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U. S. Seeking Costs, Designs On Nuclear-Powered Merchant Ships
(Joseph S. Helewicz in The Baltimore Sun, 3 April 1974)
With an eye on the soaring costs of fossil fuels, the federal government will be turning to the nation’s shipbuilding industry this month in hopes of finding a builder of an economically viable nuclear-powered merchant ship.
Robert J. Blackwell, the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Maritime Affairs, said in an interview yesterday that the Martime Administration may solicit shipyard proposals as early as next week, searching not only for basic designs and cost projections, but for the most likely yard to qualify as a candidate under the government’s subsidized shipbuilding program.
Although no target date has been set for placing a nuclear-powered merchant ship in service under the American flag, Mr. Blackwell estimated yesterday that "at the earliest” a vessel could be ready in 1980.
The Maritime Administration appears to be open for proposals for adapting nuclear power to any type of merchant vessel, high-speed containerships or large bulk carriers. But Mr. Blackwell indicated that his agency will be leaning favorably toward very large crude oil carriers in the 400,000-ton range.
Maritime Administration cost projections for the construction of a nuclear- powered ship in that range are "mushy,” Mr. Blackwell said, declining to estimate a price tag. "What we need from the industry are realistic figures,” he added.
One marine engineering firm, Energy Corporation of America, already has compiled figures estimating the construction cost of a 415,000-ton tanker at about $171 million.
Last year, the New York-based firm filed an application for a whopping federal construction subsidy with the Maritime Administration, requesting assistance to build 12 nuclear-powered tankers in the 400,000-ton class.
The application, which has not been acted on, came as the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee was holding hearings on legislation that would authorize the government to lend ship operators the difference between the construction cost of a nuclear tanker and a comparable vessel running on oil.
The Maritime Administration apparently is turned off by the idea of giving any special federal assistance to nuclear ship construction, such as was implied by the proposed legislation, and by the Energy Corporation proposal, which likely would have called for federal subsidy in excess of the 39 per cent cost limit which the agency applies to conventionally powered ships.
"We want some basis where special funding would not be required,” Mr. Blackwell said yesterday in what he expects in the industry’s forthcoming proposals.
Although the Maritime Administration has an ongoing nuclear power program, the agency’s upcoming move appears to be leading to its boldest steps since the construction of the N. S. Savannah, the world’s first nuclear- powered merchant ship.
Butte, Montana: Inland Port City Without Ships,
Harbors or Rivers
(James P. Sterba in The New York Times, 27 March 1974)
Rodney Hanson is director of the United States Customs office for the Port of Butte, Mont., and he announces this with a smile.
"It does seem kind of funny doesn’t it,” he chuckled. "There’s not all that much ocean around here.”
In fact, Butte does not even have a river. It does not have a Navy; sea gulls would detest the place, and the only sharks in town deal cards. But that did not stop the city fathers from deciding two years ago to turn Butte into a port city—the first of its kind in the country.
United States Customs ports of entry are scattered all over the country, at coastal seaports and at international airports. But this is the only port in the country that is, well, almost nowhere.
Its specialty is containerized shipping and its virtue is that imports can arrive by truck or rail under bond, be cleared through customs and distributed—fast.
"This concept will eventually take over the whole containerized freight business,” said James Hodge, the Port of Butte’s executive director. "Three or four other inland cities are already developing their own but we were the first.”
The port consists of a warehouse with 85,000 square feet of storage area, truck docks and a railroad spur. The idea was to provide a place where importers in the Midwest and the mountain regions
could get around the congestion and delays at the Port of Seattle.
Instead of clearing customs and unloading goods for transshipment there, the containers are simply sealed by customs officers, and loaded on trains and trucks bound for Butte. In many cases, over-all freight costs per ton are less than they would be clearing and shipping from Seattle, Mr. Hodge said.
But why Butte? After all, Butte has been known for decades as more or less of a hole, literally. Butte does not have a town square, it has a town hole—the Anaconda Copper Company’s Berkeley pit, which is now more than a mile across, 1,200 feet deep, and swallowing up parts of the downtown area.
