Trump wants 'goddamned steam catapults on new aircraft carriers

[WePurrsevere]

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/333040-trump-wants-goddamned-steam-catapults-on-new-aircraft-carriers#

President Trump said he has told the Navy to return to decades-old steam-powered catapult technology to launch aircraft from the new Gerald Ford-class aircraft carriers, rather than use a new digital launch system.

Trump’s comments came during an interview with Time magazine, released in excerpts Thursday, where he bashed the new Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) and said the Navy would instead be “going to goddamned steam.”

“I said, ‘You don’t use steam anymore for catapult?’ ‘No sir.’ I said, ‘Ah, how is it working?’ ‘Sir, not good. Not good. Doesn’t have the power. You know the steam is just brutal. You see that sucker going and steam’s going all over the place, there’s planes thrown in the air,’” Trump said in the interview.

“It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said—and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said, ‘What system are you going to be—‘ ‘Sir, we’re staying with digital.’ I said, ‘No you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.’

So, if I'm reading this correctly, basically because Trump doesn't understand how the new digital tech works or how it's better than the decades old steam we now use we're not going with newer and what sounds like much better technology.

This just adds to my belief that the man is to stupid and mentally incompetent to be president.

[Cha]

1. K&R

[krispos42]

2. Words fail me.

I mean... Jeez!

[eShirl]

3. ...

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

7. ....

[smirkymonkey]

4. God help us.

Somewhere, a padded cell is awaiting an inmate.

[Best_man23]

5. Egads

[Solly Mack]

6. Trump is, as usual, proudly displaying his ignorance.

[gratuitous]

9. And his standard bully-boy ways

"They're using steam because I told them to! I'm, like, a really smart guy, and the Navy knew they should listen to me. I know more than all the admirals."

Such a needy little man.

[Solly Mack]

14. Yes. He really is needy. That's not snark either.

His supporters and defenders would call it insulting but it is an accurate observation...and a reason to be concerned. You don't want someone that needy in a position of power.

[FuzzyRabbit]

24. Truer words have rarely been spoken.

Everything You Need to Know About the “Digital” “Catapults” Donald Trump Thinks the Navy Doesn't Need: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2017/05/11/donald_trump_is_complaining_about_the_navy_s_catapults_what.html

[Solly Mack]

25. That's an excellent article for explaining it all! Thank you!

[DeminPennswoods]

40. From my past experience

with managing systems and bringing new systems in, that article contains a lot of the classic rosy scenarios. New systems rarely live up to the hype. Electronic systems aren't inherently better or less maintenance than mechanical ones, either. Admittedly, I've been out of game for awhile, but I've worked on many systems where the BIT (system's self-diagnosing) hasn't lived up the claims. There's also sometimes issues with the test benches for the equipment. I have to wonder how the motors will fare in a salt water environment, which is also the biggest reason airframe life of carrier-based planes is shorter, the airframe just gets corroded no matter how many times the plane is hosed off.

For those who don't know, catapults actually pull the aircraft forward by attaching to the plane's nose landing gear and dragging it down the ships's runway. There's also a push from the jet engines thrusting against the jet blast deflector. Prop driven planes like E2/C2 don't use cats for takeoff. AV8's use cats, but could take off without one if needed.

[MindPilot]

79. Here's a vid of an EMALS launch of a C2

The system is a big improvement over the steam catapult; it has essentially one moving part. The system can adjust in real time for the changing effective weight of the aircraft as the ship pitches. Its time from zero to operational readiness is measured in minutes instead of hours, requires far fewer people to operate, can handle an entire range of aircraft from small drone to something the size of an F35, and switch between the two in seconds. Because digital.

Wait 'till 45 finds out the same thing is happening on the recovery end, and the software for that is even more complicated.

[DeminPennswoods]

80. We'll see

but my bet is on EMALS not living up to its supposed operation capability, reliability or maintenance costs and manhours/repair.

[lunasun]

8. I read this earlier and thought it was a joke, satire, silly snark at trump. HE REALLY SAID THAT?

Is this to show how business smart he is and what a strong decider he can be? Fail

[gordianot]

10. A well known dictator wanted superior jet fighters to be fighter bombers.

This delayed their introduction of a superior weapon that would have guaranteed the interception of bombers destroying the country's infrastructure by two years. The mad dictator lost his war and was unable to establish air superiority (thankfully). Lesson when you are narcissistic megalomaniac your megalomania is not in your best interest.

[central scrutinizer]

11. Gerald Ford class aircraft carriers?

This must be satire

[brush]

20. Sounds like it but the Navy usually names the new class of ships after...

the first one built, the USS Gerald R. Ford.

They will have the latest technological improvements over the earlier Nimitz class carriers.

[angrychair]

22. No

The current class of carriers, built at Newport News Shipbuilding (the world's only builder of nuclear powered aircraft carriers), is the Ford class (Gerald R Ford).

[TheBlackAdder]

59. They're the aircraft carriers that stumble when leaving port.

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. And sails. Why aren't we using sails?

I thought for sure this was going to be "The Onion" again.

