NEAT! Sinking an Oliver-Hazard Perry Class Frigate

"HammerheadFistpunch" (hammerheadfistpunch)
07/19/2016 at 11:59 • Filed to: boatlopnik

“Just keep hitting it with missiles and Torpedoes until it sinks” is a way cooler name of an operation than “sinkex” btw.

Man those missile hits are neat and all but...those Torpedoes and their hydraulic multiplication!

“Thach absorbed an enormous amount of punishment, starting with a Harpoon missile launched by a South Korean submarine, the ROKS Lee Eokgi. Next, the Australian frigate HMAS Ballarat launched another Harpoon, and an Australian SH-60S helicopter shot it with a Hellfire missile. U.S. maritime patrol aircraft then hit it with Harpoon and Maverick missiles. But Thach wasn’t done. The cruiser USS Princeton hit it with yet another Harpoon missile, and an American SH-60S Navy chopper hit it with more Hellfires. US Navy F/A-18 Hornets lobbed a 2,000 pound Mk. 84 bomb at it, and a US Air Force B-52 bomber dropped a GBU-12 Paveway laser guided 500 pound bomb on it. A U.S. Navy submarine got into the action, striking it with a Mk. 48 torpedo. Thach was hit with nearly five thousand pounds of high explosive, plus unspent rocket fuel and yet held out for nearly 12 hours. How did it survive so long? Good warship design, which has improved considerably since the days of World War II. “

I give this...2 days until its [ex]Sploided...until then, enjoy.

DISCUSSION (19)

Rico > HammerheadFistpunch
07/19/2016 at 12:05

Maybe I’m just ignorant but is this honestly the best way to dispose of something like this? None of that material could ever be reused or repurposed in any way?

HammerheadFistpunch > Rico
07/19/2016 at 12:10

Think of it like crash testing a car, its important to understand the fundamental strengths and weakness of design and the effectiveness of weapons systems. It doesn’t happen nearly as often as simply scrapping and recycling ships or turning them into artificial shallow water reefs.

jariten1781 > Rico
07/19/2016 at 12:15

It gets a full tear down ahead of time...they’re not pulling it directly from service with all its systems in tact. It also provides incredibly valuable data on weapons effects and survivability which are collected and implemented in future designs. I’ll take some end to end weapons data (plus the crew exercise and the joint force exercise value) over the scrap value any day.

lone_liberal > HammerheadFistpunch
07/19/2016 at 12:24

I’m assuming that wasn’t loaded with fuel and ammo so secondary explosions weren’t a factor. I’m sure they were monitoring those storage spaces for damage so they could extrapolate what would have happened with the damage inflicted but I’m guessing that’s a part of why it stayed afloat for so long.

HammerheadFistpunch > lone_liberal
07/19/2016 at 12:27

yeah, and as “On my birthday...” pointed out, staying afloat isn’t a representation of combat effectiveness or crew survivability.

lone_liberal > HammerheadFistpunch
07/19/2016 at 12:30

Yeah, I when I was watching it I was wondering why they were punching holes above the waterline then I realized where they hit it would kill a lot of personnel and cripple the combat effectiveness.

HammerheadFistpunch > lone_liberal
07/19/2016 at 12:32

The first hit I was all “that’s it?!” then they zoomed in on the hole it made and I was all “oh, right...its the stuff inside that matters”

Rico > HammerheadFistpunch
07/19/2016 at 13:05

Ahh gotcha!

Rico > jariten1781
07/19/2016 at 13:05

Okay see I didn’t think of it in those terms, I thought “damn this thing is huge, where are we going to put it? I dunno just sink the damn thing!”.

jariten1781 > Rico
07/19/2016 at 15:13

I’m a weapon systems engineer and a former naval officer. If I were emperor I’d run these type of real world tests with every hull that was retired. From the engineer side, real data is so much more insightful than simulated or scale model data (and it makes your simulations better every single time you run a real-world, tactically equivelant test). From the operational side I get to exercise my crew and my systems in a real environment and every single second of that is worth hours running drills. The sound, pressure waves, and everything else just can’t be replicated and I don’t want people taking a moment to collect themselves in a real life and death situation; they need to be used to it. Sadly, SINKEXs take a lot of time and coordination (not to mention dollars and inventory) on assets that are already streched so we don’t end up running them as often as we would with infinite money and material. Most ships end up going to the boneyard and sold by the ton to scrappers.

Rico > jariten1781
07/19/2016 at 15:23

That’s awesome and thank you for your service. I didn’t think of it in that capacity but I can see how useful it truly is.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > HammerheadFistpunch
07/19/2016 at 16:46

The Perry class were fantastic ships, I have no freaking clue why they were abandoned for the stupid LCS. Also, I work for the company that designed the Perrys, as well as the Burke’s and the Freedom class LCS.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jariten1781
07/19/2016 at 16:50

Do you mind if I ask who you work for as a weapons systems engineer? I’m a former enlisted sailor, now with an engineering degree, and working as a naval engineer for the company that designed the Burke, Perry, Freedom class LCS, and others. I like it well enough but would love to move over to the weapons systems side of things. Any advice?

HammerheadFistpunch > Snuze: Needs another Swede
07/19/2016 at 16:53

You would probably be better suited to answer some of the questions in here. I know the Perry are considered tough and reliable but beyond that I don’t know much about them.

jariten1781 > Snuze: Needs another Swede
07/19/2016 at 16:54

Send me a note (username without numbers @ gmail). Don’t like putting too much out on this alias :p

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jariten1781
07/19/2016 at 16:57

Got it, will do. Thanks!

Snuze: Needs another Swede > HammerheadFistpunch
07/19/2016 at 17:00

I’ll see what I can answer. The Perry’s were long before my time here, but we still have pictures of them all over the office. They were incredibly well designed ships, and very tough, especially for their size.

And I know why they got rid of them in favor of LCS, but it was still a stupid decision.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > Rico
07/19/2016 at 17:03

Everyone is pretty much right on, this sort of testing is invaluable because unlike car manufacturing, its not economically feasible to build a test ship to sink first before building a ship design. I work for a ship designer (the designer of this particular class of ship, in fact) and we do this kind of testing to see what works and what doesn’t and we incorporate into future designs.

Also, these ships usually go on to become reefs or some sort of marine habitat. And they’ve had all their fuel and fluids drained, electronics removed, etc. so it’s not like we’re putting all sorts of toxic chemicals into the ocean.

Rico > Snuze: Needs another Swede
07/20/2016 at 10:04

That’s some great insight, thanks for that.