Recent content by RC

Don't get your hopes up on that.  Given how far the Berlin class is from meeting the requirements, they will likely attempt to modify it, not to mention that the regulatory regime under which it was built is long out of date.  In my experience, it's quicker, cheaper, and easier to start from a...

Kirkhill, i'm no expert in military manning either, but my understanding of the difference is that the navy has two fundamental requirements that civvy ships don't have: One is that everything works as intended all the time.  On a merchant ship you do failure mode analysis and build...

Hopefully my comments did not come off as anything more than idle speculation as that's all that they are.  I find it presumptuous of you to assume that they are in any way sour grapes.  I do have an interest in AOPS, but it is finished now and my comments derive from the fact that I would...

It is worth noting that the $2B price tag for the JSS did not come from the shipyard and there were... inconsistencies in the PBO's approach to pricing a ship.  I price ships for a living and I would be very surprised if the JSS cost this much. That said, I will make no such comment with...

*Danish frigates If I was Irving, I'd be a bit wary of taking advice on cost savings measures from ex-members of a shipyard that went out of business.  The Danish frigates were the last thing they ever built.  The vast majority of what they built were tankers, bulkers, and containerships.  It...

Btw, Tim is not at all a fan of NSPS, and I disagree with his stance (I find it a bit hypocritical given how stringently he defends the Jones Act), but we are sure giving him fuel.

I would like to comment Kirkhill, but I don't even know what to say.  I guess we need to pay Irving to learn to build a ship and Odense (container ship designers) to learn to design an OPV.  It's ridiculous. The mockery has already begun: http://www.coltoncompany.com/

If I was an estimator at Seaspan, I would be looking at the PBO report and this contract with Irving and scratching my head saying "Did I miss a zero?  Why is my number so much less than these other guys?" Bad, bad news on both fronts.

I believe I read somewhere that this is not permitted under the NSPS umbrella agreement.  They do need to upgrade infrastructure, but they are required to amortize it over the program, not feed it into a single design contract. On the other coast, Seaspan, who I don't believe are in any better...

A few clarifications on the last couple of posts: STX Canada Marine is about 65 people and is an independent ship design consultant based in Canada.  It is Korean owned, but has no real ties to Korea beyond ownership.  The company has just under 20 OPV designs operating worldwide. About 95% of...

The OFSV functional/detailed design contract starts a week on Monday.  The announcement wasn't widely reported and was kind of confusing, but that's what is happening.  Several ancillary contracts for JSS and Polar were contracted at the same time, which slightly confused the issue.

The AOPS performance in ice is relatively well suited to the mission profile.  We didn't make that many sacrifices in the ice-breaking performance.  Most of the sacrifices were made in the open water performance.  Redesigned, to "go into the Arctic properly", not very much would change.  The...

The AOPS will do 17 knots and break 1m of level first year ice.  The speed is in line with the ice capability and the ice capability is about halfway between a light and medium CCG breaker.  If that makes it a "slush-breaker" then the majority of Canada's Arctic fleet are slush-breakers...  As...

I can agree with that.  They have an inherent flexibility that will make them capable for a lot of missions and they could be adapted for many more. I actually think you could fit an LCVP on the aft deck.  You just wouldn't be able to pull the truck out of the garage or do Mediterranean mooring...

I would challenge you on most of the limitations mentioned if you are comparing AOPS directly to the BMT concept.  Helo-ops: I see very little chance the BMT Venator would be able to land a CH-149 (much less a CH-147) on that deck (it looks like a 6T deck and the spec mentions light helos)...