Butte had about 90,000 people in it at the turn of the century, but its population now has shrunk to about 25,000, and that’s the problem.
Copper mining is still going strong, but machines have replaced men. And as men and their families pulled out or went on relief, Butte itself faced death. Its economic base had to be broadened,
so the city set up an industrial park far enough away from the copper mine so that it would be in no danger of being swallowed up.
Then, with a grant from the Federal Model Cities program, some land from the city, a municipal loan and a local bank loan, the Port of Butte was set up as an autonomous public corporation. Total cost was about $1.2-million and it opened for business last April 25.
A key factor is that Butte is a railroad and highway junction, and thus considered to be a good transshipment point for the region.
At the same time, proponents argued in gaining Federal approval that a port of entry at Butte would relieve some of the congestion in Seattle, 550 miles to the west, where wharf and warehouse space are at a premium.
So far, nearly 400 international containers have come through the Port of Butte. Mr. Hodge also drums up domestic shipping business.
The first shipment he cleared through customs here was 806 cartons of Taiwan
fireworks, Mr. Hanson said. The biggest port customer is Kawasaki Motorcycles. For air freight, one of the two men can drive two miles down the highway to the airport.
U. S. Vessel Launchings At Highest Since 1921
(Craig Howard in The Journal of Commerce, 27 February 1974)
American shipbuilders launched more vessels in 1973 than in any peacetime year since 1921, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping has revealed.
According to the classification society, in its annual summary of merchant ship launchings, United States output amounted to 889,696 tons gross, an increase of 278,382 tons on 1972 "indicating the continuing revival in the country’s (shipbuilding) industry.”
Of this, oil tankers totaled 363,274 tons and general cargo vessels 296,611 tons. The latter category included five lighter carriers totaling 161,609 tons, five containerships totaling 105,854 tons, and two Ro-Ro vessels each of 15,257 tons.
But, noted Lloyd’s, only 12,076 tons was for export.
However, for all the effort put into it, the U. S. shipbuilding industry still has some way to go to achieve a major ranking in the world. At the end of the year, it was lying in tenth position.
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Disposition Plan Aired For Mariner-Class Ships
{The Journal of Commerce, 27 February 1974)
A plan to allow owners of the Korean war-built Mariner-class breakbulk ships to turn in these aging vessels and obtain new tonnage has been unveiled in legislation now before the House Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee.
Since the ships were built for the
Overall world launchings amounted to 31,520,373 tons, 4.8 million tons more than in 1972 and the eighth all time high in succession. The figures, as for the previous years, did not include the People’s Republic of China, Romania, and the Soviet Union, for which returns were not available.
government and operated with subsidy and are still within their economic lives, can’t readily be disposed of abroad "here they likely would bring higher I prices.
The plan would be simply to allow rheir owners to turn them in to the government. In return, the operators Would receive the equivalent in value of government-owned reserve fleet ships scheduled for scrapping.
The operator could then dispose of rhe older vessels and the government would wind up with 13,400 deadweight 20-knot breakbulk ships with which to upgrade the reserve fleet.
Thirty-five Mariners were built under 1951 legislation. Five were turned over to the Navy and 30 sold to private companies. Two of the 30 have been lost and two were sold foreign, one for scrapping and one for operation. That leaves 26.
Should the value of the to-be- ! scrapped vessels exceed those of the Mariners traded in, the operators would be required to pay the government the excess in cash at the time of the transaction.
The present book value of the Mariners is $78 million. All 26 are expected co be turned in if the legislation is passed.
James J. Reynolds, president of the American Institute of Merchant Shipping (AIMS), explained the need for aPproval of the legislation, saying that | the vessels had become unsuitable now
AMERICAN PRESIDENT LINES
that containerization has swept the major trades.
As a consequence, he said, the Mariners "represent a serious financial burden to the companies owning them,” but due to their size, speed and younger age "would undoubtedly be an asset to the government.”
Soviets Display Trends In Ship Identification and Refitting
:
:
NEW YORK LONDON
Originally named the Old Dominion Mariner, the President Hayes is one of 26 Mariner-class merchant ships which would join the government’s reserve fleet under proposed legislation.
