Welcome to MSW’s Scuttlebutt! Here’s the news for the day.



On Display - French Battleship Jean Bart

MSW crew-mate Kostas Katseas (angeleyes) shares his 1/700 build of Trumpeter Models 1/700 scale French Battleship Jean Bart in this “On Display” feature.




Scorpene Submarine KD Tun Razak Leaves France for Malaysia
Source: DCNS

KD Tun Razak, the second of two Scorpene-type submarines for the Royal Malaysian Navy, leaved Toulon, France, on Friday 30 April 2010, for the port of Lumut in Malaysia before going on to its base at Kota Kinabalu on Borneo island.

The crossing from Toulon to Lumut is expected to take about two months and will include several ports of call.

Following the two-month crossing, KD Tun Razak will undergo scheduled maintenance in Malaysia and tropical climate sea trials.

The contract between the Malaysian government and DCNS for two Scorpene submarines and associated logistics and training was signed in June 2002.

With a displacement of 1,550 tonnes for a length overall of 67.5 metres, each boat requires a crew of just 31 and offers an endurance of 45 days.

This program demonstrates DCNS's know-how as a leading prime contractor for sophisticated warship programs. With ten units ordered (two for Chile, two for Malaysia and six for India), Scorpene is an international benchmark in SSK design.

The Scorpene was designed by DCNS and developed jointly by DCNS and Spanish naval shipbuilder Navantia. The design features a range of advanced technologies - particularly in hydrodynamics, acoustic discretion and automation - drawing on state-of-the-art innovations developed for other submarine programs.




Orbital Selected by Naval Research Laboratory for $95 Million Technical Services Contract
Source: Orbital Sciences Corporation

DULLES, Va. --- Orbital Sciences Corporation announced today that it has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for a spacecraft and airborne system support services contract valued at approximately $95 million over a five-year period. The contract was won in a competitive process by Orbital’s Technical Services Division (TSD), which is part of the company’s Space Systems Group. The NRL contract calls for Orbital technical personnel to conduct prototype spacecraft and airborne system and subsystem research, analysis and development, as well as integration, testing, and data processing and documentation activities.

Orbital has previously supported numerous NRL aerospace programs, including Microwave Imager Sounder (MIS), Tactical Microsatellite Experiments (TacSat-1, TacSat-2, TacSat-4), Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager (SSULI), Upper Stage, Materials International Space Station Experiment (MISSE-5, MISSE-7), Sun Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI), Spacecraft for the Universal Modification of Orbits (SUMO), Microelectronics and Photonics Test Bed (MPTB), WindSat, Interim Control Module (ICM), Low-Power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE), and Deep Space Program Science Experiment (DSPSE).

“This new contract marks the fourth time over the past 23 years that NRL has chosen Orbital as a supplier of technical support services,” said Mr. John L. Pullen, Vice President of Orbital’s Technical Services Division. “NRL has been a valued customer and we very much appreciate their continued confidence in our team. We are committed to strengthening our already highly successful relationship well into the future.”

Orbital’s TSD, based in Greenbelt, MD, provides space-related engineering, manufacturing and management support to U.S. Government agencies, typically supplying engineers, scientists, technicians and other professionals to work side-by-side with a customer’s technical staff. Other major TSD customers include various NASA centers such as Goddard Space Flight Center, Ames Research Center and Johnson Space Center, as well as the U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.




The First USS Enterprise

Today’s website is history of the First USS Enterprise. Enjoy.


This Day in U.S. Naval History

1775 - Benedict Arnold captures British sloop and renames her Enterprise, first of many famous ships with that name.
1798 - Appointment of Benjamin Stoddert as first Secretary of the Navy.
1969 - Launch of Apollo 10, dress rehearsal for first lunar landing mission. Navy Cmdr. John W. Young was the command module pilot and Navy Cmdr. Eugene A. Cernan was the lunar module pilot.


Photo of the Day



Styrsö Class Mine Countermeasures Vessel, Sweden

Gator