Cobra Gold Pattaya

[Jai Dee]

Well a flat-top just sailed into the port of Laem Chabang... with a few toys parked on the deck for show. No sign of any other support vessels yet.

Part of Cobra Gold?

Can you see the number on the bridge at all CVN something something?

72.

It's now out of sight behind the container wharf.

No ducklings yet...

[PREM-R]

CVN -72 USS Abraham Lincoln

USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN

[Jai Dee]

Duckling spotted... anchored about 5km out in the gulf.

Definitely a warship judging from it's silhouette... it's pretty hazy out there today.

Too far away to make out any ID.

[chuckd]

Count on there being more that one duckling in the area.

A battle group can be impressive.

[Jai Dee]

Some of my mates who work here have said that 3 ducklings to date have sailed into port with #72, and there are at least 3 others anchored a couple of km out at sea. My view of the port is somewhat obscured.

The are probably some underwater types out there as well.

[Artisan]

The are probably some underwater types out there as well.

Hi Jai Dee, could one be the "Pirom", Pattaya's own yellow submarine?

Sorry JD, couldn't resist it.

Edited April 20, 2006 by Artisan

[Hermano Lobo]

Russian Kilo-class submarine.

"Russia continues to aid China's military modernization effort. Beijing signed a $1.6 billion deal in May 2002 to buy eight Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, one of the quietest subs in the world. Construction of the first two subs recently got underway at the Sevmash defense industry shipyards in Severodvinsk; the other six are to be completed by 2005, ITAR-TASS reported."

Time for some good old-fashioned spying?

Edited April 25, 2006 by Hermano Lobo

[Kerryd]

Russian Kilo-class submarine.

Time for some good old-fashioned spying?

Reminds me of an exercise I was on back in '82. (Get out the helmets, war story incoming !)

We were enroute to the Aluetian Islands for an amphibious assault (sort of a re-enactment of the Devil's Brigade in WW II).

I was enjoying some fresh air on deck when I heard sirens from a couple of the escort destroyers. 2 of them from the outer screen turned inwards and headed directly for the ship I was on (the USS Bristol County. To the rear (stern) of the ship, a Russian submarine had suddenly surfaced. As fast as he broke the surface, he dove again. The 2 destroyers crossed over where he had been, they had obviously tried to ram him (remember, this was the early eighties, not very far from the Russian coast).

In later briefings, we were told they suspected the sub had been quietly sitting on the bottom, waiting for us. They figured the Russians were just playing a game with us, letting us know they could have nailed us had they wanted to.

Being a dry-land soldier, the thought of being sunk and having to swim in the North Pacific in November didn't impress me very much. The real sucky part of the whole exercise was that we spent 6 weeks at sea (getting there and back), and a grand total of 36 hours on our target island, whose only inhabitants were mutant rats.

[Kerryd]

Some of my mates who work here have said that 3 ducklings to date have sailed into port with #72, and there are at least 3 others anchored a couple of km out at sea. My view of the port is somewhat obscured.

The are probably some underwater types out there as well.

Careful Jai Dee ! As you are watching them, expect them to be watching you !

Look any longer than 3 seconds and you are staring.

If you are staring, you are a possible terrorist and could win a free trip (of indefinite length) to G'tmo.

Posting details on the internet will be proof eough of your evil intentions.

Can I have your job while you are on "vacation" ?

[sriracha john]

Russian Kilo-class submarine.

"Russia continues to aid China's military modernization effort. Beijing signed a $1.6 billion deal in May 2002 to buy eight Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, one of the quietest subs in the world. Construction of the first two subs recently got underway at the Sevmash defense industry shipyards in Severodvinsk; the other six are to be completed by 2005, ITAR-TASS reported."

Time for some good old-fashioned spying?

The Kilo's are not so quiet.... my boat, the ***classified*** , followed one in it's baffles for quite awhile... before they had to break off and go up to snorkle depth to recharge their batteries... oh, the shortcomings of the diesel-electrics are many....

Meanwhile, our nuke power plant went **classified*** miles before refuelling.

[Rimmer]

CVN -72 USS Abraham Lincoln

USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Went on the Carl Vinsen a few years back in Stinkypore, took pictures of everything on deck and under it but that was before 9/11.

Now I guess there will be no chance to get within even a few miles

[Hermano Lobo]

Russian Kilo-class submarine.

"Russia continues to aid China's military modernization effort. Beijing signed a $1.6 billion deal in May 2002 to buy eight Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, one of the quietest subs in the world. Construction of the first two subs recently got underway at the Sevmash defense industry shipyards in Severodvinsk; the other six are to be completed by 2005, ITAR-TASS reported."