121
{Aviazone e Marina, November 1973) Among the changes noted on ships participating in the 29 July 1973 Navy Day celebration in the port of Sevastopol was the appearance of the names of two ships, the helicopter carrier Moskva and the Kotlin Sam-class guided missile destroyer Soznatelnyy, on their stern. The Soviets only recently adopted the practice of showing a ship’s name as well as her pennant number (which can vary, for a number of reasons), and this makes positive identification of Soviet ships finally possible. Another significant change noted was the installation amidships on the Soznatelnyy of four 30-mm twin AA gun mounts (two at the ship’s sides, slightly abaft the tapered tower that supports the missile fire- control radar). This confirms a trend that has already been observed for some time: the refitting of numerous ships, even modern ones, with rapid-fire light weapons for use alongside pre-existing larger-caliber guns or missile systems.
Similarly, at least three ships of the Sverdlov class (the Zhdanov, the Admiral Senyavin, and one other) are known to have undergone modifications at Niko- layev shipyards, but that was as part of their general conversion to command ships. The work entailed the removal of the after raised 152-mm gun turret; the replacement of that turret with an extensive armored enclosure to house operations rooms, additional living spaces, and command and communications rooms; and the installation of a short- range SA-N-4 missile system and four 30-mm twin AA gun mounts on the superstructure, level with the forward smokestack.
Nuclear-Powered Icebreaker Lenin Improves Plant
(Morskoy Sbomik, No. 9, 1973)
The flagship of the Soviet icebreaker fleet has a high power-to-weight ratio— she develops 2.75 hp per ton displacement. The ship has proven its good seakeeping qualities and maneuverability
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in many years of service. The introduction of this ship into service has made it possible for merchant ships to teach the more difficult areas of the northern sea route. After six navigational seasons, a new steam-producing plant, possessing better engineering, economic and operational parameters, was installed in her. The plant is in the form of two self- contained units, each of which has a pressurized water-water-type reactor, four steam generators, circulating pumps, and auxiliary equipment. The reliable and stable operation of the reactors in any situation during navigation in ice made it possible to reduce the number of reactors to two. The maintainability of the new plant has been considerably improved. The total power at the flanges of the main turbogenerator remained unchanged- 44,000 hp. The length of operation of the Lenin at full power without recharging the rods is 11,000 to 16,000 hours. The Lenin's screw propellers develop 39,200 hp; it has a displacement of 17,280 tons, and a speed of 18 knots in clear water. Other parameters include: length, 134.0 m; beam, 27.6 m; draft, 9.6 m; endurance, 12 months; and complement, 151 men.
Icebreaker Artika Under Construction
Kaman’s SH-2F-LAMPS for Electronic Warfare
(Vodnyy Transport, 25 October 1973)
Bristling with electronics for her two primary roles, Anti-Submarine Warfare and Anti-Ship Missile Defense, Kaman’s SH-2F Seasprite can also handle other missions. Electronic surveillance. Gunfire support. Amphibious assault support. Communications relay.
LAMPS means Light Airborne Multi-Purpose System, and multipurpose it is. In addition to its electronic roles, it serves frigates, destroyers and escorts in vertical replenishment, courier and personnel transfer, medical evacuation, search and rescue. And it has a capability for the future as an air-to-surface missile launching platform.
Multi-mission, multi-capable, SH-2F is an all-weather, day/night, overwater and over-the-horizon extension of the “small boy’s" power. That's why she has been called “the most versatile new weapons system added to the destroyer fleet in the past ten years," pound for pound the most potent helicopter in the business.
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U. S. Naval Institute Proceedings. June 1974
The most powerful icebreaker in the world, the Artika, is being built in Leningrad. Employing a method of constructing different parts of the ship at the same time, the shipbuilders gained a whole six months: while they were preparing the hull for launching in r^e building slip, not far away on shore the deck superstructure was being assembled.
Yet even the gigantic floating crane with a boom height of 114 meters proved to be powerless to lift the gig30- tic superstructure from the ground and set it on the deck. An additional crane was employed to help it.
