
The Electric Warship - grej
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/military/the-electric-warship
======
the_french
This piece and the [EM
Briefcase]([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8228755](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8228755))
made me realize how much IEEE Spectrum appears to be PR. Is this normal, are
we being duped?

~~~
chillingeffect
It's not exactly pure PR/propaganda, but it's definitely the most consumer-
oriented of IEEE's publications. I'd place it somewhere between mags like
Popular Mechanics and full-on topic-specific engineering journals. I actually
find it quite good in general, though I don't like reading about war tech; I'm
sure the U.S. military pushes hard to get stories in it. And most people don't
realize that most technology follows a military->big business->everyday
consumer path.

Which is why anyone who is not completely narcotized realizes self-driving
cars won't be hitting the suburbs until they're thoroughly deployed in the
military and internal to big business. So we _are_ being duped in the way that
our daydreams are supporting research that we'll be the last ones to enjoy...
just look at the internet and cellphones. The military and big business had
them for decades before "us".

~~~
the_french
One of my issues is that this article discusses the Zumwalt's main failures as
being too 'avant-garde' where it was a classic example of a jack of all
trades, master of none. The whole ship was supposed to have swappable 'mission
packs' that would let it do anything while being stealthy, fast, cheap, modern
etc... The article has a very pro-Zumwalt / Bath Iron works (mentioned several
times) spin to it. The EM Briefcase was written by the president of the
company cited in the article (Metatech). It sounds a lot like PG's suits
essay.

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kghose
Does any one know why the tumble home hull was discontinued. Wikipedia says it
has stability problems in turns and rough seas. The Zumwalt's prow is meant to
go under waves. Has the ship been tested in rough seas?

~~~
gk1
Former naval architect here, used to work in the office that designed this
thing (but it was before my time). They haven't entirely dismissed the
tumblehome hull. For example, the LCS 2 has a hull that resembles a tumblehome
(though it's not as drastic as the DDG-1000). Aside from the financial and
mission capability issues, the novel design presented more problems than it
solved... Which contributed to the cost overruns.

Edit: With regards to whether the ship has been tested... Prior to the first
one being completed, the most they could do is model testing.

~~~
spydum
If there is anything I have learned from working at a large enterprise shop,
it's that bad decisions made early on, once found to be such, are next to
impossible to change. People would rather try to "muscle" through it (throw
$$, people, hardware, wellness efforts), rather than discuss a new design. I
imagine it's always about 2x worse in a government shop, and another 2x worse
for defense gigs.

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damian2000
"And at the heart of its operations is a virtual data center powered by off-
the-shelf server hardware, various flavors of Linux, and over 6 million lines
of software code."

\-- [http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-
na...](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/10/the-navys-newest-
warship-is-powered-by-linux/)

------
georgeecollins
Before WW2 the French had invested more in fortifications than the Germans did
in tanks. Unfortunately, tanks were what mattered. The US may have the best
fighter planes and the best destroyers, but maybe what is going to really
matter is the quality and quantity of missiles and drones.

Not that anyone really knows..

~~~
hga
The French and their allies also invested more in tanks than the Germans, they
had about 1/5 more in the Battle of France. Also per Wikipedia, they had the
most after the Soviet Union:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanks_in_France#Inter_War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanks_in_France#Inter_War)

The content at that link does a pretty good job of explaining why this
numerical and in many respects qualitative advantage did them little good.

As for your latter point, from where will those missiles and drones be
launched, and for the latter, recovered???

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terravion
Stability is why it was discontinued--naval modeling has come a long way in
the last century and opened up a lot of new (or repeated) ground for naval
architecture.

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moron4hire
The USS Zumwalt will be commanded by Cpt. Kirk. I not kidding, his first name
is even James. James A. Kirk:
[http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg1000/Pages/bio1.aspx#.U...](http://www.public.navy.mil/surfor/ddg1000/Pages/bio1.aspx#.U_3E_PldWSo)

