Jim Wright: I got up this morning to find my message queues overflowing with people asking what I thought regarding the USS Chancellorsville accident, because Killer Drones! Oh Noes!
For the handful of folks who haven't seen the news, the US Navy's Aegis Guided Missile Cruiser, USS Chancellorsville, CG-62, was struck by a done off the coast of Point Mugu, California, yesterday during a training exercise. Two sailors suffered minor injuries. The ship is returning to port for damage assessment. An investigation is underway. I can see why people asked me about it. I served on this same class of ship as both enlisted crew and as an officer. I'm exceedling familiar with Ticonderoga Class Cruisers. I'm also exceedingly familiar with drone exercises. Apparently a number of folks saw the word "drone" and wigged the hell out, because Killer Drones! Oh Noes! Obviously this is either a) the beginning of the sentient machine uprising and they'll soon kill us all, or b) Obama is using his Magic Negro Ray of Chocolate Mojo to wage war on the US Navy via mechanized CIA death from the sky, or c) both. Yeah. No. To both scenarios. Take a deep breath, hold it, hold it, slowly let it out and cleanse the Alex Jones and Glenn Beck from your bloodstream. Relax. The world is not about to end. First, the ship was struck by a BQM-74 Drone. Not a Predator. Not a Reaper. Not a Global Hawk. A BQM-74E Chukar. These things have been around since the late 60's (the first one flew in 1965). They're orange. They look like a cruise missile (mostly because they're adapted from cruise missile technology). They're stupid. They're subsonic. They're completely unarmed. They're relatively inexpensive. They're unclassified, you can find out anything you'd like to know about them. They're reusable. And they are typically employed as targets for gunfire exercises, for anti-air missile exercises, for radar intercept and tracking exercises, and for other similar training evolutions. Upon occasion, they are used as decoys. Yeah, but but but how could this happen? Drones! Drones! Oh Noes! People have drones on the brain. It's just a widget, like a can opener or a karaoke machine. A tool. Relax. Despite the mysterious bullshit hinted at by the media and the outright conspiracy mongering by your favorite conservative talk radio loons, it's simple. And if the media would actually do their goddamned jobs, they'd explain the situation in enough detail so that even the brain damaged paranoids who listen to Glenn Beck could understand it. It's not a big mystery. The information is freely available. And there are plenty of Navy vets (and the Navy PAO) around to explain things. The BQM-74 looks like a missile for good reason, because they're used to train navy crews how to defend themselves from ... wait for it, waaaaaait for it ... missiles! That's what the Navy does on the training range off Point Mugu, they fire drones at ships and the ships acquire and track them via radar and other sensor systems, then simulate shooting them down - sometimes more than simulate. Despite weapons offsets for training, sometimes you hit one. Yep, I've done it. Oops. That's why we use unmanned cheap drones. In this case the Chancellorsville was conducting radar tracking drills. Which means the drone was coming straight at them, like a real missile would. Guided by controllers on shore at Naval Station Point Magu, it should have passed overhead or off to one side. Instead something went wrong and it hit the ship. It's unusual that the drone hit the ship. It's not particularly unusual that it malfunctioned. Malfunctions happen upon occasion. When you beat the crap out of these things to the extent the Navy does, it's amazing that they last as long as they do, go Northrop. The little turbojet engine conks out. The flight controls hiccup. The primitive control computer freezes. The navy launches hundreds of target drones every year. There's always a ship or two or three or more on the training range. If you've ever served on a Navy ship, you've done this exercise yourself a dozen times or better. Most of the time the drones work just fine. Every once in a while, one drops out of the sky unexpectedly and the recovery guys have to go fish it out of the drink (they've got a little parachute and deployable floats). It's a testament to the navy's safety protocols that a ship getting clipped is so rare. It's easy for civilians to forget, or more likely to never understand, just how dangerous it is out there every single day. What the Navy does, even the routine daily things, can kill you a thousand different ways (seriously, watch an Underway Replenishment sometime. Better, try being the conning officer during a fleet UNREP. You don't know what pucker-factor is until you're driving a cruiser at speed while coupled to a tanker with the aircraft carrier on the other side, both ships taking on fuel in the thousands of gallons via fuel lines forward, amidships, and aft, while a continuous cycle of CH-46 helicopters are simultaneously dropping tons of supplies via cargo net on your deck and the entire crew is turning-to assholes and elbows moving fuel and supplies at a rate that would put an Indy Pit Crew to shame. One wrong move, one moment of inattention, and people will die. And behind you, following in your wake are half a dozen more ships waiting their turn. Combat is a walk in the park compared to a full up fleet UNREP. And that is just another day in the navy). Bottom line: read the comments under the attached article. See how goddamned stupid, paranoid, insane, and utterly ignorant those people sound? Don't be one of them. Really, don't be one of those people. http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/17/21504769-theyre-trying-to-figure-out-what-happened-malfunctioning-drone-hits-navy-ship -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "StrataList-OT" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/stratalist-ot. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
