[pepsi_junkie]

Live shock testing is always done on the second ship of a new class. It's not unusual. It's to see how they'd hold up if a nearby mine blew. They also do shock inspections on every new ship (I used to do them) to find things that might break, come loose, etc. And just about every electrical or mechanical item on the ship has been smashed with a giant "shock hammer" to see if it would fly to pieces and redesign it if it does. Some gear has to just not fly apart, other stuff has to keep working all through the explosion. I'll tell you this: Just about anything you could buy on Amazon will shatter if you hit it with that hammer "as-is". We spend a lot of time repackaging everything into racks with shock absorbents and sway braces and all sorts of things to keep the equipment inside safe for operation and for the crew.

People who don't understand that this is how military systems are built get upset when they hear about some item costing $25,000 when they can get it on Amazon for $999. Well, it aint quite the same thing after all. The $999 one dies if you drop it. The $25,0000 one survives explosions and can handle electromagnetic pulse attacks. But other than that, yeah, same thing.

[Lazamataz]

Injuring military equipment for any reason should be a felony

[doorgunner69]

And, you are paying for the cost of all that testing.

Someone has to pay...........

[exnavy]

Yes, the bottom line is mil spec saves lives, and we that use those military hardware items thank those who test that stuff.

[Gen.Blather]

“But other than that, yeah, same thing. “

I did a lot of testing for the military. I’d get upset by the press’ constant use of the $600 toilet seat example. That wasn’t a toilet seat. It was a shroud that could contain the contents of the toilet if the plane flipped over. I think it was Lockheed, if I remember, who no longer wanted to make it so they tried to sub it out. The price came back at several times the $600. And that $500 hammer? Yeah, if you had to subject a hammer design to all the testing required in our contracts it would be $500 each. That testing is expensive. Classified testing, like nuclear event, is even more expensive as they simply come back and say, “Sorry. It didn’t pass. Try again.”