Time for some good old-fashioned spying?

The Kilo's are not so quiet.... my boat, the ***classified*** , followed one in it's baffles for quite awhile... before they had to break off and go up to snorkle depth to recharge their batteries... oh, the shortcomings of the diesel-electrics are many....

Meanwhile, our nuke power plant went **classified*** miles before refuelling.

sriracha john,

At a guess if you were in a Royal Navy boat it would be a Churchill class, a US Navy boat probably a Los Angeles class. If there are many short-comings with diesel-electrics at another guess I would say that is why the Royal Navy sold off its 'Upholder Class' boats ? I can see the need for diesel electrics for silent work and dropping off 'Special Forces' for a little on-shore business. The US Navy has spent more money on making its boats 'quiet' than the money spent on the Royal Navy at the time..... the 1980's anyway.

As you know recording the 'Cavitation Signature' of a major capital asset like the USS Abraham Lincoln is highly desirable. This unique recording can then be uploaded into your torpedo software. The sound of the ship could activate the torpedo if lying 'doggo' at the bottom of the ocean(depending on depth) or something similar for a submarine.

The game of 'Cat & Mouse' will probably never end but will likely fill the coffers of the author Tom Clancy.

[sriracha john]

Russian Kilo-class submarine.

"Russia continues to aid China's military modernization effort. Beijing signed a $1.6 billion deal in May 2002 to buy eight Russian Kilo-class diesel-electric submarines, one of the quietest subs in the world. Construction of the first two subs recently got underway at the Sevmash defense industry shipyards in Severodvinsk; the other six are to be completed by 2005, ITAR-TASS reported."

Time for some good old-fashioned spying?

The Kilo's are not so quiet.... my boat, the ***classified*** , followed one in it's baffles for quite awhile... before they had to break off and go up to snorkle depth to recharge their batteries... oh, the shortcomings of the diesel-electrics are many....

Meanwhile, our nuke power plant went **classified*** miles before refuelling.

sriracha john,

At a guess if you were in a Royal Navy boat it would be a Churchill class, a US Navy boat probably a Los Angeles class. If there are many short-comings with diesel-electrics at another guess I would say that is why the Royal Navy sold off its 'Upholder Class' boats ? I can see the need for diesel electrics for silent work and dropping off 'Special Forces' for a little on-shore business. The US Navy has spent more money on making its boats 'quiet' than the money spent on the Royal Navy at the time..... the 1980's anyway.

As you know recording the 'Cavitation Signature' of a major capital asset like the USS Abraham Lincoln is highly desirable. This unique recording can then be uploaded into your torpedo software. The sound of the ship could activate the torpedo if lying 'doggo' at the bottom of the ocean(depending on depth) or something similar for a submarine.

The game of 'Cat & Mouse' will probably never end but will likely fill the coffers of the author Tom Clancy.

U.S. sailor here.

Yes, I would agree that there is a role for the diesel-electrics, but for long, open-ocean journeys, such as a Russian boat going to Thailand, they have the recharging shortcoming...

Did many Special Forces Ops on our boat and altho' the nukes are a bit noisier, they are more than adequate for the job.

On the balance sheet, the nukes win out... which is why the U.S. fleet is all nuke.

The Abe's been around long enough that her signature is more than likely already been recorded. We had tapes of ***classified***% of the entire Russian and Chinese naval fleets.

Edited April 26, 2006 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Agree... also... the games will continue... and Clancy will get richer...

Edited April 26, 2006 by sriracha john

[Hermano Lobo]

Agree... also... the games will continue... and Clancy will get richer...

Russian Akula class submarines are deployed in the Pacific.

"We had tapes of ***classified***% of the entire Russian and Chinese naval fleets."

I bet they sound like two skeletons making love on a corrugated iron roof ?

Did you ever listen to the 45 knot all officer manned 'Alpha Class' ? Nicknamed the Golden Bullet because of cost I believe they are all retired now?

Played the 'Crazy Ivan' game ?

I have made some commets about a naval film on IMDb - you might like to read them although this time I doubt whether you will agree ?

http://imdb.com/title/tt0054310/usercomments-23

Edited April 26, 2006 by Hermano Lobo

[ray23]

Ok guys when do the prices go back down in Pattaya

[ilyushin]

C-5A was in Utapao last week. The signals div has installed com. Saw a Dc10-30 ( white tail) flying over Ban Chang which could be used for several reasons. The helicopters will be flying over Pattaya with FLIR fitted like last year so wave when they are over head.

