Submarine Comings And Goings On
A few news items about submarines on the 'net today:
1) PCU New Mexico (SSN 779) made it out to sea. Here's a picture of her on Bravo Trials:
2) PCU Missouri (SSN 780) will be christened in Groton on Saturday.
3) Some homeport changes were announced. The submarine tender USS Emory S. Land (AS 39) will be moving from Bremerton to Diego Garcia next year, and USS City of Corpus Christi will transfer from Guam to Pearl for an overhaul. Replacing her in Guam will be USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723), transferring from Norfolk in early 2011.
4) Returning from deployment in time to combine post-deployment stand down with the Christmas leave period are USS San Juan (SSN 751) and USS Miami (SSN 755). Welcome home, guys!
Update 2218 02 Dec: More photos from the New Mexico's sea trials can be found here.
posted by Bubblehead at 4:40 PM
29 Comments:
I hope the field day trials were successful. That is what really matters in the sub service these days.
12/02/2009 5:12 PM
Can somebody please explain to me why we take our newest submarines put them through all these sea trials, get maybe six months of operational time with them and then send them back into the shipyard to 12-18 months for Post Shakedown Availablity. Are we not not putting the boats together right the first time and is the cost of the PSA going into the overrall coast of Virginia Class sub.
12/02/2009 5:26 PM
Let's start the pool on how many sailors aboard Land get pregnant in the BIOT.
I say 20 in the first year.
-3383
12/02/2009 5:36 PM
Does DG fall in in the 5th Fleet combat area (a.k.a. tax-free zone)?
-LT L
12/02/2009 5:41 PM
ES Land is now a MSC ship with a rotating core group of repair sailors and fly away team support. Only poor bastard stuck in BIOT for the year is the CO (not MSC, 1120 due to repair responsibilities) and the RO (for the same reason).
Great chance to brush up on your fishing and scuba diving skills....At least that's what the detailer will tell you!
Hope it works
12/02/2009 5:49 PM
5) Don't forget the other Groton deployer, USS Memphis returned from deployment in time to combine post-deployment stand down and Christmas leave.
12/02/2009 6:21 PM
And Pittsburgh came home just before Thanksgiving, with a healthy standdown period shoveled in there.
12/02/2009 7:40 PM
CoCC has been in commission for 27 years...it's gotta be razor blade time soon right?
12/02/2009 7:57 PM
LT L, No, I believe that DGAR is not tax free.
I guess DGAR would be good if you could SCUBA. They would let people do it so you were stuck snorkeling (sp?) which wasn't that bad of a sight either.
-EM2 (SS)
12/02/2009 8:25 PM
I didn't want to get anywhere near the water in Diego Garcia. I could see sharks swimming beside us pierside, and the crab covered beach under the Expat Club weirded me out.
Back in the day of Earnest Will/ Nimble Archer we would earn "imminent danger" pay when we were north of the line marking Silkworm range from Bandar Abbas. DG was far from there, but we did get a beer day. Which made it all worthwhile.
Didn't know that about the tender.
-3383
12/02/2009 11:34 PM
Anon 5:26
Its a contracts thing.
The way most shipbuilding contracts are written, it is cheaper to complete the initial contract, then implement the SRA contract than it is to change the building contract.
There was an 8G RCP pump change once at EB. New pumps were in hand before the old pumps were even installed. It was a same fit replacement. It was cheaper to put in the original pumps, go thru all testing, remove and install new pumps than to just put the new pumps in.
I think "they" were worried about all the work time they would loose...
12/03/2009 5:24 AM
We didn't do any SCUBA but we did a lot of snorkeling at Holy Loch in the 70s.
12/03/2009 5:27 AM
WELCOME HOME USS Miami and to my son-in-law. That was a LONG 8 month "routine" deployment. I wonder if the 8 month gig is the future for all SSN deployments. Hope not, 6 months was long enough. You can only handle 60 cycle sunshine for so long!
Good news, you never saw them on CNN.
12/03/2009 5:33 AM
I am not a submariner so I need to ask you guys about the photo of the sea trial (http://media.primezone.com/cache/189/hires/7632.jpg). Does it not look like the Raymarine radome is EXACTLY at gonad-level? Please tell me the mast is in-transit or that there is some policy prohibiting transmission at that height.
