Very cool!

I wonder if they tested the weapons yet?

I hear there's a target rich environment off of the coast of Somalia. I'm sure the plankowner's would love to squeeze off a few rounds.

50+ kts ? :o What is that thing ? It must have one hell of a propulsion system.

Diesel / Gas turbine combo. Check out the exhaust plume... That's hot.

I heard the figure of 96 000 HP bandied about on the VHF today.

The panel on the starboard side is the door to the RO/RO cargo deck. The panel on the back I assume is a door to the well deck for launching RHIBs.

Four stars and an anchor on blue field. Is that the flag for SECNAV flying from the main mast?

Add to this 17.160 HP of the Diesels. Now that is one hell of a thrust for a 3000t ship, when you comapare this to the total of 62070 HP of the new frigate Bayern(4700t) but with its turbines alone which makes 51680 HP in total it eaches supposedly 30 kn and with Diesels 21 kts. But adding both together it can perhaps go close to the 40 kts.

But the USS Freedome must be a hack of a ship. which is much smaller than the bayern. I am wondering how much room is taken away by the engines alone. There must be also a huge leap in performance of the turbines I presume.

Could you see whether she hit reverse in that process ?

I couldn't say, sorry. I wasn't looking at that precise moment.

If she has traditionnal waterjets, they don't really reverse : A bucket drops behind the jet and redirects the waterflow. I don't know if you can do that at 38 kts.

But then, I don't pretend to have a clue as to how the ship's propelled.

3000-ton stealth corvette, SF transport, and jetski combination...

USS Freedom: one seriously awesome ship.:rock: Great shots, Etienne!

Thanks for posting these Etienne. One of the best GT threads this week. :up:

Are you a professional sailor, if you don't mind me asking? And I don't mean in a Village People kinda way. :D

Edit: Doh, reading your profile answered that question.

PD

I know I am a whore for this blog way too often, but my favorite naval blogger somehow got himself a ticket on Freedom for this trip and has been writing about it/posting a few pictures.

http://informationdissemination.blog...arch/label/LCS

You're right, according to the above link he's along for part of the trip.

PD

So cool, linked to the main SUBSIM News page. :up:

Nice shots! Awesome looking machine. The kind of thing we should be building for our navy.

If you want to really demoralise your enemy at sea, overtake him while doing water-skiing. :D