Ahoy mates and welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Let’s see what going on today.
MSW News Desk Side Swiped by Tropical Storm Edouard
Really, it’s not as bad as it sounds. We got some rain and a little wind, but everything here is business as usual.
Reference Site Reminder
Just a reminder to all of our crewmates, if you haven’t looked at these fine reference links, you need to check them out.
U-995 Type VIIC/41 Walk Around
Maritime Memorial
Mike Ashey’s NEW Reference Site
New Flight Deck Decals from Shinsengumi
Hitting the Asian market yesterday, aftermarket manufacturer Shinsengumi is now offering three different IJN flight deck decals. Available in three different wood colors, theses decals will retail for $13.20USD.
1/700 General-purpose Carrier Deck Decal – Brighten
1/700 General-purpose Carrier Deck Decal - Darken
1/700 General-purpose Carrier Deck Decal - Fading
Colorized Imperial Japanese Navy Photos
For all those fans of the Imperial Japanese Navy, here is a website with 155 pages of colorized photos of different ships.
IJN Photos
This Day in U.S. Naval History
1832 - Frigate Potomac is first U.S. Navy ship to entertain royalty, King and Queen of Sandwich Islands, Honolulu.
1864 - Rear Admiral David Farragut wins Battle of Mobile Bay, sealing off last Confederate port on Gulf Coast.
1882 - Authorizing of first steel warships, beginning of the modern Navy.
1915 - First air spotting for shore batteries at Fort Monroe, Va.
1921 - Yangtze River Patrol Force established as command under Asiatic Fleet.
1953 - Exchange of prisoners of war of Korean Conflict (Operation Big Switch) begins.
1967 - Operation Coronado III begins in Rung Sat Zone, Vietnam.
1990 - Navy and Marine Task Force -- USS Saipan (LHA 2), USS Ponce (LPD 15) and USS Sumter (APA 52) -- begin evacuation of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals from Liberia during civil war.
Fincantieri Wins Order to Build Two New Submarines for the Italian Navy
Fincantieri will build a second pair of “Todaro” class Type U212A submarines. The order was awarded by NAVARM (Italy’s directorate-general for naval armament) for the Italian Navy.
The cooperation programme developed together with the German Submarine Consortium has resulted, in recent years, in the construction of two vessels for Italy – the “Todaro” and the “Scirè”, delivered by Fincantieri in 2006 and 2007 respectively – and four for Germany.
In recent weeks the “Todaro”, which sailed on 24 May from Taranto naval base, is undergoing an intensive training programme with the US Navy within NATO manoeuvres and, after stopping in Mayport (Florida) in July and today in Norfolk (Virginia), will be in New York in mid-October for the “Columbus Day” celebrations.
The construction of the two new submarines will start in 2010, with deliveries scheduled for 2015 and 2016. The two new buildings will replace, within the Navy’s fleet, submarines “Prini” and “Pelosi” (“Sauro” class – third batch), built in the Monfalcone shipyard at the end of the 1980s.
The two submarines will have a surface displacement of 1,450 tons, an overall length of 56 meters, a maximum diameter of 7 meters, a crew of 24, and will be able to reach a submerged speed of 20 knots.
The two submarines will feature highly innovative technological solutions and will be entirely built employing amagnetic materials, applying the latest silencing devices in order to reduce their acoustic signature. They will employ a silent propulsion system based on fuel cell technology, producing energy through an oxygen-hydrogen reaction independently from external oxygen, ensuring a submerged range three to four times higher than the conventional battery-based systems.
They will also feature a fully integrated electro-acoustic and weapon-control system, and a modern platform automation system.
Commenting the award, Fincantieri’s Managing Director Giuseppe Bono said: “We are particularly satisfied, as the prosecution of this programme guarantees to our company the maintenance of the know-how developed in a century of activity in such a highly technological sector”.
“This order,” Bono concluded, “testifies the results that may be achieved through the collaboration of the Defence authorities with the national industry when the nation requires highly effective operational means to act within the complex political international scenario. Besides, it consolidates the role of Fincantieri as a major player operating in all the most important European initiatives in the naval defence sector.”
Photo of the Day
An E-2C Hawkeye assigned to Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron (VAQ)115 lands aboard the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63).
Gator
