Posted on 02/24/2003 12:23:31 PM PST by Stand Watch Listen
NEWPORT NEWS, VA -- To reduce the crew size of the Navy's next-generation carrier by 800 compared to a Nimitz-class hull, ship designers will assess how almost everything on the new ship -- from light bulbs to the nuclear propulsion plant -- could reduce the crew's workload.Current Nimitz-class carriers carry 3,200 for the ship's company and 2,480 for the air wing. The Navy wants the new CVN-21, the first in a new class of carriers, to reduce the ship's company, but not the air wing, said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Danny Hernandez. The Bush administration's fiscal year 2004 budget submission includes $11.7 billion for CVN-21 -- $8.6 billion in the shipbuilding account and $3.1 billion in research, development, test and evaluation, Hernandez added.
Until late last year, the CVN-21 program was known as CVNX. Pentagon officials considered canceling CVNX-1 to spend the money later on for a ship with more capabilities and technology. After months of negotiations, the Pentagon, the Navy and Northrop Grumman, which owns the only U.S. shipyard that builds nuclear carriers, reached a compromise. Renamed CVN-21, the new carrier would include many innovations meant for CVNX-2 while maintaining the CVNX-1 schedule.
Originally, the Navy did not plan to build a carrier capable of being manned by 800 fewer people until the second ship in the new class. The initial plan called for CVNX-1, starting in 2007 for commissioning in 2014, to reduce the crew by about 400 and for the later CVNX-2 to reduce it by 400 more. But those requirements changed last fall.
Among the key innovations accelerated for the new carrier are the reduced crew, which would save operating costs, and the ability to carry out more sorties for greater warfighting power.
In addition to examining how changes to high-profile features could save labor, designers are also considering what appear to be more marginal items, but when taken together could have significant savings. A comprehensive approach is necessary, because eliminating one task alone does not eliminate one crewmember, said Matthew Mulherin, a vice president at Newport News in charge of the CVN-21 program, in an interview last week. Since each person is responsible for several jobs, all of them must go away for the crewmember to go away too, he added.
"You've got to look at this thing as a system, and go out and try to optimize all of that," he said. "You can't just go and relieve [a sailor] of his watch-standing duties and then expect the sailor not to be on the ship. You've got to take down all those three jobs that he performs."
The new propulsion plant will save labor on maintenance, Mulherin said. It will generate 2.5 times more power than a Nimitz-class ship and will distribute electrical power to auxiliary systems, which run on steam in current carriers. That will do away with pipes and valves that carry the steam all over the ship to places like heaters, kitchens and laundry rooms. So without all those pipes, no one will have to repair them.
"Before you would always deal with the piping system," he said. "Things would leak. Pipes would eventually erode and you would have to replace things."
Electric power will also go to the electromagnetic aircraft launching system (EMALS) to replace steam-powered catapults. Unlike the existing catapults, EMALS would allow crews to modulate the force with which it hurls aircraft off the deck, reducing stress on airframes and enabling smaller aircraft like unmanned aerial vehicles to launch from carriers. But EMALS is also supposed to be more reliable and would not require as much maintenance. Advanced arresting gear, which is a technology being accelerated from CVNX-2, would provide electromagnetic-enabled arresting for landings and would also reduce maintenance workloads.
Beyond major ship systems, Newport News is considering less obvious improvements, such as more efficient ways to prepare food, Mulherin said. Techniques used on cruise ships could be applied to CVN-21 when it comes to feeding people, he said. For example, storage rooms could be placed closer to the kitchen and meals that do not need as much preparation could be used.
And using materials on walls or floors that do not scratch easily could cut down on the amount of painting the crew would have to do, he added.
More durable light bulbs would save labor, and perhaps reduce the crew as well. The Virginia Advanced Shipbuilding and Carrier Integration Center, a research and development facility at Newport News, is looking at alternative lighting technology, such as a fluorescent bulb with a life of 100,000 hours, said Irwin Edenzon, vice president for business and technology development.
"[The light bulb] seems like a very mundane item to be focusing on, but if we can significantly reduce the amount of time that the crew spends on those maintenance activities, we can significantly reduce the cost of the ship," he said. "We can take that work off the ship, which means we can potentially reduce the crew, or make those crew available to do other more important jobs."
-- Jason Ma
Absolutely. It is also the primary problem with women at sea. They are strong enough for normal duties, but are not up to traditional Damage Control Duties. Stretchers now require 4 bearers instead of 2, because the women couldn't cut it. Same for many other things. Even if you have enough people, 4 people carrying a stretcher is 3 times as wide as 2 people carrying, and conests passageways.
So9
"The capacity selector valve (CSV) system allows for thecatapult officer to set the desired energy level of the launch. The catapult officer uses the type ofaircraft, aircraft weight, aircraft configuration, wind conditions, and the desired excess aircraftairspeed to find the correct CSV..."
Thinks that was an "oopsie" in the article- any navy types want to chime in?
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