where a submarine is on duty "at all times". They also showed my old carrier, USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), right before she somehow changed into CVN 71. (The Stennis shows up again later as herself.) Except for the part where the sub was on the surface, the gaffes weren't actually too distracting, so I give the movie three Hot Decepticons Coeds out of five.
Virginia-Class Update
In one of the least surprising results ever, the Virginia-class submarine program got the "highest possible ranking" from the Navy's "independent" Operational Test and Evaluation "Force" (COMOPTEVFOR) this month. What interested me in this Navy announcement of the success was some information on what some of the Virginia-class boats are doing now:
"COTF's findings validate what we have known for some time about the Virginia class - that they are ready to become the backbone of the U.S. submarine force," said Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly, commander, Submarine Force. "Virginia and Hawaii have conducted successful deployments prior to their post-shakedown availability (PSA) and New Hampshire is currently deployed. These are the first U.S. submarines to deploy prior to their PSAs, so we had confidence that these ships could operate as advertised, and now we have independent verification."So what would have happened had COTF not recommended "full fleet introduction" of the Navy's largest shipbuilding program? I'm guessing "a plague of locusts o'er the land".
In its June 2009 IOT&E report, COTF went on to recommend full fleet introduction for the class and commented that "the Virginia-class submarine demonstrated major improvements in littoral environment capabilities" as compared to previous classes of submarine.
Currently, New Hampshire is conducting a deployment prior to its PSA. Additionally, Hawaii is underway to its new homeport in Pearl Harbor, making it the first Virginia to permanently leave Groton, Conn. Texas will follow Hawaii to Pearl Harbor in the fall. Lastly, Virginia is currently working up to its first six-month deployment, which will begin this fall.
Live Free... Or Die!!
During a visit to Norway last month, the crew of USS New Hampshire (SSN 778) got roped into an international naval parade in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Norwegian Submarine Force. Here's the picture:
Some other pictures from their European tour can been seen here and here. I've always thought it was a pain to have to go out in town in a liberty port in uniform -- except in Australia. (My favorite story of a shipmate having a great adventure while in uniform out in town was recounted here.) What ports have you been to where it's worth your while to hit the beach in uniform?
(As to the title of this post, I just wanted to honor my favorite state motto -- New Hampshire has the best, no doubt about it.)
Some other pictures from their European tour can been seen here and here. I've always thought it was a pain to have to go out in town in a liberty port in uniform -- except in Australia. (My favorite story of a shipmate having a great adventure while in uniform out in town was recounted here.) What ports have you been to where it's worth your while to hit the beach in uniform?(As to the title of this post, I just wanted to honor my favorite state motto -- New Hampshire has the best, no doubt about it.)
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