[WePurrsevere]

28. When my hubby told me about it...

The first thing I asked was if it was an Onion or Borowitz piece. He said, no it's The Hill and my jaw literally dropped. Our country's realty all too often feels more satirical than actual satire now.

[beam me up scottie]

13. Time to build more trebuchets!

[Solly Mack]

18. LOL! I thought about trebuchets too!

Trump could simply slingshot the plane into battle.

[beam me up scottie]

21. LMAO! Think of the money we could save, Solly!

Why didn't those good for nothing generals think of this?

[Solly Mack]

23. You know they groan each time they know he's coming.

[beam me up scottie]

33. I know exactly how they feel.

[NCTraveler]

62. Good looking trebuchet.

One of my first thoughts when reading the headline.

[dawg]

78. You laugh, but my huge stack of trebuchets once managed to repel ...

one of Ghandi's tank invasions.

[angrychair]

15. I cannot stress this enough

This man is a fucking idiot.

Moving away from steam has allowed carriers to use space more effectively, dramatically reduce crew size and make them far more effective and efficient battle systems.

Carriers will cost less to build and far less to maintain.

Fuck that idiot.

[Solly Mack]

17. and less wear and tear on aircraft allowing them to be used longer - means less money spent.

[jberryhill]

76. The thrust and acceleration also allow wider launch capabilities

The steam catapaults are rough on the drones.

[tammywammy]

16. Here's an article from Foxtrot Alpha on this

http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/trump-may-have-derailed-a-crucial-part-of-americas-futu-1795121555

[AgadorSparticus]

19. No. He knows what He is doing. He is a traitor. This makes us more vulnerable to Russia

That is not by accident. He knows EXACTLY what he is told to do and say.

[Girard442]

30. Putin put a loose cannon in the White House.

There is no direction or strategy beyond being a loose cannon. Trump will just smash things at random, which suits Putin just fine.

[oasis]

26. Cheetolini should amuse himself in the tub with his rubber duckies

and let the Navy run the U.S. fleet.

[BeyondGeography]

27. Not only that, our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917!

[bullwinkle428]

29. I fucking swear to god - I thought this was an Onion story when I read the headline!

[NastyRiffraff]

73. So did I!

You really can't tell the difference anymore.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

31. Ahhh, jeez.

This is why we shouldn't elect old people.

Over the years courts have not understood the internet. Hillary Clinton, from all reports, had trouble figuring out emails. And I'm not at all talking about her email server. The fact that she didn't seem to know how to retrieve or send them very well.

Don't get me wrong. I'm only a couple of years younger than Hillary, but I worked in an industry (airlines) that was one of the very first to move to computers. So for an old person, I'm relatively comfortable with computers, but I'm extremely aware of my limitations, of the many things I don't know and can't use. For instance, I don't have a smart phone.

Meanwhile, the technology moves on. Those in charge, at all levels, should be VERY good at using the technology, or at least of understanding it. I'm willing to bet that while Donald Trump can tweet with the best of them, he probably doesn't make much other use of technology. It would be interesting to learn if he uses email. I bet he's never mastered Word or any other word processing program. I wonder if he knows how to do a simple Google search. And those are such rock bottom basics that they shouldn't even need mentioning.

This actually comes back to part of the reason I am very opposed to most of the suggestions as to who we ought to nominate in 2020, because just about every single one of those people are over age 60 already. And while plenty of people in their 60's are quite up on the technology, many more are not. If you've been surrounded during your entire working life with minions who do the typing, who do the research, who prepare the papers and simply present you with the finished product, you are NOT up on the technology.

This OP is a prime example of why old people shouldn't be in charge. So okay, Donald Trump is an exceptionally bad example, but there's still a point to be made.

Even now, when someone is having some sort of problem with the computer system, and older person (meaning 50 or older) will grumble that we'd be better off without them. Nope. We wouldn't be.

Here's a non-computer example of the advances of technology. I went to work as an operator for Ma Bell in 1967. The woman that trained me had gone to work for them some 50 years earlier, which I found utterly fascinating. The telephone company at that time pointed out that if they had never gone to direct dial, by 1967 every adult woman in the country would have been needed to work as an operator to connect all the calls that were made every day.

You can extend that to any other field you wish.

[technotwit]

32. trump advisor

Fredrick Douglass just met with him to tell him the future is steam!

[dalton99a]

34. His goddamned Twitter is digital

Fucking idiot

[Warren DeMontague]

35. He's going to get to the bottom of what happened

To the strawberries

[Docreed2003]

38. This!!

[procon]

36. Cutlasses! That's what real men use, more cutlasses, and maybe some hardtack. nt

[Docreed2003]

37. Clearly we have a "Fucktard in Chief"

[Goodheart]

39. Just when you think he couldn't look any stupider.

[SCVDem]

41. Trump has a plan to make steam

Coal.

I wish I could laugh

[Still In Wisconsin]

42. Never mind all the many times those things off-gassed and burned the shit out of someone, or

malfunctioned completely and threw an F4 or F14 into the drink.

Steampunk Trump.