The steel giant is now at the Serg° Ordzhonikidze Baltic Shipyard. Fitting' out work is in full swing.
Thousands of components and p-irt' must be installed and hundreds of kil° meters of piping and 600 kilometers 0
Notebook 123
electric cable must be laid in the hull of the nuclear-powered ship, which is 140 m long and has a beam of more than 30 m.
The heart of the ship, the nuclear- propulsion plant, will be mounted in the central compartment, an armored "safe” as high as a ten-story building. One kilogram of nuclear fuel yields as much energy as two thousand tons of liquid fuel. The cruising range of the Artika will be practically unlimited.
There is much that is fundamentally new in the icebreaker’s design. Thus, the nuclear-reactor unit can be easily replaced without dismantling the superstructure. The ship’s equipment is fully automated, and even the temperature of the engine’s bearings is monitored by automatic equipment.
There are more than 1,000 different spaces aboard the ship. The living conditions of the crew are a subject of special concern for the designers and shipbuilders. Comfortable cabins, clubs, a library, a music saloon, a movie theater, sports areas, and an indoor swimming pool take care of this.
The concept of the ship’s future work is in her name. The mastery of the Arctic long ago became an important national economic problem. Gas and oil, timber and diamonds—these riches of the North and Siberia are constantly requiring an expansion of the scale of polar navigation. However, the northern seas are covered with an armor of ice a great part of the year.
Fourteen years ago, construction of the world’s first nuclear-powered icebreaker, the Lenin, was completed. It has played an important role in the mastery of the far North. The new ship being built by the Leningraders is half again more powerful than the first nuclear-powered ship.
Soviet Communications Center Aids Indian Ocean Operations
(Aviazone e Marina, July-August 1973) The Soviets have completed construction of a long-range radio communications station in Somalia, through which they will be able to control and guide the movements of all their ships *n transit through or on station in the Indian Ocean, according to an Italian
naval journal, quoting an American source. The number of Soviet technicians and military in Somalia has risen to around 2,500.
Montreux Convention To Apply To Kiev?
(Air et Cosmos, No. 501, 1973)
The question of whether a Soviet 45,000-ton aircraft carrier (the Kiev) will be allowed to pass through the Dardanelles is arising for the first time. The Montreux Convention of July 1936, signed by France, Great Britain, Turkey, and the Soviet Union, theoretically limited the tonnage of warships permitted to enter the Bosporus and the Dardanelles to 10,000 tons, while allowing the Turkish government to exercise some judgment, at least with respect to larger units belonging to the littoral countries. Yet if the new Soviet carrier being built in the Black Sea shipyards is authorized to transit the straits to enter the Mediterranean, what is to prevent units of the U. S. Sixth Fleet from departing the Mediterranean to cruise in the Black Sea?
Soviet Airedale Misses Roadwork
(Senior Lieutenant-Engineer V.
Grechok in Krasnaya Zvezda,
7 October 1973)
For many months I have been querying all of the naval offices. The essence of my "purgatory” consists of the following. Two years ago I was graduated from an institute, and received a diploma as a highway construction and operation engineer. I worked in my field. Last fall, already being a reserve officer, I was called up into the armed forces and assigned to the Red Banner Baltic Fleet. I assumed that the personnel department would note my diploma and take into account my personal desire to be used in some sort of construction unit. However, this isn’t what happened. Personnel, for some reason, attached significance to the fact that during my service time when I was drafted, I was an aircraft electronics mechanic. This took priority, and they made me an aviation electronic automated equip
ment technician. Thoroughly acknowledging my professional incompetence in the aircraft field, I immediately sent a request to the unit commander for permission to transfer to a construction unit. Three months later, I saw the reply "Denied” on the request. My second request was also denied. Yet time marches on. What should I do? Knock on the orderly room door again? Moreover, I am developing the reputation of someone looking for a "soft spot,” although everybody knows that military road construction workers do not work under easy conditions at all.
G.A.O. Sees Still Higher Costs On Destroyers Litton Is Building
(Richard Witkin in The New York Times, 8 April 1974)
"Additional cost increases are likely” in Litton Industries’ multibillion-dollar destroyer program, largely because of labor problems for which no solution is in sight, according to a report from the General Accounting Office.
