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Naval Primer for Twilight 2000
Naval/Maritime Primer for Twilight 2000:
During discussions in Lists and Bulletin boards a clear lack of practical knowledge is lacking in matters both Naval and Maritime. Firstly I am no doctrinal expert, tactics vary not just along national lines but also are determined by the weapons systems available at the time. What’s installed, works and has ammo, all keys to how to "fight the ship".
The following is a brief description of what is required to put to sea, conduct an operation and then return. Then a brief description of each general class of warship and it’s weapons and capabilities, I emphasis brief and general.
The model is on American procedures, definitely not the standard anywhere else on the planet. The Europeans have trained almost all 3rd world navies at one time or another. The procedures of the USN are hardly the likely course, but should work for lack of anything else. If a non-american sailor says that's not the way we do it. They probably don't. The USN is notably different than the euro norm and not always for the better.
The crew:
Rank and ceremony of rank is determined according to taste. We’ve all seen enough war movies to know how to fake it. Crew make up may be a bit grayer
I say a fair ratio of Officer to enlisted is 10-20% with the remaining enlisted with 10-20% Senior Enlisted meaning ranks relative to a "Chief". So...Crew of 250:
20 Officers (CO, XO, 4 department heads Engineer, Weps, Ops, Supply, the remaining 14 divided among them Paymaster, Navigator, Engineer assistant, Gunnery, ASW etc.)
40 Senior enlisted (Senior Petty Officers)
160 Ratings (Junior Petty Officers and Seamen)Departments and careers:
The ship is usually divided thus;Operations; Radarmen, Electronic Warfare, Radiomen, Boatswains (some models assign Boatswains to Weapons department.) This dept. tells the ship where to go and what to do. Operationally and tactically. This is the also the department that steers the ship in support of the ships navigator during coastal navigation entering and leaving port. This procedure begins to devolve as ships get smaller than Frigate size.
Weapons; Fire Control, Sonarmen, Torpedoemen, Gunnersmates Electronic Repairmen for radios and radars. These are the shooters, targeting what roughly operations has determined hostile and engageable. During Coastal navigation these are the line handlers for all but the forward lines, which are assigned to the Boatswains the anchor dropping experts.
Engineers; Enginemen for the Auxiliary equipment, Machinistmates (Nuclear and Non-nuclear), Boiler technicians (on steam ships), Gas Turbinemen (on gas turbine ships) at all times assigned to operation of the ships main propulsion (Gas, Steam or Nuclear) and the operation of the ships non propulsion equipment (diesel electric engines for times when main propulsion is off, Electric Generators running off the main propulsion, water evaporators for drinking water and machinery/equipment cooling water the latter of which is the most critical, all telegraphic equipment that transmit plant statuses around the ship to the bridge and other control stations.) The bulk supply of experts in damage control and repair leadership and management. Both inport and at sea. Inport all personnel are available, at sea Ops and Weps are fighting the battle.
Supply; Cooks, Barbers, Storekeepers both for the crew usage and spare parts, paymasters. Bulk supply for emergency lookouts and damage control team members during battle stations when Weapons and Operations are fighting the war.
Navigation and Admin; A supplemental group of assistant navigation team members and the paperwork experts for administering the crew and the ships affairs. A body pool for Non line handler stations during coastal navigation and for damage control team members.
Ship Operations;
Entering and leaving port;
All visual and radar navigation stations are manned. All redundant ship steerage stations not normally manned are. Additional lookouts are posted with communications to the bridge either directly or indirectly. A heightened state of damage control preparedness is implemented by making all doors below main deck watertight.
Normal navigation is visual with radar corroboration and the advice of a local pilot. A pilot being a resident expert on the ebbs, tides, eddy’s, currents etc. of an individual port. Primarily in place for merchant seamen that may see a particular portion of a channel only rarely, a home ported ship or one that has been operating in and out of a port repeatedly will be less dependent on the direction of the pilot. The crew having experience in the management of the variable conditions in relation to there ship.
In the world of Twilight 2000 there may be total lack of these experts in that the channel is less likely to be maintained and the pilots are being utilized less so due to lack of merchant traffic.
A warship in a pinch is more than capable and trained to proceed, though cautiously, in or out of any port.
Navigation is primarily but not exclusively visual, radar being available at all times to check the accuracy of the visual fix which is 3 or more bearing taken from known land marks or navigation aids. Radar is 3 or more ranges taken from prominent points of land. In fog or smoke or even a NBC environment when visual bearings or bearing takers are unavailable a ship can navigate reliable though more cautiously on exclusively radar ranges. Visual aids like shapes in rigging, multi-color lights, bells and fog horns all aid in the collection of environmental information to safely allow a ship to proceed. If at anytime a ship can not deduce it’s location or the location of a noise in low visibility it is almost universally standard to stop until the occurrence is corrected.At sea;
Ships watches are manned according to threat expected and length of time exposed to the threat.
Condition 1; Battle stations all hands are at there fighting stations and all fire and repair parties are manned. All weapon systems are manned and available. No administrative duties are conducted and food (or messing) is bag lunches or field rations. In NBC environment battle messing is even suspended until the ship and all hands are decontaminated. Any weapon can be deployed or sensor activated at a moment’s notice. Not sustained longer than the time required for battle then condition 2 is set. Crew is in full battle dress (flash gear, life jackets, helmets etc)
Condition 2; Special conditions, ASW, Gun fire support (bombardment), Underway replenishment, At sea refueling, Flight Operations entering or leaving port during wartime threat. Not sustained indefinitely due to imminent and quick crew fatigue and the dangers of loss of equipment or manpower to accidents.
Condition 3; Normal peacetime sailing. No threat perceived or expected. Minimum manning for safe conduct of routine tasks. Crew is the most rested. Indefinitely manned.
Condition 4; Inport wartime. High state of alert and ability to put to sea or defend the ship from attack..
More too follow later. This is allot of typing :-).
