Isn't it just beautiful to behold?
84 mm caliber weapon found in checked luggage by TSA at San Antonio Airport
- Thread starter GURPS
- Start date
I recall flying with one in the early 80's in an H-3. We were doing 70 KTS and it was outrunning us!
My company has the sad distinction of being the last technical and logistics support contractor for them when they were based in Key West. As such, we were in charge of organizing all the demil and subsequent scrapping/disposal activities. "Aries" is the only one out all of them that managed to escape having her foils scrapped out separately and she was saved from the scrap heap.
https://www.ussaries.org/
Isn't 10 years rather a short lifespan for a warship?My company has the sad distinction of being the last technical and logistics support contractor for them when they were based in Key West. As such, we were in charge of organizing all the demil and subsequent scrapping/disposal activities. "Aries" is the only one out all of them that managed to escape having her foils scrapped out separately and she was saved from the scrap heap.
https://www.ussaries.org/
No...they get scrapped or at least decommed for lots of reasons other than age. Recent examples include our MCM and, particularly, MCH mine hunters, and very recently a bunch of the "new" LCS'. And besides...the PHMs were active from '77-'93...so 16 years.
The PHM program was supposed to involve the production of over 75 ships in the beginning....with more expected after that. But all of the other NATO nations that had initially committed to buying them backed out and the USN hacked their own order to the bone. After that short production run of only 6 vessels, the PHMs were nothing but a highly sophisticated, very expensive to operate, logistic-train challenged, orphan, looking for a mission. That's how/why they ended up in Key West, assigned to drug interdiction duty alongside the then-new squadron of USCG Surface Effect Ships (WSES).
The men that served on them, loved the ships, by and large. Their operational capabilities were amazing..have never been matched since in the USN.
Looked that one up.
I like the Skjold class the Norwegians built better. Looks a lot more combat worthy.
And that vessel is my pride and joy...my crowning engineering achievement. Spent 5-6 years of my life in the 90s as head of the design team for the hull and surface effect ship specific equipment design and arrangement. Fastest I've been was on the first of class "Skjold" prototype and was about 56 knots. The series production used a higher output turbine package and can "exceed 65 knots".
We're (my company) currently supporting a SLEP for four of the Skjold class vessels.
This picture is one of my favorites because it captures ship designs that punctuated my career...from the MCMV minehunter/sweep SES' (we built 9 of those) in the late 80s/early 90s, through the "Skjold" class missile corvettes, to the SES windfarm crew transfer boats we're building now. I'll leave you to figure out which is which.
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