The report, made public yesterday by Representative Les Aspin, also criticized the Navy for not including in program costs as much as $500-million in weapons and other systems the G.A.O. said it believed would eventually be needed on the ships. The G.A.O. monitors the nation’s budget for Congress.
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Mr. Aspin, a Democrat from Wisconsin, called on the Navy to cancel the last seven ships, and perhaps more, in the 30-ship program. Those vessels, as well as five amphibious-assault ships that are more than two years behind schedule and far above cost estimates, are being built at Litton’s highly automated yard in Pascagoula, Miss.
A Litton spokesman acknowledged that labor problems and shortages would continue to increase total costs for the new DD-963 class destroyers. But he said labor difficulties were being en-
countered everywhere in the ship-building industry.
As for the proposal to cancel some destroyers, the Litton spokesman said: "If the country needs these destroyers, there’s no way to get them as cheaply as we’re getting them now. There’s no way to cancel ours and get them later from another yard at anything like the same price.”
The Navy issued a statement contending that there was no way to put a dollar figure on costs of future systems for the destroyers and that it would be "impractical and poor management practice” to allow for them in current budgets.
Mr. Aspin, who has been the most persistent critic of Litton’s ship-building projects, said:
"Careful reading of the G.A.O.’s analysis discloses that Litton is trying to build too many ships at one time. The shipyard is crowded, undermanned and completely fouled up. The shipyard workload must be reduced. The only way to do that is to reduce the number of destroyers to be built.”
Mr. Aspin noted that cancellation of seven DD-963’s now would exact a cancellation fee of only $152,000—"much less,” he said, "than the probable cost overruns.”
Improved MiG-21 Fishbed
(Soldat und Technik, September 1973) An improved MiG-21 Fishbed is being constructed in the Soviet Union. A special warning radar has been installed in the rear section. The MiG-21 is becoming more and more the backbone of the Air Force of the Warsaw Pact countries. In the older version of the MiG-21, the pilots were hard put to detect an attack from the rear in time. With
the re-equipment, the MiG-21 has become a more solid aircraft and the experience gained in Vietnam has been utilized.
Moscow Unveils New "Explosive Cloud”
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Amputee Remains In Navy ,
(Associated Press, 29 March 1974)
Lt. Cmdr. Barron Nelson, 32, had his ^ right leg sliced off below the knee by a boat propeller on a Vietnam beach in 1969.
After being fitted with an artificial limb, he fought the Navy’s age-old rule forcing amputees to leave the services— and won. s
Commander Nelson beseiged Navy officials, including Adm. Elmo R ,
Zumwalt, Jr., and John W. Warner, the ^
Navy secretary, with letters, telephone calls and documents from doctors at- j testing to his recovery and his job pen j
formance. ^
Admiral Zumwalt, who had been |
(Soldat und Technik, November 1973) A new weapon—an "explosive cloud”—has been developed by the State Institute for Chemical Physics in MoS- cow, according to reliable American sources. Great strides have been achieved with tests of this weapon, according to these sources. The weapon consists of a flammable material which remains o' the air for a long time and can be made to explode through detonation. In this way shock waves of devastating strength can be released over certain areas causing severe damage to personnel and materiel- Moreover, land and sea minefields can be detonated by means of this shock wave.
considering a plan to let amputees return to full service after a year of limited duty, put it into effect in 1971.
Changes in Status of Ships and Shore Establishments
Compiled by Commander J. B. Finkelstein, U. S. Navy 1-}1 March 1974
In May, 1972, Commander Nelson became skipper of the San Diego-based ocean tug Tawasa. He left last October after a four-month extension of the normal one-year command. Recently he was awarded the Navy Commendation Medal and is now flag secretary to the Pacific Fleet’s training commander.
United States To Purchase Soviet Volga Hydrofoils
(Ekonomicheskaya Gazeta, November 1973)
The United States has become the forty-fifth country to purchase Soviet Volga high-speed hydrofoils constructed by the Batumi Shipbuilding Yard. One hundred hydrofoils of this type will be delivered to the United States in 1974 according to the terms of the contract signed by the All-Union Combine SUDOIMPORT with the American company, American Beneficial.
