Posted on 02/06/2009 6:21:30 AM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
The future is here: This water-based Imperial Star Destroyer is really the spectacular Swedish Visby-Class corvette, the first operational stealth ship in the world, powered with silent waterjets and made with non-magnetic composite materials.
According to the experts, the corvettes are "electronically undetectable at more than 8 miles in rough seas and at more than 13.5 miles in calm seas". Their creation was an answer to the incursion of foreign submarines in Swedish waters in the mid-eighties.
The corvettes are designed to travel at more than 35 knots in between the many beautiful islands that populate Sweden's shallow coast, thanks to waterjets-made by Rolls-Royce subsidiary Kamewa-that reduce their draft. Their mission will be to quickly patrol their territorial waters while hunting for enemy submarines and other ships.
While I prefer to travel the Swedish coast on a sailing ship, I wouldn't mind getting a quick surf on these things when they enter in service at the end of this year (as they are probably staffed with non-stealth blonde valkyries.)
These lines break up the profile of the ship. Long flowing lines are eaisly picked out by the human eye...Break those long flowing lines up and the object blends into the background.
Armaments?The 57mm cannon is the only thing fitted and tested so far. The barrel retracts into the turret for greater stealth. The torpedos are being tested now - they're stowed inside the hull. Still to be integrated and tested, the vertical-launch Umkhonto-IR SAM (surface to air missile) system, and the RBS-15 Mk 2 ASM (anti-ship missile). The latter will be in pop-up launchers.
On one of the defense sites there is a picture of Swedish naval bases in cliff faces. They are only ship beam wide. Really cool/007 base type places.
USS Hornet (CV-12), 1945. Crazy paint job serves to confuse optical rangefinders on Japanese submarines.
While I’m sure they’ve spent millions of research dollars on the paint job, I find it hard to believe someone could be confused as to direction of travel if one first saw it on their left and shortly afterward it was on their right. How is it that troops have clothing colors and patterns that are mottled to blend in with their surroundings but ships and planes are colored in such a manner as to have right angles which blends in with nothing but downtown New York City?
The”Dazzle” pattern in used extensively in WW@ and was supposedly very very effective
That’s some building they put up to assemble the ship in. Composites require cleanliness.
Ouch ... that hurts to look at. Trying to estimate range through a periscope must have been a nightmare ....
Oh, I see it now.
Some would argue that the French Lafayette class frigates were the first stealth vessels.
http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/lafayette/
For stealth, armaments are hidden below deck and only appear when needed.
“Dazzle paint” scemes were extremely effective in WW1 and were used up until the advent of radar, which rendered them moot. They make establishing a visual firing solution much harder.
It’s not a question of ‘is it going right or left,’ but is it doing so at 30*, 45* or 60*. That causes the firing solution to be more guesswork.
USS Ronald Reagan
USS George Bush
USS Barack Obama
USS Bill Clinton
Think about it. On land, there are trees, cars, buildings, animals, people, rocks and lots of other things that the human eye must determine you are not when it is looking for you. Mottling can help you mimic the background by breaking up your outline; pattern recognition of shapes breaks down.
In the sky, what is there? Clouds, birds and well, planes. You’re one of those three. And until we make planes as big as clouds or as small as birds, it’s kind of hard to disguise what you are.
On the ocean, there is either land or a boat. A quick glance at a map will confirm what you are.
You use the paint pattern on the ship to confuse optical range finding. Contrasting angular patterns play havoc with depth perception and make it difficult to focus your rangefinder. Inaccurate range means inaccurate shots.
It’s not about hiding - that is what a submarine does. If you are within the horizon, you WILL be seen by human eyes! But you’ll at least make it hard to get an electronic range and target, and make it hard to get an optical range and target.
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