[Mendocino]

43. Next he'll want

sharks with frickin laser beams attached to their heads.

[Mountain Mule]

44. See, if we'd only stop using those new fangled iron clads and went back to wood and sails

Andrew Jackson could lead us to victory and the South would rise again - I mean the South would be great again. Bigly.

(God what a moron that traitor, Dolt 45 is.)

[jmowreader]

45. He probably also thinks...

...that the only traditions of the Navy are rum, buggery and the lash.

BTW, who died and made Trump naval architect in chief?

[kairos12]

46. No doubt trying to launch those Sopwith Camels.

[SergeStorms]

47. He's heavily leveraged........

in the steam industry. Just as he wants to bring back coal to power automobiles, lawn mowers and toasters, he sees the steam industry as America's future. He's a man before his time, to be sure.

[Ilsa]

48. Thank you for posting. I knew a navy pilot who died because the cat

wasn't operating at full power, or something. His aircraft plunged into the ocean. He was either knocked unconscious and drowned, or was killed upon impact. I don't remember if there was a RIO or second officer aboard; I don't remember what type of plane he flew. His fiancée was so devastated she killed herself.

I'd like the Ford class to have whatever works bests.

[DesertRat]

49. OMG

[workinclasszero]

50. WTF does the draft dodger-in-chief know about military equipment and systems anyway?

What a fuckin idiot!

[stopbush]

51. !

[Ken Burch]

52. If he gets his way, could it lead to lots of Navy pilots being killed trying to take off?

n/t.

[EL34x4]

60. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[DeminPennswoods]

65. Doesn't surprise me

I've seen this play out so many times that the system delivered doesn't work as promised.

An interesting story from the Navy Times in 2015: http://www.navytimes.com/story/military/2015/06/16/emals-fails-in-first-public-launch/28808761/

[Barack_America]

81. It sounds like someone tried...

I don't believe for a moment that Trump reads, let alone reads about aircraft carrier technology.

[Doreen]

53. I just realized how he is going to get coal workers back to work.

He is going to make our trains go back to having coal in order to operate. If I remember they had ships that ran on coal also. Maybe he will get rid of electric heat and make us use coal stoves.

[TeamPooka]

54. "Where are the goddamned horses? Time to rebuild the cavalry!"

[Hekate]

55. Captain Queeg, is that you?

[icymist]

56. I don't know whether to laugh or cry watching this guy.

[pansypoo53219]

57. not coal powered?

[duncang]

58. Remember this is the same person

Who when asked about nuclear arms said he uncle was a nuclear scientist. And he told him nuclear would be big one day.

[no_hypocrisy]

61. Who wins this argument: Trump or the generals?

[Lee-Lee]

63. Congress does

They fund the programs, the Navy buys what they appropriate money for.

[Achilleaze]

64. this is what happens when a republican Draft-Dodger-in-Chief pretends...

...to be competent.

sad

[ehrnst]

66. "Goddamned coal" furnaces in federal buildings!!! (nt)

[The Blue Flower]

67. Next: crossbows and axes

I also thought this headline was a joke.

[Botany]

68. Please tell me this is a joke

Where did Trump get his degree in engineering?

[Bettie]

69. OMG? This isn't satire?

It is really hard to tell these days, but WTF?

[lpbk2713]

70. " ... you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out."

Does Trump think the crewmembers are as stupid as he is?

Trumpo, carriers have been usung nuclear propulsion since the 1960's.
If the crew can work with that they can manage a digital launching system.

[niyad]

71. dear Goddess, PLEASE tell me this is really from the Onion!!!!

[WePurrsevere]

72. We all wish it were.

Hopefully the Full moon in Scorpio gave this craziness a push towards a new beginning. We need all things hidden to be revealed asap.

[niyad]

74. I am beginning to think that nothing palpatine lite does is going to bring him down.

[WePurrsevere]

75. If the mighty Palpatine could be taken down by Vadar...

I'm sure this shadow of him will eventually be too. Well, except for with the die hard fanatics. I don't hold out much hope for that bunch.

Unfortunately the slow process is frustrating as heck. I keep telling myself that it just feels like an eternity when in actuality it's just been a few months.

[niyad]

82. but the longer he is there, the more damage he does. 16 weeks, four days, and. . .

[WePurrsevere]

85. True, it feels like so much longer...

I have to keep reminding myself that it hasn't been that long. Logically I know investigations, etc can take a lot of time to do correctly but time is running out for too many. We have to reach Americans through the RW noise and b.s. so we can stop these greedy jerks from getting their way.

[gademocrat7]

77. OMG!

[jmg257]

83. Likely they will get the bugs worked out of the new digital system eventually.

"As with any new system, its development hasn’t always been a smooth ride. It’s been beset by reliability issues over the years, and if anything, carriers need to be reliable. Without the ability to launch planes, the ship is a proverbial sitting duck.

But like most new things, the kinks will probably be worked out."

[Paladin]

84. Which would cost billions of dollars for goddamned retrofitting.

All because trump isn't smart enough to understand current military technology?

Silver lining: trump has probably forgotten all about the matter. He has the attention span of a gnat.