Tango01  | 20 Jul 2016 9:40 p.m. PST |
"It was a retired war ship hit with over 5,000 pounds of high explosives. However the USS Thach, which was bombarded from the air, sea, and even underwater last Thursday during a missile-testing exercise, did not go down without a fight, taking 12 hours to finally sink to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The Rim of the Pacific Exercise, also known as SINKEX or the sinking exercise, takes place every two years, and involves stripping an old frigate of its weapons, ammunitions and fuel. It is then used for Navy target practice, with ships, submarines and aircraft from the US, Canada, Australia, and the Republic of Korea all taking aim…"
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Armand |
| cwlinsj | 20 Jul 2016 10:03 p.m. PST |
Tough old ship! Well designed for combat if it can take several harpoons, a 2,000 lb bomb, 500 lb bomb, hellfires, even Mk 48 without even listing. |
| nvdoyle | 20 Jul 2016 10:09 p.m. PST |
Hmm. Perhaps the Perrys weren't quite as bad as generally thought. Too bad they couldn't be modernized and used to replace the LCS… |
| Mako11 | 20 Jul 2016 10:22 p.m. PST |
I suspect they could have, but that doesn't bring about those very lucrative, post-naval/military contract jobs with the manufacturers. |
| Generalstoner49 | 21 Jul 2016 4:29 a.m. PST |
Do keep in mind there is no fuel or explosive ordnance on board during the sink-ex. That Mark 48 hit right where the SM-2 launcher magazine would have been. That being said she is a tough little ship. It also made me realize we need something bigger than a Harpoon if we want to sink anything. It's warhead looked like a fire-cracker, no high explosive. |
| Striker | 21 Jul 2016 5:36 a.m. PST |
It sounds like the start of a bad joke. "So four navies try to sink one ship…." |
| Great War Ace | 21 Jul 2016 6:35 a.m. PST |
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| nvdoyle | 21 Jul 2016 7:32 a.m. PST |
"That Mark 48 hit right where the SM-2 launcher magazine would have been." Ouch. |
| cwlinsj | 21 Jul 2016 8:56 a.m. PST |
Good points about no fuel or weaponry on board. But that Mk48 blew the keel and it still didn't even list. Tough old ship! |
| jgibbons | 21 Jul 2016 5:29 p.m. PST |
Agreed – the torpedo impact was impressive but did't seem to put her down by the bow or cause listing… |
| cwlinsj | 21 Jul 2016 6:39 p.m. PST |
Terrement,
Seemed strange to me so I just looked it up and the Mk 48 torpedo functions as I thought it does. It blows the keel to destroy the ship. Here's a pic of an Australian Mk 48 practice strike and effect.
Let's not forget the USS Thach also took 4 Harpoon strikes and a 2,000 lb bomb, plus smaller munitions. |
| cwlinsj | 22 Jul 2016 7:52 a.m. PST |
sense the target and explode so that the blast forms a bubble/shock wave which rises up and breaks the back of the hull structurally. Perhaps it's semantics, but "blowing the keel" means exactly what you defined above. Keel: A structural keel is a beam around which the hull of a ship is built. The keel runs in the middle of the ship, from the bow to the stern, and serves as a basic foundation or spine of the structure, providing the major source of structural strength of the hull. |
| Lion in the Stars | 24 Jul 2016 1:51 p.m. PST |
I've seen lots of pics of Mk48 attacks blowing FFG7s in half. The Aussies have been particularly happy to demonstrate that. So I think something went wrong with the Mk48 attack, or they were playing with an actual impact detonation instead of a keel-breaker. |
