Carrier Class News

Provider of satellite communications to remote and harsh environments, ITC Global, says it has appointed industry veteran Ashok Rao to open new operations in Singapore, and expand its business across Asia. The new Singapore office extends ITC Global's existing presence in Asia Pacific, which is headquartered in Perth, Australia, by placing additional facilities and personnel closer to customers in the offshore energy and commercial maritime markets. The new office will initially provide sales, engineering and customer support resources, with near term additions in field operations. ITC adds that leading the new Singapore office and serving as Director of Asia Development for ITC Global is Ashok Rao.

Once queen of the express liners, and the fastest, safest and biggest passenger liner in history, the SS United States today quietly awaits rescue from a pending cruise to the scrapyard. The Big Ship the Big U, the one that didn’t sink. The S.S. She is waiting for a rescue that may never come from an appointment with the scrap yard looming large on her summer schedule. And that would be a shame according to her many supporters, not the least of which was the late newsman and sailor, Walter Cronkite.

Sunday, July 14 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Gerald R. Ford, 38th president of the United States. This was an important historical milestone for the country because of President Ford’s exceptional legacy of service, but also an important historical milestone for the Navy as we fittingly get ready to christen and launch the first of our next generation of aircraft carriers, the Gerald R. Ford class with the Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78). Former President Ford was born in 1913, around the time of Eugene Ely’s pioneering flights aboard USS Birmingham and USS Pennsylvania.

Paramarine SeaWeigh, the on-board stability management system and part of the Paramarine suite of advanced marine design software developed by QinetiQ GRC, has been selected by the UK MoD as the on-board stability management system  for the Queen Elizabeth Carrier class. Two Queen Elizabeth class carriers are being built for the Royal Navy. HMS Queen Elizabeth is expected to enter service in 2016 and HMS Prince of Wales in 2018. The vessels will displace about 65,000 tonnes (64,000 long tons), be 280 metres (920 ft.) long and have a tailored air group of up to forty aircraft. They will be the largest warships ever to be constructed for the Royal Navy. Paramarine SeaWeigh will be used to manage the impact on stability from complex payloads, their distribution and tank states.

Engine room simulators approved to the highest DNV certificate level. A total of 14 Kongsberg Maritime Engine Room Simulator models received new Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Statements of Compliance in December 2011. The approvals are according to the revised standards laid out in DNV – Standard for Certification of Maritime Simulators No. 2.14 January 2011, which is based on the requirements of STCW Convention, Regulation I/12 and include the new 2010 amended convention that came into force from January 1st 2012.

Rolls-Royce has achieved full power operation of its first production MT30 powered main turbine generator set delivered to the U.S. Navy. The MT30, delivered to the U.S. Navy for the DDG-1000, USS Zumwalt program, achieved full power operation at 36 MW during testing at the US Navy’s land based test site in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The selection by the US Navy for the DDG-1000 program marks the first large gas turbine engine ordered by the U.S. Navy for use in a generator set providing electrical power for propulsion and on-board systems throughout the ship.

Northrop Grumman Corporation has finished installing the propellers on the nation's tenth and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, George H. W. Bush (CVN 77). The carrier is under construction at Northrop Grumman's Newport News sector, the nation's sole designer, builder and refueler of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The George H. from previous Nimitz-class carriers. but the blades are shaped differently to reduce wear and erosion. Northrop Grumman. and complex overhaul. Other new design features for the George H. and a new underwater hull-coating system. The George H. buoyancy to the forward end of the ship and improves hull efficiency. The ship's keel was laid Sept. 6, 2003. October 2006 with delivery to the U.S. Navy in late 2008.

According to the Daily Press, Tidewater Community College on Wednesday announced a new training center designed to help alleviate anticipated critical workplace shortages in shipbuilding and other waterfront related work. The Maritime and Transportation Center, set to open in 2008, will operate out of a building at the community college's forthcoming campus in Portsmouth -- training workers in everything from welding to truck driving, from computer aided design to port security. Shipyard workers are expected to be in great demand over the coming decades. Baby boomers are approaching retirement age even as Navy shipbuilding is going strong with an entirely new aircraft carrier class at Northrop Grumman Newport News and continued submarine building there.

Builder NKK Corp. NKK Corp. delivered a 300,000-dwt., Panamanian-flagged, Malacca-max oil tanker to Aquamarine Ship-holding Maritime S.A., a Panamanian subsidiary of NYK Line in September 2002. Built at NKK's Tsu Works, the tanker, which is now in regular service for Nippon Oil Corp., is the first in the Malacca-max VLCC (very large crude carrier) class that NKK has developed in response to owners' requirements for maximum operational efficiency. Measuring 1,092 x 197 x 97 ft. (333 x 60 x 29.6 m) with a 68 ft. (20.8-m) draft, realizing the maximum permissible dimension to sail through the Strait of Malacca. The ship incorporates the latest energy-saving technologies and designs, including a sharp-edged Ax-Bow that greatly reduces wave resistance under rough sea conditions.