I've previously mentioned that during the 1950s the Iowas were fitted with a 16" nuclear shell, the Mk 23 "Katie".¹ This is a fascinating device, one of a plethora of nuclear weapons that were developed in the mid-50s. But how did the Katie come about, and what modifications were made to the battleships to allow them to use it?

Me with the Mk 23 at the National Atomic Museum²

The Katie has its origins in the Mk 9, the world's first artillery-fired atomic projectile (AFAP). The Mk 9 was the Army's first nuclear weapon, part of its bid to keep itself relevant in an era when atomic weapons were expected to dominate the battlefield of the future.³ The designers faced serious challenges. An artillery shell is an incredibly difficult environment to put a complicated device like a nuclear warhead. It must withstand normal handling, thousands of Gs of acceleration as it's fired, and the centrifuge of a shell spinning at 10,000 rpm or more. It must be incredibly reliable, as a nuclear shell that doesn't go off is not only a waste of money but might give the target valuable materials or insight. And it needs to be compact, as big artillery pieces are heavy, expensive, and difficult to move. Ideally, a nuclear shell would be for an existing weapon, probably the 240 mm M1 howitzer, the biggest gun in the Army's inventory. Read more...

Strength is one of the main concerns of the naval architect. Supporting the loads of the ship while it moves across the sea, and while the sea moves around it, is not a trivial problem. The structure also needs to be as light as possible, watertight, and cheap to build.

Iowa's structure being assembled at Brooklyn Navy Yard

The most serious loads on a ship come from the uneven distribution of weight and buoyancy. While the total weight and buoyancy will be equal when the ship is at equilibrium,⁴ it is common to have weights in the ends of the ship that overwhelm the buoyancy provided by the fine lines there, and are supported from the broad center section. Read more...

I've decided that it would be fun to shed a little light on the lesser-known uniformed services. And no, I don't mean the Coast Guard. While they do a great and generally underappreciated job, the average American has at least heard of them. Today, I tackle the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, an organization that is by far the smallest of the uniformed services, with a strength of about 320 commissioned officers, and no warrant officers or enlisted men.

The NOAA Corps provides officers with technical and scientific training for the operations of the NOAA, and for support of other activities of the United States. After getting their degrees, potential members apply for a direct commission into the Corps. They have naval ranks and wear naval uniforms, and the Corps itself only exists due to a strange quirk of history. Read more...

By 1898, Spain's empire in the Americas, once the largest in the world, was a husk of its former self. Revolutions early in the century had seen the Spanish colonies from Chile to Mexico become independent nations, leaving only Cuba and Puerto Rico under the Spanish flag. In the Pacific, they retained the Philippines, Guam, and a scattering of small islands.⁵ But even these remnants rested uneasily. Cuba had first revolted against Spanish rule 30 years earlier, and another effort to win independence had broken out in 1895, followed by a similar revolutionary war in the Philippines a year later. The US watched all of this with growing interest. American businesses essentially controlled the Cuban economy, and Cuban revolutionaries staged a very successful propaganda campaign to convince the US to intervene, aided by harsh measures the Spanish used to fight the Cuban guerillas and the famous "Yellow Journalism" of American newspapers. However, President McKinley wanted to end the conflict peacefully, and offered to serve as an intermediary.

USS Maine in Havana Harbor

Into this cauldron was sent the American battleship Maine. The first battleship built for the US Navy, she was by this point obsolescent, with staggered turrets and no protection from QF guns. However, this would not seriously hinder her mission of protecting American citizens and interests in Havana, which depended much more on her status as a US warship than on her combat power. She entered the harbor on January 25th, 1898, and while the Spanish were not particularly friendly, they didn't interfere with the crew. Her Captain, Charles Sigsbee, was not ignorant of the danger that the Spanish would take some action against the ship. In fact, some locals had called for vengeance against the "Yankees" for sending a man-of-war to their waters, and demonstrated against the ship. Sigsbee ordered extra sentries posted, and kept a quarter of the watch on deck near their battle stations. He also made sure that any visitors were carefully monitored for "infernal machines", and that steam was kept up to allow the turrets to operate in an emergency. Unfortunately, his crew was unable to sweep the harbor for mines, or to use Maine's searchlights, which would have been interpreted by the authorities as a hostile gesture. Read more...

It's time once again for our regular open thread. Talk about whatever you want.

This time, I'm going to highlight what Neal said in the recent post on commercial aviation:

I would argue that the reliability, pretty decent schedule adherence (I know, not perfect), and safety make modern air travel a marvel of the modern world. It is simply economic infrastructure. Yes I wish it could be more pleasant with bigger seats, but it ain’t too bad for what it does and that is move millions of people every 24 hours.

