Posted on 09/21/2017 4:41:32 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
It's all smiles on deck aboard the Australian Navy's newest ship, the Hobart, and there's none bigger than that on Captain John Stavridis.
"I pinch myself everyday that I'm actually in command of a guided missile destroyer," he told AAP on Thursday.
But the veteran sailor, with 29 years service, says it's not just him. All 186 crew members feel "very fortunate and very blessed" to be serving on the first of Australia's three new Hobart Class destroyers.
"It's a very excited crew," he said.
Australia's most sophisticated warship comes into service as regional tensions reach boiling point following North Korea's successful tests of inter-continental ballistic missiles that have the potential to reach northern Australia.
When she does start operations, the 7000 tonne destroyer will be tasked with providing air defence to the Australian naval fleet from both aircraft and missiles.
Armed with the "best you can get" Aegis Combat System, along with "powerful spy radar" and 48 vertically launched missiles capable of travelling 100km, the Hobart will also be no slouch defending against submarine attack.
"It is world class, it is leading edge...It is an outstanding weapons system evolved over many decades," Captain Stavridis said.
But before the Hobart begins goes into active service the crew has to iron out all the creases that come with a new ship.
"We go through a very detailed process of operational testing and evaluation."
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.com.au ...
Just how good is this tin can in a crowded straight vs. a container ship?
Aussie designed and built - a nice-looking capital ship. Good for them (and us).
Only 100 kn range on the missiles?
It’s actually a modification of a Spanish design.
Spanish design, Australian built. It beat out a variation of the Arleigh Burke class.
I would like to rehash the question of how in the Hell did our billions of dollars of ships with the best technology in the world get into so many accidents? If this were the Cold War, I think the Soviets would have picked apart the 7th Fleet in a war, even hitting an Aircraft Carrier. Is it not impossible to conceive that the Norks could get lucky?
Were this an American Guided Missile destroyer it would be the USS Hobart DD-G 39, how will the Aussies designate it?
It isn’t technology or equipment that failed on our ships in the collisions and groundings this year.
It is leadership, training and overall, the corrosion of the fundamental institutional values of the Naval Service and the military in general. If equipment failed, it was a minor contribution. There is some unverified chatter about a steering casualty in the McCain mishap, but I haven’t seen that rise to the major contributing factor yet.
If this were the Cold War, our forces would be the cold war forces and they would have handled the Soviets at sea. But it isn’t.
And yes, the North Koreans can hit our ships. Any ship can be hit. It is the same concept as assassination. If someone wants to kill someone badly enough, there are few people who can be protected completely. If some country wanted to launch a missile at one of our ships, it could be done. The USS Stark is an object lesson in this.
All that said, I share the concern, primarily with the 7th Fleet based in Japan, but also with other naval units and the entire military in general, that the material readiness is poor due to decades of budget restrictions and poor choices about where to spend the allocated money, cutting of corners, poor training, and poor leadership.
But most of all, above even all that, is the focus on sexual and homosexual issues, Political Correctness, and the absolutely destructive, corrosive, and shameful promotion of people based on sex and color to positions they have no business being in. A good example of that is the Obama promotion of Michelle Howard to four star flag rank. Take a look (if the information hasn’t been scrubbed from the Internet) at her qualifications as compared to at least a dozen other candidates under consideration for that spot at the same time.
Shameful. And that does more damage in the end than all other things put together.
I have no confidence that our forces would perform as they should in a shooting war.
Additionally, we don’t want to hijack this person’s thread. I probably said more on that here than I should have.
It will be HMAS Hobart (DDG 39). Sometimes you will see a number in brackets after the name. In this case it would be three since this is the third ship in the RAN to carry the name (the first Hobart was a Leander class light cruiser http://news.navy.gov.au/en/Sep2017/Fleet/4060).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.