Skip to main content

BFE Classic - The USS Independence Anchors In St. Petersburg

This Post was First published on Labor Day Weekend in 2011.  



One of the Navy's newest class of warship stopped in St. Petersburg over the weekend en route to its port city of San Diego, via the Panama Canal.  The USS Independence is a new design of warship that gives it speed, in-shore maneuverability and can function in myriad ways instead of a single-dimension ship.  By that I mean it can launch helicopters, Stryker missiles, jettison SEAL/covert ops teams, offload Humvees and when finished can leave the shore areas at 51 mph.  The Independence is one of the first in a new class of littoral combat ships. It's designed to navigate in shallow areas near coasts. It can be outfitted for several different missions, including mine, submarine or surface warfare.

 That's damn fast for a 418 foot warship.   

Independence is intended as a small assault transport that can take on various capabilities with the installation of mission modules. The ship is a trimaran design that can make more than 40 knots (74 km/h; 51 mph), and was delivered to the Navy at the end of 2009.
Looking at the beast one might think that it has a complement of perhaps 200 sailors, but in actuality, the Independence has 8 officers and 32 seamen.  40 people!  And guess what else, the ship no longer has a wheel like most ships, but is controlled by joysticks.  This ship is one cool looking guy and looks mean as Hell, too. 

The trimaran design is a whole new concept for the Navy and is projected to go more for the smaller more flexible ships rather than the large outmoded ships we are used to seeing.
Anyway, we went to check her out this past weekend and it was totally awesome. Here are some pictures.  Oh, and by the way, the angled sides help mask detection by radar.



                             
 
Notice the trimaran design.  You could actually ride a smaller boat in between the outer and main shells of the ship.





I'd hate to be in charge of replacing the windshield wiper blades.



The Independence is 418 feet long.


This is where they off load anything from trucks, personnel carriers and that rubber-type boat is for amphibious activity.


It can handle 2 Sea Stallion helicopters.






From this angle it looks like Darth Vader.


Port security was aided by two small St. Pete Coast Police boats.  I don't really think anyone wants to mess with this guy.


             It seems quaint to see a Ship's Bell on the most modern ship in the fleet.
Ah, tradition.


                            (The following pictures and video were not taken by me.)






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Florida Air Museum - Part 3

Welcome back to a pretty neat tour of the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland Florida.  There's a lot to see and a couple of the old Geezer Gold Wing guys are already sitting down instead of walking around looking at the exhibits. That's John who is wore out and making a call to his wife.  In all honesty, John was pretty well bushed before the ride.  He told me his daughter's family was down from one of the Carolina's with the grand kids and he must have played with them too much.   He's about to take off on his own and head for home, but he's going to miss a couple of neat things out on Hangar A.   But, before we walk over there, we have lots yet to see here.  If you saw The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Howard Hughes, you'll remember that he went up in a plane during the filming of one of his movies to prove a point about flying.  He crashed trying to execute a roll and this is a picture of the plane he crashed.  No...
1 comment
Read more

Summer Swim

It's Monday and the start of another work week.  Except for me.  I have the week off because the parents of my daycare charges are taking the week off, too. This is one of those wordless posts I love on Mondays so I can put my laziness in full view of loyal readers.  These pics need no words.  Why muddy the waters?   They were taken at the pool at Sinkhole Estates aka Death Valley.  The nice thing about this pool is it is heated in winter.  If one must find positives in one's situation, I suppose that is one.  But, please, no more.   
Post a Comment
Read more