[Airlines are] an industry that, just domestically alone, moves the equivalent population of Philadelphia to Minneapolis every 24 hours--and that was at the year 2000 so I am sure that it has increased.

Overhauled posts since last time are A Spotter's Guide to Modern Warships, my posts on the reactivation of the Iowas in the 80s and why doing the same thing today is a terrible idea, stability of ships, and parts one and two of Why the Carriers Are Not Doomed.

In early April of 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a few desolate rocks in the South Atlantic. The British mobilized their fleet, sending it south by way of Ascension Island. On the 25th, a force retook South Georgia, a even smaller and more desolate island that Argentina had also captured, while the main task force closed in on the Falklands. May 1st saw the British launch their attack. The Argentine Navy tried to interfere the next day, but withdrew after the cruiser General Belgrano was sunk by a submarine. Two days later, the Argentinians struck back, sinking the frigate Sheffield with an Exocet missile.⁶

After the attack on Sheffield, both sides settled in for a long siege. The British needed to cut the Argentine defenders off from reinforcements and wear them down during the two weeks it would take for the amphibious force to arrive. The Argentines needed to wear down the British, denying them the sea and air superiority required to make an amphibious landing practical. The task of both sides would be complicated by the weather, which was about to take a turn for the worse. Read more...

I've been reposting a series I wrote during my move from LA to Oklahoma on commercial aviation. I've previously discussed business models, airplanes, route networks and loyalty programs. But today, I'm going to be talking about safety.

I should start talking about safety by emphasizing that air travel is very safe. It’s about an order of magnitude safer per mile than a bus or a train, and two orders of magnitude safer than a car. There is literally no safer way to travel long distances, and a tremendous amount of work goes into that, because an airliner is massive and complex, and is constantly trying to break. This post should not change your opinion about flying, but if that’s something you’re really nervous about, you probably should stop reading now.

My previous job was as a small cog in the machine that sees potential safety problems before they get out of hand, and fixes them. I’ll outline the process I participated in, using a composite from various issues I worked: Read more...

While the Washington Naval Treaty was by far the greatest influence on the design of the battleship after 1922, it wasn't the end of attempts to limit naval strength by diplomacy. While Washington was an acceptable compromise to the parties involved, nobody was entirely happy with the outcome, and several attempts were made to draft a successor treaty. Plugging the most notable gap, the lack of restrictions on ships less than 10,000 tons, would be the task of the next round of conferences.

HMS Kent, a Treaty Cruiser

The success of the Washington Treaty gave new impetus to diplomatic efforts for general disarmament, and the League of Nations, with US support, began discussing a general disarmament conference in the mid-20s. However, the results were less than heartening,⁷ and President Coolidge announced that he would host a naval conference in Geneva in 1927 to deal with these issues. Read more...

In 1907, Teddy Roosevelt ordered the US fleet deployed to the West Coast around South America as a test of its ability to fight a war with Japan. As it reached the Pacific, his administration decided to return it to the Atlantic by circumnavigating the globe. The second leg took it from San Francisco to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia. From Australia, the fleet set out for Manila, arriving on October 2nd to find a cholera outbreak waiting for them. All liberty was cancelled, and the fleet's main focus was on coaling, a brutal task in the heat of the Philippines. The only interruption was a typhoon, which pushed the departure back a day. Another storm struck as they made their way north to the visit at Yokohama, scattering the ships and washing a sailor overboard to his death. This prompted another day's delay, but the Japanese were able to rearrange the schedules to solve any problems this would have caused.

The Great White Fleet moored in Yokohama

Despite the American-Japanese tensions that had prompted the cruise in the first place, Japan pulled out all the stops for the visit, and was rewarded by a significant warming in the relationship.⁸ Meticulous planning resulted in a highly successful series of receptions, tours and banquets, while Admiral Sperry took great pains to ensure that his men were on their best behavior ashore. The Emperor himself joined the fleet's senior officers for a luncheon in Tokyo, where he was reportedly very good company. The only flaw in the visit was the reception thrown by the Americans aboard the Connecticut, which ran out of food before the announced start time due to an excess of visitors and a very limited catering budget. The Japanese were gracious about it, however, and their conduct went a long way to defuse the tensions built up over the previous few years. Shortly after the fleet's departure, the Root-Takahira Agreement was signed, smoothing over most of the outstanding official disputes. Read more...

For my birthday this year, my girlfriend and I visited the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Weatherford, about an hour west of Oklahoma City on I-40, is the birthplace of Gemini and Apollo astronaut Tom Stafford. They like him very much there, and assembled an air and space museum in his honor. It's much better than a museum of this type in a place like Weatherford (birthplace of Tom Stafford, population about 11,000) has any right to be.

Lord Nelson and me in a simulator at the Stafford Museum

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