The idea of the modern Navy using pencils for anything may seem absurd but the thinking is for resolution of various Navy ship crashes which have taken place in recent months. The expectation for the use of pencils is real but it's part of an overall drive to go back to basics to prevent additional crashes.
Damage to the Navy destroyer John S. McCain after it collided with a tanker last month while approaching Singapore.
Credit Wong Maye-E/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Urgent new orders went out earlier this month for United States Navy warships that have been plagued by deadly mishaps this year.
More sleep and no more 100-hour workweeks for sailors. Ships steaming in crowded waters like those near Singapore and Tokyo will now broadcast their positions as do other vessels. And ships whose crews lack basic seamanship certification will probably stay in port until the problems are fixed.
New York Times: Navy Returns to Compasses and Pencils to Help Avoid Collisions at Sea
Likely you see at least one problem above which you would expect to degrade reliability for any type of working unit. When sailors are consistently working one hundred hour weeks, it's inevitable to the Rockhouse reliability will suffer.
Here's the part about using pencils:
Collectively, current and former officers said, the new rules mark several significant cultural shifts for the Navy’s tradition-bound fleets. At least for the moment, safety and maintenance are on par with operational security, and commanders are requiring sailors to use old-fashioned compasses, pencils and paper to help track potential hazards, as well as reducing a captain’s discretion to define what rules the watch team follows if the captain is not on the ship’s bridge.
- NYT
Editorials fly in every direction from that one but the Rockhouse isn't going to write one. The Navy's reaction is typical of some common thinking about calculators, that those who can solve those types of problems without the calculator which have a fundamental advantage.
Here's some effort toward explanation:
There is little argument, however, that a shrinking Navy is performing the same duties that a larger fleet did a decade ago, and that constant deployments leave little time to train and maintain ships amid their relentless duties.
- NYT
Sure there's argument since a shrinking Navy was intentional due to the greater capability of modern vessels. The other side of it is the Navy is over-committed in too many hostile engagements.
There's a great deal more on the matter in the source article for the interested student but the Rockhouse is most interested in the use of pencils and old equipment for a more reliable result. One of the most consistent arguments from the Rockhouse is more technology is better but that isn't apparently what the Navy discovered.
It may seem the sailors were at fault:
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators during a hearing on Tuesday about his visit to the Navy destroyer Barry several months ago, and of his learning that the ship had been at sea for 70 percent of the past 12 months.
“When we go back now and we look at were they able to do all the training necessary, and what was their life like during those 12 months, 70 percent of the time underway is an unsustainable rate,” General Dunford said.
- NYT
What do you mean you didn't know, General?
As said the Times, the proposed solutions are simple common sense. The way the situation got like this is not common sense but the Rockhouse isn't interested in pursuing that aspect. Here at the Rockhouse, the much larger question is whether advanced technology is the godsend it's often touted to be. I've frequently touted various types of technology as a godsend for various different fields and, hence, the interest.
Thank you to Pink for the information.
Damage to the Navy destroyer John S. McCain after it collided with a tanker last month while approaching Singapore.
Credit Wong Maye-E/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Urgent new orders went out earlier this month for United States Navy warships that have been plagued by deadly mishaps this year.
More sleep and no more 100-hour workweeks for sailors. Ships steaming in crowded waters like those near Singapore and Tokyo will now broadcast their positions as do other vessels. And ships whose crews lack basic seamanship certification will probably stay in port until the problems are fixed.
New York Times: Navy Returns to Compasses and Pencils to Help Avoid Collisions at Sea
Likely you see at least one problem above which you would expect to degrade reliability for any type of working unit. When sailors are consistently working one hundred hour weeks, it's inevitable to the Rockhouse reliability will suffer.
Here's the part about using pencils:
Collectively, current and former officers said, the new rules mark several significant cultural shifts for the Navy’s tradition-bound fleets. At least for the moment, safety and maintenance are on par with operational security, and commanders are requiring sailors to use old-fashioned compasses, pencils and paper to help track potential hazards, as well as reducing a captain’s discretion to define what rules the watch team follows if the captain is not on the ship’s bridge.
- NYT
Editorials fly in every direction from that one but the Rockhouse isn't going to write one. The Navy's reaction is typical of some common thinking about calculators, that those who can solve those types of problems without the calculator which have a fundamental advantage.
Here's some effort toward explanation:
There is little argument, however, that a shrinking Navy is performing the same duties that a larger fleet did a decade ago, and that constant deployments leave little time to train and maintain ships amid their relentless duties.
- NYT
Sure there's argument since a shrinking Navy was intentional due to the greater capability of modern vessels. The other side of it is the Navy is over-committed in too many hostile engagements.
There's a great deal more on the matter in the source article for the interested student but the Rockhouse is most interested in the use of pencils and old equipment for a more reliable result. One of the most consistent arguments from the Rockhouse is more technology is better but that isn't apparently what the Navy discovered.
It may seem the sailors were at fault:
Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators during a hearing on Tuesday about his visit to the Navy destroyer Barry several months ago, and of his learning that the ship had been at sea for 70 percent of the past 12 months.
“When we go back now and we look at were they able to do all the training necessary, and what was their life like during those 12 months, 70 percent of the time underway is an unsustainable rate,” General Dunford said.
- NYT
What do you mean you didn't know, General?
As said the Times, the proposed solutions are simple common sense. The way the situation got like this is not common sense but the Rockhouse isn't interested in pursuing that aspect. Here at the Rockhouse, the much larger question is whether advanced technology is the godsend it's often touted to be. I've frequently touted various types of technology as a godsend for various different fields and, hence, the interest.
Thank you to Pink for the information.
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