If that is normal, then these vessels should be using a newer "zero emissions" unit like the ones from Navico.
12/03/2009 10:17 AM
It looks like it's about abdomen level if you're standing aft of the bridge, and just about or above head level when sitting or standing in the bridge. So at least the officer berries aren't getting cooked.
12/03/2009 11:24 AM
Thanks EM2.
-LT L
12/03/2009 11:26 AM
OceanLines, the subject had been broached earlier at TSSBP:
bullnav said...
Concur with Bubblehead--I served on 759 and 756 and that is all you get with the BPS-15 (and that is the way it is on all 688's). Additionally, we usually had a commercial radar (such as a Furuno) mounted up on the bridge, since it gave you significantly more functionality than the BPS-15. I stood plenty of bridge watches and never had any issues with the radar. I forget the exact power output, but this is a surface-search only radar and does not have near the output of a 3D air search radar. So you get a little fried...no big deal, its just microwaves...not like some neutrons or anything...
11/15/2006 6:45 AM
- Arno of Dace
12/03/2009 6:30 PM
Protect the "JUNK"!
12/03/2009 7:40 PM
"I forget the exact power output, but this is a surface-search only radar and does not have near the output of a 3D air search radar."
The ones that are small enough to be submarine-friendly are in the 2-4kw range (my Raymarine was 2kw). Not a big deal at all. I don't remember what the BPS put out, but it wasn't a whole lot more than that. And like Arno...it's just RF. Wear gold-foil underwear if it makes ya feel better :)
12/04/2009 3:20 AM
Replacing her in Guam will be USS Oklahoma City (SSN 723), transferring from Norfolk in early 2011.
Oh, you poor, poor bastards. Even the old boomer pukes only had to do upkeeps there. Westpacs were bad enough, and I did a radcon tour there. I can't imagine things have improved much.
12/06/2009 10:44 PM
Yes, the CoCC is a bit aged and due to be put through the shredder before long. Being stuck out in Guam with only a half-assed tender doesn't help keep the boat young. As for being stationed in Guam, I found it to be a lot of fun. Not sure how it was back in the day, but it compares pretty favorably to most other duty stations. If you can dive or snorkel, you're set!
12/07/2009 8:32 PM
To Anon @ 8:32P
Being stuck out in Guam with only a half-assed tender ...
Just curious what do you believe constitues a "half-assed tender"?
Being as how we only have two tenders left, is the other half of the ass the Emory Land?
Which is the better half?
I served on the Frank Cable, albeit many years ago and I still beieve it is a good ship.
12/08/2009 5:39 AM
If they don't sink themselves or burst any more steam piping.
12/08/2009 3:57 PM
AS40 is not half-assed, as anyone who has been fortunate to have a deployed upkeep can tell you.
As for COCC, she's due for a PIRA is suspect, and since they go longer than 6 months I bet 7th Flt doesn't want to go down on numbers for that long (again...).
So, move COCC to PH for the rest of her life, and shift OKC to Guam to maintain numbers.
12/08/2009 6:55 PM
Served CO, you are correct
about the COCC. What most don't know
is that the tender does many repairs that nobody will touch. She's just
hampered by rules Big Navy won't
allow like allowing plating chemicals onboard.
I've seen many times that shipyards won't support a waterborne repair and the FCB do it for the first time. How many people here seen a waterborne changeout of a stern planes hull packing or rudder? Not been done outside of Guam. Neither has a class "A" rebuild of a trim pump in the Machinery Room. She's also the only Navy FMA that does shaft seals waterborne.
'nuff said.
BTDT.
12/09/2009 12:24 AM
As for being stationed in Guam, I found it to be a lot of fun. Not sure how it was back in the day, but it compares pretty favorably to most other duty stations. If you can dive or snorkel, you're set!
Depends on what you're looking for. It's great for watersports and special massages, for everything else not so much. In other homeports you're at most a couple hours' drive away from a real American city. Closest civilized place to Guam is....Tinian?!?!
12/09/2009 1:16 AM
ah.... but you are just a few hours by air from the PI, and about 5 hours or so from Australia...
12/09/2009 9:39 PM
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