http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=43403
Vinson is getting a new EVERYTHING! That's a lot of shit on deck.I remember being on this ship in "83.She was spic and span then.Quite the mess they have going up there.

I take it the cats are getting refurbished since there are stockyard barns lining the shuttleways. They must have cut the deck completely open.

Oh yeah,and they are putting in a new suite for the air boss above the island.Major renovation job on this big boy.

smutman wrote:



Kinda Looks like a squaters community, people living out of former shipping containers.

anyone know it the Vinson will be getting those new mag-lev catapults?

Rander wrote:


I sort of doubt it. I don't think they've solved the EMP problem with those frying avionics yet.
Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if they have solved the problem and kept it secret.

We had a guy from General Atomic talk to the docents last month. They are one of the prime contractors working on the magnetic cats. He says that nothing will show up in the fleet until the new CVN-78 comes out, whenever that will be. I can't imagine it will be less than ten years from now. It will also have a magnetic arresting gear.

Ya know, I would think that a magnetic field so strong it can propel and stop an aircraft weighing many tons would totally jam the electronic systems aboard a ship, along with interupting electrical systems and masking any radio transmissions. It would basically be an EMP, but not a pulse; constant for several seconds. The Germans tried out magnetic weapons but they fried surrounding systems, much like massive solar flares do. I know DARPA is always looking for Buck Rogers gizzmoes, but most of them are abandoned after only a few billions dollars due to limited technologies to make them work. Heck, my radio at work gives interferrence beeps a few seconds before one of the co-worker's cell phone rings. Being in the electrical trade I can tell you that magnetic fields that set up in conduits with like-phases can turn the conduit hot and short things out, sometimes with sparks and smoke. Sometimes with an explosion. Physics has its laws, some of which can't be broken without consequences. Be that as it may, I'd rather trust steel-on-steel stopping me on a deck than relying on a chip made in China.

No problem about sparks and flames cats catch on fire a lot in their current configurations and environments with steam and grease. But wouldn't these new magnetic systems be enclosed in an EMP/RF safe area as to reduce the amount of frequency that would be allowed to escape? I don't know of this concept, but in working with R/F and explosives I know it is a sensitive issue due to pulse frequency.

They have magnetic cats and traps that work just fine right now. One big problem is the amount of electricity it takes. Another is the huge EMP is produces, expecially the cats. It will definitely wipe out most electronics on the aircraft. They say it might even detonate some ordnance. By the time CVN-78 comes out, the new carriers will have much larger turbine generators and some kind of magnetic-shielding flight deck. Maybe they'll have to outlaw steel-toed shoes. Every time a plane launches, you won't be able to walk!!

navybob wrote:


And you better protect your nuts!!!! There's gonna be some sterile guys runnin around