Ships Stricken: Date:
31 Mar 1974
(atf-67) Apache 3/30/74
U. S. Navy Shore Establishment— Facilities Modified:
31 Mar 1974 31 Mar 1974
14 Mar 1974 Change Officer-in-Charge,
Naval Aviation Museum, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla. to Director,
31 Mar 1974
31 Mar 1974 31 Mar 1974 31 Mar 1974
125
Notebook
Naval Aviation Museum, Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Fla.
15 Mar 1974 Change Naval Develop
ment and Training Center, Naval Station, San Diego, Calif, to Naval Development and Training Center, San Diego/Fleet Maintenance Assistance Group Pacific, Naval Station, San Diego, Calif.
U. S. Navy Shore Establishment— Facilities Disestablished:
Human Resource Management Center Newport, Newport, R.I.
Naval Correspondence Course Center, Scotia, N.Y. Naval Station, Key West, Fla. (active to inactive to disestablishment following disposal of property)
Naval Station, Newport, R.I.
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A history of the Naval Reserve and *ts antecedents is being written by Caplin R. E. Stivers, USNR. Send contributions, leads, or inquiries to 5412 Huntington Pkwy, Bethesda, Md. 20014. Needed from 1870-1966 period are personal reminiscences and facts from diaries, letters, journals, obituaries, ^counts in magazines and newspapers °f the time, and interviews of old-timers °n cassette tape. Photocopies preferred.
The theme for the Sixth Military History Symposium, to be held at the Aif Force Academy on 10-11 October *974, is "The Military History of the American Revolution.” Four working sessions and a banquet address are scheduled.
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Progress
Dubbed "Super Hog" by its Marine Corps users, this new amphibious vehicle is the LVTP 7. The new Amtrac was designed and built for the Marines by FMC Corporation of San Jose, Calif The 26-foot, 20-ton vehicle was designed for service as a fast-moving amphibious assault craft capable of carrying 25 fully-equipped troops, plus a three-man crew. It can swim at 8 rn.p.h. or travel inland at more than 40 rn.p.h.
The Navy's new S-3A Viking successfully completed avionics/weapon system tests in March while flying from land bases and the deck of the USS Forrestal. During the trials, four full systems production aircraft and three development models (like the two pictured) completed 364 flights and 1,126 total hours. Vikings were tested against targets in the desert and against nuclear submarines and other underwater targets. The Navy has 101 of the planes on order and expects to purchase at least 86 more.
Fulfilling advance predictions, the Navy’s SES-100B Surface Effect Ship test craft set a new record for this type vessel on 16 April when it achieved a speed in excess of 80 knots. The 100-ton propeller-driven, air-supported craft was developed by the Bell Aerospace Division of Textron. The technical data being generated by the heavily-instrumented SES-100B are being used to validate predictions and design features to be incorporated into larger Surface Effect Ships in the 2,000-ton range.
Progress 127
A new tool in controlling major oil spills on the high seas is Lockheed’s experimental oil skimmer shown here being towed by a Coast Guard cutter.
In tests this March, the unit was towed at speeds to 10 knots in sea state five.
The machine’s oil recovery capability had been successfully tested last summer. With an effective oil-recovery device such as this, large quantities of spilled oil can be kept away from beaches and marine life.
The helicopter took yet another step in the direction of size and power with the recent initial flight of the giant new YCH-33E. The triple-turbine powered multi-mission helicopter was developed for the Navy and the Marine Corps by Sikorsky Aircraft. The 33E is capable of lifting a 16-ton external toad, more than twice as much as the twin-turbine CH-33D.
The Canadian Coast Guard’s Voyageur Air Cushion Vehicle is shown during icebreaking trials. Traveling at 15 knots, the 43-ton craft demonstrated the ability to break hard ice up to 13 inches thick. The Canadian Ministry of Transport considers the self-propelled Voyageur an unexpectedly effective icebreaker considering its size, horsepower, and gross weight.