[Hermano Lobo]

C-5A was in Utapao last week. The signals div has installed com. Saw a Dc10-30 ( white tail) flying over Ban Chang which could be used for several reasons. The helicopters will be flying over Pattaya with FLIR fitted like last year so wave when they are over head.

Ah-ha a fellow aircraft spotter !

I hope you look at this site:-

http://www.pprune.org/forums/

And my own about the Royal Thai Air Force Museum:-

http://www.geocities.com/spitfiremk9/rtaf.html

[sriracha john]

Agree... also... the games will continue... and Clancy will get richer...

Russian Akula class submarines are deployed in the Pacific.

"We had tapes of ***classified***% of the entire Russian and Chinese naval fleets."

I bet they sound like two skeletons making love on a corrugated iron roof ?

Did you ever listen to the 45 knot all officer manned 'Alpha Class' ? Nicknamed the Golden Bullet because of cost I believe they are all retired now?

Yes. Noisy as a freight train through your living room..

Played the 'Crazy Ivan' game ?

Can't comment

I have made some commets about a naval film on IMDb - you might like to read them although this time I doubt whether you will agree ?

http://imdb.com/title/tt0054310/usercomments-23

which comments were yours? I agree with the OP that subs have the potential to control any future naval wars. After experiences on both the surface and then beneath it... subs are far superior. The surface ships (our own and our allied Navies) could never find us consistently during exercises. We enjoyed popping up to radio transmission depths to send them photos of their vessels with our periscope crosshairs on them, taken a 1/2 hour previously, and with added comments like, "bang, bang... you're dead"

[Hermano Lobo]

Agree... also... the games will continue... and Clancy will get richer...

Russian Akula class submarines are deployed in the Pacific.

"We had tapes of ***classified***% of the entire Russian and Chinese naval fleets."

I bet they sound like two skeletons making love on a corrugated iron roof ?

Did you ever listen to the 45 knot all officer manned 'Alpha Class' ? Nicknamed the Golden Bullet because of cost I believe they are all retired now?

Yes. Noisy as a freight train through your living room..

Played the 'Crazy Ivan' game ?

Can't comment

I have made some commets about a naval film on IMDb - you might like to read them although this time I doubt whether you will agree ?

http://imdb.com/title/tt0054310/usercomments-23

which comments were yours? I agree with the OP that subs have the potential to control any future naval wars. After experiences on both the surface and then beneath it... subs are far superior. The surface ships (our own and our allied Navies) could never find us consistently during exercises. We enjoyed popping up to radio transmission depths to send them photos of their vessels with our periscope crosshairs on them, taken a 1/2 hour previously, and with added comments like, "bang, bang... you're dead"

My comments ? Everything except my quotes of Admiral Lutjens from the film 'Sink the Bismarck'.

"Bang..bang ..you're dead"

Some crazy things went on during the alleged 'Cold War' - Back in 1984 I met some Royal Marines in Greece who when not eating their beer glass for a party trick told me about a certain Sea King helicopter pilot. He flew up to a Soviet destroyer then touched down on the helicopter pad. He and his crew all waved at the Soviet crew then flew off again leaving a lot of dropped-jaw Soviet sailors ! It happened so quick they didn't have time to react !

Fly Navy

[sriracha john]

My comments ? Everything except my quotes of Admiral Lutjens from the film 'Sink the Bismarck'.

"Bang..bang ..you're dead"

Some crazy things went on during the alleged 'Cold War' - Back in 1984 I met some Royal Marines in Greece who when not eating their beer glass for a party trick told me about a certain Sea King helicopter pilot. He flew up to a Soviet destroyer then touched down on the helicopter pad. He and his crew all waved at the Soviet crew then flew off again leaving a lot of dropped-jaw Soviet sailors ! It happened so quick they didn't have time to react !

Fly Navy

What's with these "Sea-titled" helo pilots?

Going back a bit further to 1980, during flight operations on the fantail of our surface ship, a

CH-76 "Sea Knight" helicoptor, like this one:

landed... took him quite awhile and it just barely fit as they are really big for the relative smallness of a cruiser's flight deck.

While on-loading some gear and with the rotors still going, a big bag of pot blows out of the pilot's pocket, witnessed by several of our crew. The pilot simply reached down and put it back into his pocket...

Ahhh... different times... those early 80's were.

Epilogue: Nothing happened to the pilot... they loaded the gear and flew off into the horizon... just like this one:

Fly Navy...cause they're Flyin' High

Edited April 27, 2006 by sriracha john

[Hermano Lobo]

An old friend of mine who is a real 'Top Gun' F-16 pilot complained about the reference to 'pot' in this story I wrote some years back:-

Lieutenant Commander Joe "Hollywood" Harris's F4B Phantom sank slightly as it left the deck of the aircraft carrier U.S.S Ranger.

