Where does the Navy go?

[Steve L22188]

Have been meaning to ask this of the wise sages on this board: When Hurricane Irene marched up the East Coast, the media reported that the Navy sent all the ships in Newport News "out to sea."

Here's my question: where do they go?

Do they go completely outside the hurricane and drive hard to the east?

Or does the Navy use this time to train for heavy weather conditions and send the ships far enough to be out of serious trouble but still in heavier weather?

Just a curious mind - figured someone here will know the answer.

Thanks.

 

[Ross]

At 30 knots they just cruise east. In 24 hours they are 720 nm away from the storm track. That would be like moving my boat to Chicago.

 

[Merlin Clark]

Yes, they drive hard to get out of the cone. Saves a lot of money in ship and dock repairs. I was Navy from 1978-1987.
Difference between them/merchant ships and sport boaters trying to escape a storm is they can steam at a minimum of 20+ knots for days on end and don't worry about tacking!

 

[jfmid]

At 30 knots they just cruise east.

The carriers can do 30+ knots but can all the support ships keep up for hours on end?????

 

[BillyK]

The carriers can do 30+ knots but can all the support ships keep up for hours on end?????

Must be nice to be powered by nuclear reactors.. i saw on the history channel that those Carriers don't need to be refueled for 20 years..

 

[Benny17441]

Remeber seeing an article about a small nuclear reactor that was being installed in pleasure crafts. It was Russian made and it had to be brought back to factory for refueling every 15 years. They also advertised they had a support and maintenance crew that would go all over the world to provide service. I wonder if it was a gimmick as I have not heard anything else. I would be a little concerned about glowing at night.

 

[Merlin Clark]

The carriers can do 30+ knots but can all the support ships keep up for hours on end?????

The current classes probably can. The warship I was stationed on was a Knox Class "Fast Frigate" ('79-'82) and her top speed was 27 knots and we were one of the slower ships in any task force we were in.
Newer ships like the Spruance Class Destroyer left us in the dust and we clocked the USS O'Brian running at close to 40 knots during a serious casualt evacuation. We had a bad accident onboard and flew our casualty by ASW helo to the O'Brian and she took him on to within helo range (IIRC 600 miles) of Australia which had the nearest major trauma facility. He needed a lot more help than could be had in the task force.

 

[rgtet]

In the case of Irene, they ran east, then looped south and west to follow the storm back to Norfolk. The track routing is generally to keep the transit distance to a minimum, while keeping the seas at 12' or less. Each storm is unique and it depends on which base is forced to sortie. They likely keep the SOA under 22 kts, which enables the CRUDES types to run at a split plant line-up and not waste fuel (gators are limited to ~22 kts and anything above that for a carrier using hot rocks for an extended period means that they're burning a noticeable amount of that fuel, which makes certain people in DC upset- fuel management for that stuff is VERY closely monitored). Anything over 22 kts for CRUDES means that all 4 GTM's are online, which burns an incredible amount of fuel, somewhere around 40,000 gph for a 30+ knot speed run.

There's no sense in beating the ships and crews into a pulp if it isn't operationally necessary. In these cases, there is no operational necessity to beating them senseless in a higher sea state (if you've ever ridden out a hurricane while underway, you know that ships flex a lot in those sea states, even at an SOA of 12 kts).

 

[cbsura]

I saw that article about the reactor in the sailboat, too, in either Sail or Cruising World a while back but it was the APRIL issue...

 

[Mike B]

The trainee boats you see in Annapolis came up to Baltimore and rafted up two deep on the sea walls by the aquarium. There was apx 15 of them.

 

[kloudie1]

Yup.. We hear from folks on this forum who have Atomic engines !!

 

[FourPoints]

The carriers can do 30+ knots but can all the support ships keep up for hours on end?????

my sister was stationed on a amphib (carrier's little brother) years back, told me under full power for a sea trial they hit 52kts in the open ocean... she said most of the time they traveled as a carrier group around 30-35kts as the non nuke ships burned too much fuel going any faster than that...

 

[Merlin Clark]

Yup.. We hear from folks on this forum who have Atomic engines !!

I'm looking for a flux capacitor Claude!

 

[Bill Roosa]

Hey fourpoints. Consider for a minute who may be reading the info on this site. And you might want to tell your sister to practice good OPSEC and not brag so much.
Loose lips sink ships.
Divulging the max speed of a boat is like posting a picture of your blown up hummer and saying "if the terrorist had just blown up the bomb a half second later we would all be dead" Kinda asking for more trouble don't you think?

 

[Marc Bergmueller]

We made a trip to NC on Thursday before the storm. As we crossed the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, about to enter the first tunnel, we saw a strange looking object in the water. It was moving very fast with something tailing it. The wife says " That's a sub!". She was right. Just the conning tower and I guess the tail out of the water. Very odd sight, and very fast.

 

[PuckandTitania]

I was stationed on a sub in Charleston, SC in 1980 when a hurricane came thru. Not being able to put to sea, we just fired up the reactor, tossed off shore power, loosened all lines and sank her right next to the pier.

 

[FourPoints]

Divulging the max speed of a boat is like posting a picture of your blown up hummer and saying "if the terrorist had just blown up the bomb a half second later we would all be dead" Kinda asking for more trouble don't you think?

that ship was decommissioned a while ago, and I really don't think something like that isn't well known by any foreign govt that has an interest....

 

[Fly_H23]

Any surface ships speed is pretty much known by every foriegn spy ship/sub/satellite during initial sea trials. Unless you can cloak it in a thick fog maybe?

 

[MrUnix]

Loose lips sink ships.
Divulging the max speed of a boat is like posting a picture of your blown up hummer and saying "if the terrorist had just blown up the bomb a half second later we would all be dead"

LMAO, that made my night**!!! I kinda doubt them mean old nasty foreign spy dudes are gonna get their info from the SailboatOwners web site when they can just get it directly from the U.S. Navy instead.

Cheers,
Brad

** Unfortunately, it also made me spew Pepsi all over my keyboard!

 

[zeehag]

Hey fourpoints. Consider for a minute who may be reading the info on this site. And you might want to tell your sister to practice good OPSEC and not brag so much.
Loose lips sink ships.
Divulging the max speed of a boat is like posting a picture of your blown up hummer and saying "if the terrorist had just blown up the bomb a half second later we would all be dead" Kinda asking for more trouble don't you think?

what is anyone gonna learn from this bunch?? nothing secret has ever been posted here.