NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Navigation in the Royal Navy
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2011 Sep 15, 18:48 +0100
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2011 Sep 15, 18:48 +0100
Yesterday, I went on a conducted tour of HMS Dauntless, a type 45
destroyer in the British Royal Navy. It was a very quick tour of the
ship, despite the fact that a one hour tour actually took two hours, and
a detailed explanation of the washing machines did tire a little, but
there were some moments of interest.
I had a chuckle when the chief fire fighter on board was telling us about the emergency kit he had displayed in front of him. One item was a tapered wooden plug, whose purpose would have been instantly appreciated on HMS Victory 250 years ago, and on board which there are some examples of the plugs used in those days - just a bit wider to suit the cannon calibre of those days.
I asked a mid about the principle means of navigation on the ship. He said it was GPS. I expressed surprise, since there is generally great concern about how easy it is to jam GPS signals. "Ah yes," he said, "but we use the military version of the GPS." Same satellites it seems, but a 'ruggedised' signal that is proof from jamming. He said they had some people come on board with a variety of jammers to see how vulnerable the signal was. Their most determined attack moved the Dauntless some 6 metres in virtual space - which was not considered significant.
On the matter of celestial navigation, he said that there is still a requirement to be proficient in the use of celestial navigation. Indeed, the mid I was talking to was about to go on a refresher course. The traditional noon sight is supposed to still be enacted every day, he said, but not usually in British coastal waters.
Geoffrey Kolbe
I had a chuckle when the chief fire fighter on board was telling us about the emergency kit he had displayed in front of him. One item was a tapered wooden plug, whose purpose would have been instantly appreciated on HMS Victory 250 years ago, and on board which there are some examples of the plugs used in those days - just a bit wider to suit the cannon calibre of those days.
I asked a mid about the principle means of navigation on the ship. He said it was GPS. I expressed surprise, since there is generally great concern about how easy it is to jam GPS signals. "Ah yes," he said, "but we use the military version of the GPS." Same satellites it seems, but a 'ruggedised' signal that is proof from jamming. He said they had some people come on board with a variety of jammers to see how vulnerable the signal was. Their most determined attack moved the Dauntless some 6 metres in virtual space - which was not considered significant.
On the matter of celestial navigation, he said that there is still a requirement to be proficient in the use of celestial navigation. Indeed, the mid I was talking to was about to go on a refresher course. The traditional noon sight is supposed to still be enacted every day, he said, but not usually in British coastal waters.
Geoffrey Kolbe
