What equipment for Naval vessels?

[Goldie fish]

Now I know that most of you wouldnt know the difference between a Ship and a Boat,but either way,with the Boat show on in the RDS..maybe some of you have become knowledgeable in things nautical?

What then should all Irish Naval vessels be equipped with,given the current role and taskings.(ie,no 12 inch guns...) It doesnt matter if you think the ships are already equipped with it,consider it a combination of the Gucci Kit list for the Naval service and the Car designed by Homer Simpson..
Your suggestions please...I promise not to be too condemning of your ideas..:-patriot:

[Goldie fish]

Thanks lads..Keep the suggestions coming....:confused:

[old rec]

Hey Goldie you got any specs on the P52, saw a model of it at the boatshow. The cadets there were drawing everyones attention to it. An pics?

[old rec]

Oh you got me a good one there Goldie. I was sucked in. Pictures of your naked girlfriend! Damn you:o

[Silver]

The NS vessels should be, at the very least, equipped with some type of surface-to-air missile system for self defence.
It need not be an elaborate system - some form of stinger missile system perhaps ?


I recall looking at the P52 model at Air Spectacular 2000.
When I asked a sailor where are the rocket launchers positioned he gave me a blank look, until one of his older colleagues pointed out to him that the Niamh does actually have launchers - albeit illumination grenade launchers :D

[Goldie fish]

Yes..Lots..
Glad my little scheme worked on you and over 70 others..

Photos of L.E. Niamh.

I also have a cutaway pic of it from the Book about the Asian Trip.Havent scanned it in yet..

[EagleEye]

With regard the the LE Eithne, how many troops could you fit in the Hanger. I remember seeing it used in the large excerise a few years back in Donegal where troops were deployed from a number of Naval excerises. Would be possible to transport 100 troops and necesary rigid raiders on the LE Eithne for a few days or would the number be alot smaller.

[hptmurphy]

the most ever embarked wasfifty during operation mallard in 1987.

Total disaster as the only method of getting people in to seariders was down jumping ladders.The boats had to be in the water first due to constraints on weight and five fully equipped soldiers was the max permitted load in the boat.
They could not be lowered to the boat while the ship was under way so the ship had to be stopped and the roll dampers were ineffective so the ship rolled awfully.Plus with all their gear on we could not guarantee that a life jacket would support them if they fell in.
In the end the Gardai were sent ashore to do the searches as these were lightly equipped and the army were left aboard the Eithe on standby if anything went wrong ashore.
In the case of both parties seasickness over took them and they were unable to operate at all and only a few searches were carried out by gardai who did not secumb to seasickness.the whole planning was a disaster as no thought had been put into these factors.All parties were enthusiastic at the start but this soon subsided when the pitfalls began to appear.The helo was unusable purly because of the numbers and the weights involved.
Some of the islands had no landing points and were only accessed by expierience boat crews.

[EagleEye]

Hey Murph, what can of excerise was it is there were Gardai onboard.

[Goldie fish]

Mallard was not an exercise..It was a very successful anti terrorist operation. Nuf Said!

[hptmurphy]

it was n't a sucess ful operation ..we suffered two engine room fires wrote off two johnson engines..put a platoon of soldiers in hospital with seasickness...lost a load of garda gear and found ****all!
It proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the army were not suitable for the amphibious role and that the navy were incapable of supporting that role.
Its alright getting onto a ship in lough swilly up the accomadation ladders in flat calm conditions ...getting them off into seariders with full CEFO was a different ball game...The gardai thought itb was great fun until it came to their turn....some of them got very wet......The practical joking on the navys side was unbelievable...guys eating raw eggs in the mess in front of very seasick soldiers and gardai...hilarious results....amazing how much vomit one individual can produce!
stealing gear....amazing how upset an officer can get when you swipe his weapon when he is busy vomiting........The looks of dis belief when guys turn up on the heli deck in swimming togs for the daily swim........the FDO waving off seagulls......searider crews with fishing lines........the medic offering to perform rectal examinations on the soldiers to see if they had puked up that little brown ring(their arsehole)....forbidding people from puking over the side and sending them down to the forward heads ....much more movement..and other surprises waited them...a week of great fun and no sleep.

[FMolloy]

There was an exercise either last year or the year before where Eithne disembarked 2 or 3 platoons of infantry. They were landed in a 'captured' harbour, no jumping into seariders & speeding to the shore. It seems they learned their lesson from the last time. There have been a number of smaller exercises involving beach landings from other naval vessels, but the number landed were never more than a platoon (and more likely less than that).

[FMolloy]

On the topic of new equippment either Ciara or Orla (I didn't catch the number) was in Dublin earlier in the week . I noticed a crane-type effort at the back (stern?) of the boat. It was folded back alongside the funnel. Is it there for launching/recovering ribs?

[hptmurphy]

Yes the cranes are used for semi rigid launching.

The cranes originally fitted to the Eithne gave major problems as they were prone to saltwater corrosin. The boats them selves were problematic as they had been installed back wards and the height of the boat deck was also an issue .

As a result the boats had to be turned on their cradles and lowered to main deck level before putting to sea. The second problem was resolved in 1987 during a refit.

the boarding boats and liberty boats were mounted on 'gravity falls' and again were tricky enough to launch while under way.
The liberty boats could only be launched while the ship was stopped.

The boarding boats could be launched underway by means of "Robinsons disengaging' gear.This is a very old but reliable mechanism that ensures that both ends of the boat hit the water similtaneously avoiding disasters only thing is if the operator is inexpierienced fingers can be lost.

As inflateables became more reliable and powerful the boarding boats were phased out.

Another down side to the boarding boats was the engines were water cooled and could not be running prior to hitting the water....very anoying to find yourself in the middle of the atlantic with an engine that won't start.

[Goldie fish]

I believe the Roisin and Niamhs Delta have a setup that pours water onto the intakes of the outboards prior to launching,so the engines can be running as soon as they hit the water.