Memorable Quotes
Stuart wrote:The Missile Game (1/24/2001)
We invented this game today. It can't be played here but its fun. Each contestant gets dumped into the Microsoft Terraserver archive of satellite recon shots at a random location in North Dakota. The competion is to see who can find and identify (squadron, missile and silo designation) the most missile silos in one hour. The record today stands at five.
Stuart wrote:A nuclear device is initiated because the act is the start of a complex process, the end result of which is a massive release of energy and destructive effects (followed by peace and quiet hence the slogan "Peace is our profession").
Stuart wrote:I'm in the middle of a major computer change at the moment which has done one thing at least. When I need a name for an operation aimed at inflicting mass destruction and misery on a worldwide basis, I shall call it Operation Windows Vista.
Stuart wrote:8/26/2006 on Israeli Subs having No Theis Clips:
Thetis clips? THETIS CLIPS. We don't need no stinkin' Thetis Clips. They're for fuddy-duddy old reactionaries who don't appreciate the new, innovative, revolutionary ways of the future. Heavens, you'll be insisting on watertight bulkheads next.
kdahm wrote:There is no cleverly engineered safety system that will protect against the actions of a sufficiently ingenious idiot. The only question is how many people he will take with him.
Supatra wrote:Vegetables are not food. Vegetables are what food eats.
Tony Evans wrote:In a thread on the French Foreign Legion (4/4/2004)
The French army has probably the longest history of tactical competence--sometimes even brilliance--in the service of abysmal operational and strategic leadership. It is perhaps the single most instructive example of why amateurs concern themselves with tactics, while professionals worry about other things.
Memorable Small ThreadletsSupatra wrote:On Kilts (2/20/2002)
If it looks like duck and walks like duck and quacks like duck can call it a tiger if wish to but.......
The Casco Class (11/1/2001)
King Sargent wrote:Then there was the USS Casco class of river monitors in the Civil War which couldn't float. Launched without turrets, they had like an inch of freeboard (and they were designed with FLOODING TANKS to LOWER their silhouette!). Rather embarassing.
Stuart wrote:The Casco class were rather fun; they could carry their engines or their guns but not both (perhaps the ones with engines could tow the ones with guns).
I once designed a frigate that had a conventional power train (two cruise gas turbines and two boost turbines powering two shafts) but BOTH shafts were centerlined with one superimposed above the other (and the rudders tunnelling the flow from both). The tasking was to design an impossible ship so that it could be used as a red herring competition for the design we really wanted (which became the Type 22) The Senior Designer looked at it and sought of tossed it aside with a disdainful expresison of boredom. Then grabbed it back when the horrible realization sank in. He sort of hunched up and got a haunted expression on his face before calling in the Chief Designer. It was decided that if we could leak the design to the Russians it would probably shorten the Cold War by at least ten years.
Centerline shafts by the way are Really Bad News on a warship.
On the subject of stagnation areas, there was a Swedish cruiser that had its rudders in a stagnation area when moving between 10 and 20 knots. They really should have told the people they sold it to..........
Guilherme Loureiro wrote:Are you talking about the Tre Kronor class, the ones built after WWII? Did they ever solve this, or did they steer the ship by praying?
The SMUIRFmobile (1/2/2002)Stuart wrote:It was the Tre Konor; the Chileans found out about the problem when they put her into a dockyard wall at 20 knots. In the stagnation area, the crew had to steer using differential power on the engines. Docking had to be done with tug assistance.
Stuart wrote:We were looking at pictures of those those big Russian rocket carriers one day at work and wondering if they had any possible civilian application. One idea was to convert them into a sort of Uber-SUV known as the Sports Utility Mobile Home. We then spent a happy few minutes trying to work out an acryonym that would come out as SMURF. The best we could come up with was Sporting Mobile Utility Recreational Facility but we weren't too happy with it.
But if it still had the rocket, think of the drive-by shooting one could pull..........
Unknown IRBM Story/Post/TimeJPaulMartin wrote:Super Mobile Universal Recreational Funmobile
Regarding the driveby: first you want a Nike-Hercules as a parking lot ornament, now you want to do drivebys with an ICBM. What's next, 9 megaton alternatives to the shovel for moving earth in the garden?
Stuart wrote:I thought India had also tried it [IRBM launching] off some of their warships?
They did indeed. Or they tried. The following story is unsubstantiated but from very reliable sources.
The Indians came up with the idea of establishing sea-based leg of their triad by deploying a Prithvi missile on a warship. the idea was quite interesting, the missile would be kept in the helicopter hangar on a Sukanya class patrol ship on a transporter-erector launcher, wheeled out, erected and fired.
In April 2000, the system was tried out on one of the intended platforms. The ship went to the designated range point, opened up its hangar, the missile TEL was rolled out - and kept rolling until it vanished over the side with an almightly splash. It appears nobody realized that a TEL has a lot of momentum when wheeled onto the deck of a rolling ship.
Oops.
The design was then revamped with a launcher that would be slid out along rails rather than wheeled out. In April 2001, aboard INS Subhandra, this was tried out. The missile slid out along the rails, was erected and fired. It rose into the air, went out of control and hit the sea about 500 yards off the ship's side then went cartwheeling across the surface of the sea. It appears nobody realized that the rolling of the ship would tumble the missile gyros.
Oops
The launcher design was then improved with the incorpration of stabilization. This was tested in September 2001. The Missile fired perfectly, rose straight up into the air, then, about two or three thousand meters up, turned over and came back down. Straight back down. It impacted less than 50 yards from the stern of the ship.
The idea was abandoned at that point.