Malfunctioning drone leaves hole in Navy ship

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Malfunctioning drone leaves hole in Navy ship
| November 19, 2013 | Updated: November 19, 2013 1:19pm

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A Navy official says a malfunctioning drone left a hole in a Navy guided missile cruiser and caused internal damage after it struck the ship during a weekend exercise off the Southern California coast.

Lt. Rick Chernitzer said officials examined the USS Chancellorsville on Monday, a day after it pulled into San Diego.

The ship was tracking the unmanned aircraft during radar testing Saturday off Point Mugu in Ventura County when it struck the Chancellorsville.

Two sailors were treated for minor burns.


Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Malfunctioning-drone-leaves-hole-in-Navy-ship-4993680.php

[msongs]

1. who ate the strawberries? nt

[Kelvin Mace]

2. Gosh, they didn't think that onethrough, did they

And what would the outcome have been if the drone and been carrying missiles?

[AtheistCrusader]

3. Anything from nothing, to a whole lotta oh shit.

I wonder if the sheer power of the phased array radar caused it to fritz out?

[Kelvin Mace]

4. Certainly possible

but this thing was either coming in at a really high rate of speed, or it had munitions on board. I mean, making a hole in a cruiser is not easy.

And if it is, we need to keelhaul the contractor who built it.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Oh, these are aerial target drones. They boogie.

Not that big of a hole. It's puckered in, maybe 3 square feet of damage. Not an armored part of the ship.

These aren't your average predator drone.

[Scuba]

5. Feeling safer yet?

[AtheistCrusader]

7. These aren't 'drones', they are target drones. Bascially cruise missiles, meant to be shot at.

I think we can call this test a 'miss' and a 'hit' at the same time.

[Scuba]

8. Every dollar we spend on the military makes us less secure.

I'd feel a lot safer if we had Medicare for All and increased Social Security benefits.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Excellent point.

Guns or butter?

I choose butter.

[Scuba]

10. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...

... just what is it the defense budget is defending?

[Ace Acme]

14. It's defending the fortunes of our brave war profiteers. And their lobbyistsl

Don't you know we need to reward private enterprise and risk and innovation and efficiency and all that good stuff?

[WilliamPitt]

11. SkyNet is real

[underpants]

17. I saw this yesterday and thought "They are self-actualizing!!"

[MADem]

19. They are target drones, not spy drones. nt

[Ace Acme]

20. Maybe it got tired of playing a rigged game. nt

[DJ13]

12. I always wondered what happens if the remote "pilot" of a drone sneezed at the wrong time

[hack89]

15. Target drones don't have pilots.

they are preprogramed to fly a certain course and speed.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

29. Ok, so a programmer sneezed

maybe in a copy-n-paste operation.

Oh, shit, I made "target" == "Launch point".

Dagnabbit.

[Helen Borg]

13. Just wait

Until they equip drones with small nukes!

[maxrandb]

16. We used to have these RPV's when I was on a Navy Battleship

and would catch them by flying them into what looked like a giant volleyball net.

Well, a couple of times they missed the net, and since my Battleship was armored with 16 inches of solid steel, the Remote Piloted Vehicle (RPV) simply broke into about a million pieces.

[penultimate]

21. What ship were you on?

[maxrandb]

22. USS IOWA n/t

[penultimate]

23. So you were probably one of the last people to ever serve on a battleship, aye?

I'm assuming you're not like 90 yrs old...

[olddad56]

24. What about the saliors that served aboard the USS New Jersery when it was used in Vietnam.

Those people could be in their early to mid 60s.

[penultimate]

25. The ones who served during the Gulf War

would be even younger. I'm curious if he was one of those guys.

[maxrandb]

26. No not 90

IOWA and the 3 other IOWA Class BB's were brought back and retrofitted in the 1980's. We have a reunion every year, and we are one of the only Navy ships to have members of the 40's (WWII) 50's (Korea) and 80's (Gulf War) crews represented. I was an 80's crew member.

If you have some time, check out this link. It's a long story, but it is pretty funny, especially if you've ever served in the Navy. It's the story of the "Willy D", a destroyer that accidentally fired a live torpedo at the IOWA while President Roosevelt was aboard. BTW, IOWA is also the only Navy ship to have a bathtub. It was installed in the CO Inport Cabin for FDR to use since he could not use a shower.

http://www.ussiowa.org/general/html/willie_d.htm

[penultimate]

27. Thanks for the link

I've never heard that story before. That's crazy stuff.

How often were the battleships out to sea during the 80's? Was it all the time? Being on those seems like it would have been something a lot of people would have wanted, aye?

[maxrandb]

28. We basically did the 6 month cruise rotation

you'd go to sea for 6 months and be back in homeport for 12. Of course those 12 included multiple 3-4 week underways for training and various exercises.

I was onboard the IOWA when we were doing tanker escorts during the Iran/Iraq War. We spent 123 days underway in the Indian Ocean and would escort tankers through the gulf of Hormuz.

A battleship was great duty. We were treated like rock stars when we pulled into foreign ports.

[olddad56]

18. Just hope one never puts a hole in me.

for like running a stop sigh or something.