Saw this on MSN this morning...
new and expensive ship....
".......ships are built to accommodate helicopters and mission
"modules" for either anti-submarine missions, mine removal or
traditional surface warfare. The modules are designed to be swapped
out within 24 hours, allowing the ships to adapt quickly to new
missions.
While they're fast, they aren't necessarily the fastest
military ships afloat. The Navy used to have missile-equipped
hydrofoils and the Marines' air-cushioned landing craft is capable
of similar speeds, Wertheim said. And smaller ships are capable of
higher speeds.
Nonetheless, the speed is impressive, especially
considering that other large naval vessels have been cruising along
at a relatively pokey 30 to 35 knots for decades.
Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Lexington
Institute, noted that Independence sustained 44 knots despite a
30-knot headwind and 6- to 8-foot seas in Alabama's Mobile Bay.
"For a ship of this size, it's simply unheard of to sustain that
rate of speed for four hours," he said.