Pratt & Whitney engines then thundered the two seat fighter into a cloudless sky.

"Didn't finish yah smoke then?" Grunted Tony "Diego" Molina the radar officer sitting behind Joe.

Joe was halfway into a 'joint' when a Lockheed Constellation radar picket aircraft warned of two North Vietnamese Mig-17's homing towards a Beechcraft reconnaissance airplane.

Arrogant, good looking and knowingly the best pilot Joe was confident in dealing with the Migs. As the Migs split formation two other Phantoms closed on one, Joe on the other.

Mig-17's are subsonic but very manoeuvrable.

"Let's kick-butt," growled Joe.

'Kick-Butt' was the name he had emblazoned on his Phantom.

"Mig at seven o'clock low, - hey that's Colonel Toon's aircraft!" Screamed Tony.

The legendary Colonel Toon.

"Let's see how good you are Mr Toon," grunted Joe.

The two aircraft scissored through an azure sky as Joe put his 'plane into a climbing turn.

"Where'd he go? Where'd he go?" barked Tony.

Cannon shells ripped through the Phantom, stripping blades from the engines.

Warning bells and hooters created a cacophony of impending danger in the cockpit.

"We're going down, - bang out Tony, bang out!" Ordered Joe.

Hanging from his parachute Tony saw the stricken Phantom streak towards the ground.

"Get out man, get out!" "What's wrong ?" Tony whined.

Joe wrestled with the controls of his wounded mount and with sheer skill he managed a belly landing amongst sodden rice fields.

"Get out, must get out," thought Joe.

Manually opening the canopy a loud bang threw him to a mud bank.

Viet Cong advanced. Joe passed out.

Oriental hands lifted and dragged him. He awoke in a stone cell, prison ?

A bowl of something was pushed to his lips. He drank. Someone had bandaged his wounds.

Strange chanting awoke him again.

He still had his radio locator in his flying suit. Strange, no response. Joe heard the Viet Cong approach the cell.

Two Buddhist monks entered.

The older one indicated all was well. Joe was lucky to be alive. He slept.

His bed felt strange, like sand. He was back in the rice field again!

The olive green uniforms of 'Charlie' - North Vietnamese, adavnced toward his partially burnt out Phantom.

Thump, whoop, thump, whoop. The unmistakable sound of a Bell Huey rescue helicopter.

Joe tried an S.O.S on his locator. It worked!

Amid Viet Cong gunfire Joe was pulled to safety into the Huey.

"What happened man, we were looking for you for days?" said a rescuer.

Joe explained about the Buddhist Temple.

"Temple ? You're nearly into Cambodia, there hasn't been a temple here since the French wasted this area more than ten years ago!"

Barked an officer.

"I've been saved, I was told never to mix it with Colonel Toon," said Joe humbly.

"You were just plain lucky pal," commented the officer.

Joe: "I was lucky, you made me remember. What was that war all about anyway?"

Copyright Cafe Brasilia International

Edited April 27, 2006 by Hermano Lobo

[Hermano Lobo]

Last line should read:-

Joe: "I was lucky, you made me remember."

What was that war all about anyway?

Edited April 27, 2006 by Hermano Lobo

[bulzit]

So when will the Navy pull out for this execise?

[ray23]

Last line should read:-

Joe: "I was lucky, you made me remember."

What was that war all about anyway?

Lot of debate on that one, I sure don't know. Looking at the photos things have changed very much in the Navy since I was in as a kid, we were never allowed to even have civilain clothes onboard. That's a better thing I would think, not that you can't pick the guys out from the crowd.

Gentle hint when the prices go back down the excercise is over

[jdinasia]

The prices only go up for the over 50 crowd :-)

[ilyushin]

Abe's 90 fixed wing and helicopters should be a sight. Abe I will be in Ban Chang and Sattahip tomorrow and hope to see some transport birds and more.

[ray23]

The prices only go up for the over 50 crowd :-)

Well thats why I'm asking

And when I'm in the over 70 crowd I hope I will still be asking

[Kerryd]

The prices only go up for the over 50 crowd :-)

Well thats why I'm asking

And when I'm in the over 70 crowd I hope I will still be asking

No worries there mate ! As long as you're still drawing breath in your body and there's money in your pocket, you'll be set. (I just turned 45 so I have a ways to go yet)

[ilyushin]

Small group of US troops this year. Don't think they will drink the vat dry.

Yesterday , I saw a KC135 and ( Atlas) 747-400F at Utapao and F16s overhead.

More to come.