US Navy and the fancy colors

The Port Royal was the test platform for an experimental plastic antifouling coating.   However she ran aground off of Pearl Harbor on her first trip since getting the new material.   She then spent most of a week on the rocks getting the coating ground off, along with much of her running gear and sonar gear.    

The Port Royal was the one and only with the blue hull

The experiment will need to be re-run on another platform.  The Port Royal will be in the yard for a looooong time getting fixed.   The last I heard the repair bill estimate was going to be in the neighborhood of 9 to 10 million

Here's the original Navy page with details, no info on the cruiser:

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=70248 

It shouldn;t be too difficult to figure the cruiser out by Es and emblems...

Since the un-named digital camo cruiser has a set of Texas longhorns mounted below the bridge, I'm certain it's the COWPENS.

Since the un-named digital camo cruiser has a set of Texas longhorns mounted below the bridge it's the COWPENS.

CG Bob wrote:

Since the un-named digital camo cruiser has a set of Texas longhorns mounted below the bridge, I'm certain it's the COWPENS.

...and the characters on the stern of the barge/tug along side her would lead us to believe that she is in Yokosuka, where the Cowpens is currently forward deployed.

I found some more shots of her with that pattern; it goes back at least until March 2006:

http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=64078
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=54738
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=52845
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=49463
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=48965
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=38798
http://www.navy.mil/view_single.asp?id=33007 

I wonder if the 'digital' pattern isn't some sort of paint test for durability.....

At first, it looked like it was merely "at sea" maintenence painting, the pattern being small. 

But, it was in all of the photos, and that kind of swayed me to "meant to" pattern.

However, a second stroll through the photos seems to show the pattern not being constant.  It's also only on the superstructure, too; none on the hull at all.  If it were a true
"tactical" paint job, I'm guessing the pattern would, 1, be larger, and 2, include the hull.  Now, that is supposition on my part.  And a little bit od experience with the catalyized acrylic paint which weathers (and applies) at all sorts of different rates and tones. 

That, and the Spru-cans and Ticos are not much fun to keep painted at sea with those great bluff sides always a little bit in the weather while under way (or with a breeze blowing excess droplets off either on the pierside or on an adjacent vessel--who will have invariably a higher ranking officer aboard <g>).

CG Bob wrote:

Since the un-named digital camo cruiser has a set of Texas longhorns mounted below the bridge it's the COWPENS.

 

Nice pic.

it is now my desktop wallpaper at work!

I think this may be the answer to the fancy paint job..... Usually when the Navy, or other defense entity has a contract ready for filling, it is put out to bid with a number of specifications and requirements for a number of contractors to meet, and the contractors provide examples of their prospective products for testing.  In this case, it is a lot easier to figure out which paint is which by making sure they are of slightly different colors (all the lightest colors are by Sherwin Williams, the next lightest by somebody else, etc).  The paints are applied to a ship, which sails around in regular operations for a few years, and then each of the paints are examined to see which has held up best, is most cost-effective, and is easiest for sailors to apply, and that is the one that gets the contract (sure wish I had won the Navy paint contract in WW2!!).

To those who think, or hope, it is the Cowpens, Tracy White's first picture IDs it as USS Mustin.  Got the harbor right tho'!

But then again, it looks just like all the other pictures Tracy posted of the Cowpens!  Gee, even the Navy doesn't recognize its own ships. That's good Camo!

tucchase wrote:

To those who think, or hope, it is the Cowpens, Tracy White's first picture IDs it as USS Mustin.  Got the harbor right tho'! But then again, it looks just like all the other pictures Tracy posted of the Cowpens!  Gee, even the Navy doesn't recognize its own ships. That's good Camo!

http://www.mustin.navy.mil/default.aspx

Yes somebody goofed, the Mustin is a DDG not a CG.  However, it they were refering to the ship behind the Cowpens you will see the DESRON 15 Shield on a ship.  The Mustin is part of DESRON 15

http://www.desron15.navy.mil/Site%20Pages/shipscorrected.htm

 

searat12 wrote:

I think this may be the answer to the fancy paint job..... Usually when the Navy, or other defense entity has a contract ready for filling, it is put out to bid with a number of specifications and requirements for a number of contractors to meet, and the contractors provide examples of their prospective products for testing.  In this case, it is a lot easier to figure out which paint is which by making sure they are of slightly different colors (all the lightest colors are by Sherwin Williams, the next lightest by somebody else, etc).  The paints are applied to a ship, which sails around in regular operations for a few years, and then each of the paints are examined to see which has held up best, is most cost-effective, and is easiest for sailors to apply, and that is the one that gets the contract (sure wish I had won the Navy paint contract in WW2!!).

Gotta agree here.  It is not even in what is considered the "standard" for digital camo patterns like the other branches of the military use.  It is too blocky wth no real "camo" effect to it.  Not to mention that why would a ship need a digital camo pattern?  The concept works when you have objects to break the outlines lke trees, rocks, etc.   But out at sea with just the horizon....nope, don't believe it is meant as camo.

Brian

Could be a moral booster. It's been known to happen before in the military. I tend to think not, as she already has the horns and the non-regulation stern, but it's a possibility.

Since I now mostly deal directly with nuclear powered ships and and only occasionaly board the the conventially powered ones, I don't get too many opportunities to get right up on their paint jobs. I have been told however, by some of my non-nuke brethren that the Ticos have a radar absorbing tile on the slab sided superstructures (you can imagine the huge radar return this flat billboard would cause). Also, this big flat surface would be a friendly return for some optically (or infra-red) guided anti-ship missiles. The low-viz hull numbers and the unpainted ships' names on the sterns are evidence of this countermeasure. This could be an early example of this measure.