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Equation

Equation

Lieutenant General
TerraN_EmpirE said:
Don't get me wrong on this, Vipers and Venom are a quantum leap over older models of the Cobra and Huey. but sadly there is a downside Although the Viper's specs even stand above the Apache Guardian in many ways. The Venom pays the costs vs the UH60M Blackhawk with far shorter legs, troop/cargo capacity and optional armament. Venom has speed, Climb and altitude. but given the Marines need to be sea based range is a major figure.
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Couldn't the Venom use fuel tanks to give it some more range? I know it takes away their loading capacity and cargo, but we've seen the SH-60 Seahawks carries them before.
 
9

93fiM5

New Member
Ultra said:
I am curious - where did you get the $9 billion dollar number from?
I would be happy to know too.

Now, from the wiki (which you can check the reference which linked to USN's own document) :

"The final carrier of the class, USS George H.W. Bush, was designed as a "transition ship" from the Nimitz class to the replacement
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. Bush incorporates new technologies including improved propeller and
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designs, a reduced
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and electronic and environmental upgrades. As a result, the ship's cost was $6.2 billion. The earlier Nimitz class ships each cost around $4.5 billion."

Note that they priced the Ford class as a quite affordable upgrade of only $6.2 billion - but now it is more likely to balloon to $15 billion (currently it is already $13 billion and still rising - not including various sub systems cost which is tally seperately.)
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Directly from the US Navy Fact file.
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. If you scroll down to the general characteristics it shows the price in FY12 dollars, you adjust for inflation to modern day and you are brushing $9 billion.

So again the cost of the USS Nimitz being the first in class is roughly $9 billion and is the correct comparison to the first Ford class. Subsequent ships typically go down in price as was seen by the follow on Nimitz class carriers.

-Greg
 
TerraN_EmpirE

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Equation said:
Couldn't the Venom use fuel tanks to give it some more range? I know it takes away their loading capacity and cargo, but we've seen the SH-60 Seahawks carries them before.
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Blackhawk uses it's ESSS kit to mount external tanks. those ESS are designed to carry a mix of tanks, rockets and missiles There heavy duty and long wings with 2 hard points per wing rated for 1 230 gallon tank and 1 450 gallon tank for a combined 680 gallons of fuel
Venom has external mounts but they are only designed for rocket pods. They are mounted under the door and on the hull with only one spot per side. the largest launcher for those mounts is the M261 19 shot is just under 600 pounds loaded impressive but consider a gallon of aviation fuel is about 6.5 pounds so crunching the b=numbers at most 2 75 gallon tanks. for a 150 gallons of fuel. That's not much.
The Unassisted combat radius of a UH60L is 368nmi The UH1Y is 130nmi. adding another 150 gallons of fuel is not going to bring it up to the combat radius
 
Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
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82044568.jpg
USS America, LHA-6, underway during builder's trials
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Naval Today said:
The US Navy’s newest amphibious assault ship, USS America (LHA 6), completed final contractor trials (FCT) April 3.

FCT, ran by the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV), is part of a series of post-delivery tests the ship has been preparing for since before commissioning. During the trials, the ship and its major systems are exercised, tested and corrected as required.

The four-day trials began March 30 with pre-underway and material condition checks, followed by at-sea demonstrations of a variety of systems including main propulsion, engineering and ship control systems, combat systems, damage control, food service and crew support.

After successfully completing FCTs, the ship will head into a maintenance period known as post shakedown availability (PSA) beginning late Spring. During this time the discrepancies that were noted will be resolved.

America is the first ship of its class, replacing the Tarawa class of amphibious assault ships, and is optimized for Marine Corps aviation.
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USS America, LHA-6, was commissioned on October 11, 2014. These last builder's trials were a part of he post-delivery agreement between the US Navy and the manufacturer and the manufacturer will be responsible for resolving any discrepancies noted between the agreed requirements and what the Navy actually got.

After this, although the Navy may (and probably will) continue to get help from the builder, it will be on the Navy's nickel.


1426621525842.jpg
AV-8B Harriers landing on the USS America, LHA-6
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Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
Jura The idiot

Jura The idiot

General
the article doesn't say much, but as a fan of Naval Artillery, I have to post :)
Navy Interested in Guided Rounds for Surface Ships Pending Price Reductions
The Navy is still interested in pursuing guided rounds for naval guns on its surface fleet but waiting for the technology to get cheaper before moving forward, the director of surface warfare said Wednesday in a press briefing with reporters.

The Navy has pursued a guided five-inch round for the service’s Mk 45 five inch guns on its guided missiles cruisers and destroyers in fits and starts since the mid-1990s with limited success.

“I’m at a point where I’m extraordinarily interested in as soon as the cost comes down to something I can make a reasonable case for,” said Rear Adm. Peter Fanta.
“So I’m looking at a number of different guided rounds, extended range guided rounds.”

The idea is to fire a rocket assisted guided weapon far beyond the 13 nautical mile range of the standard munitions to strike targets accurately faster and more cheaply than longer range guided missiles.

The Navy has been successful procuring guided weapons for the 155mm Advanced Gun System for the Zumwalt-class (DDG-1000) guided missile destroyers — the BAE Systems Long-Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP).

But reducing the size to the smaller MK 45 weapon has been a challenge for the service.

In 2008, the Navy canceled the Raytheon’s five-inch Extended Range Guided Munition (ERGM) after a failed 15 years development process.

Last year the Navy began reexamining the guided round question.

In June, Naval Sea Systems Command
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to industry for a more than 61-inch round for “Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS) / Land Attack missions, and increase capabilities for Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW), including against Fast Attack Craft (FAC) and Fast In-Shore Attack Craft (FIAC).”

Raytheon, BAE Systems, Oto Melara and Lockheed Martin are all thought to have responded to NAVSEA’s RFI.

But cost will still be a prime factor for further work.

“At this point I’m still not convinced that the cost still doesn’t have a significant chunk to be reduced,” Fanta said.
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(from what I figured, a guided shell would be something like $50k a pop -- development, testing costs likely excluded ...)
 
S

strehl

Junior Member
Registered Member
Jura said:
the article doesn't say much, but as a fan of Naval Artillery, I have to post :)
Navy Interested in Guided Rounds for Surface Ships Pending Price Reductions

source:
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(from what I figured, a guided shell would be something like $50k a pop -- development, testing costs likely excluded ...)
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Depends on what kind of guidance you want. Terminal seeking will probably never get below $50K for a gun launched round (Copperhead was very expensive). The recent development of guided Zuni rockets (APKW and the like) are probably cheaper but I'm not sure how much range you can get out of them and they need someone else to illuminate the target.

As for the ERGM round, those were GPS guided like Excalibur (I think). Excalibur costs have dropped recently and they may be approaching $50K/round. For "really" cheap, there is the ATK PGK round ($3K/round may be possible). They would need a little improvement to hit a small ship.

Raytheon Excalibur

ATK PGK
 
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