Posted on 08/23/2017 7:05:21 AM PDT by beebuster2000
Can a Freeper with experience "weigh" in please?
I am beginning to think the common problem in the recent USN accidents is a totally calcified chain of command where no one has the authority to take action in a moment of crisis. someone knows there is a problem but has to ask someone who has to ask someone for permission to act.
Isn't there ONE OFFICER on deck with the total and absolute responsibility and authority to alter course in real time to avoid collisions? Or is there no one person until way up the chain who can make a decision ?
Apparently, it doesn’t.
The officer of the deck is responsible for the safe navigation of the ship. Everyone on the bridge and cic answers to him. The OOD only answers to the captain in those matters.
really? listen to this recording of an actual collision. does this sound like clear OOD chain of command?
Umm, some of the same navigation lines used by our ICBM’s to get to their target... Would hate to ‘send off a nuke’ to Pyongyang and have it hit San Francisco...
“On 22 June, the US Maritime Administration filed a seemingly bland incident report. The master of a ship off the Russian port of Novorossiysk had discovered his GPS put him in the wrong spot – more than 32 kilometres inland, at Gelendzhik Airport.”
“After checking the navigation equipment was working properly, the captain contacted other nearby ships. Their AIS traces – signals from the automatic identification system used to track vessels – placed them all at the same airport. At least 20 ships were affected.”
these accidents are starting to smell like that to me. i bet the lower down in rank you get in these incidents the clearer the peril and the greater clarity about exactly what should have been done.
it can not possibly be lack of nav info, my guess is the nav station is awash in really good info on collision and target tracking.
So yes, there is a procedure and a clear chain of command. Nobody has to wait for the captain to come on deck to take appropriate emergency action.
The particular example you provided of the captain coming on deck, pushing the OOD into a bad decision, and then giving orders directly without taking the conn, was a screw-up on the part of that captain. It doesn't indict or condemn standard Navy procedures, which is perfectly appropriate.
Duh ... that is why the skipper was relieved.
Your question assumes/presumes that was the problem - we don’t have enough data to really have a clue about how two of our war ships ended up being disabled by civilian vessels in that arena of operations. No way it is pure coincidence or as simple as “nobody had the authority to avoid a collision”.
Yes, there IS an officer on deck. But he and his significant other fudgepacker are over in a corner, otherwise occupied. Just as Barky Obama arranged it. IMHO.
The OOD’s duty whenever maneuvering is in question whatever the time is day or night is to get the CO to the bridge to take over. I was on mid watch on a destroyer in the Tonkin Gulf when we hit an Australian registry fishing tug that was DIW. According to my enlisted buddies on duty on the bridge and in CIC, we had the boat on surface radar at 15 miles and the visual contact at 12 miles with its running lights lit. The seas were dead calm glass and skies were crystal clear with no moon. The CO, a Commander, was awakened and was on the bridge at least a half hour before we hit the tug with our bow at around 5 knots. The fishing boat’s stern suffered some splintered wood above the waterline. Our bow suffered a 10 foot long gash just above the waterline. No one was injured on my ship and the 15 or so Vietnamese fisherman, who appeared to be asleep at the time of the collision, probably crapped their pajamas but were not hurt. We made port gingerly at Vung Tau and had emergency repairs done tied up to a tender. After we were buttoned up and seaworthy, we steamed to Subic Bay where the Change of Command ceremony was conducted,
I’m waiting for these scenarios to appear in upcoming sci fi space novels.
Umm, some of the same navigation lines used by our ICBM’s to get to their target... Would hate to ‘send off a nuke’ to Pyongyang and have it hit San Francisco...
“On 22 June, the US Maritime Administration filed a seemingly bland incident report. The master of a ship off the Russian port of Novorossiysk had discovered his GPS put him in the wrong spot – more than 32 kilometres inland, at Gelendzhik Airport.”
“After checking the navigation equipment was working properly, the captain contacted other nearby ships. Their AIS traces – signals from the automatic identification system used to track vessels – placed them all at the same airport. At least 20 ships were affected.”
In other words, is this an external issue, jamming, spoofing or overriding the GPS signals, or is it a systematic internal issue, where the GPS receivers themselves have malware that deliberately offsets them from Russian (and presumably Chinese?) military targets by 50 km?
Is it factory installed malware or a field update?
Is it software or firmware in Chinese manufactured GPS chips?
Can the "correction" be adjusted 'on the fly' by a mobile target, like a ship?
Diversity...
...don’t make it harder than it is.
Viet:
wow, good example and story. curious on what action was taken to avoid the fishing vessel since its location was known well in advance?
Note the city this original ‘exception’ happened near ... formerly a Russian ‘secret city’... major skunkworks stuff. (If I've got the right city - not a hundred percent sure...)
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.