Bunker hill cruiser

Bunker Hill Missile Cruiser (CG-52) is the sixth Ticonderoga class cruiser, and it is the most modernized and advanced first-class large surface warship in the world. The ship started construction in 1984 and was completed and put into use in 1987. It belongs to the 7th Fleet of the US Navy Pacific Fleet, deployed in Yokosuga, and belongs to the 5th Aircraft Carrier Brigade. Usually fight independently with the aircraft carrier and serve as the command ship in the aircraft carrier battle group.

Unique warship design.

The naming rules of American ships vary with different ship grades. For example, Nimitz, Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Lincoln in Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are all named after influential American presidents, while dozens of Ticonderoga-class ships are named after famous American place names, and Bunker Hill is no exception.

There is also a habit of American naval vessels. After a ship is sunk, scrapped or retired, the newly built ship still uses its name and inherits its tradition and honor. In World War II, an aircraft carrier of the United States Navy fought against Japan many times in the Pacific War in the name of Bunker Hill, with outstanding achievements.

In order to commemorate this aircraft carrier severely damaged by the Japanese army, the cruiser Bunker Hill inherited her name and honor, and marked 1 1 battle star on the ship emblem. In addition, at the highest point of the starboard superstructure, the outstanding achievements of warships are marked with five capital E's, and above the huge E's, they are colorful and eye-catching medals.

American ships are somewhat similar to western ships, giving people the impression that they are beautiful in appearance, simple and generous, and magnificent. If compared with the naval vessels of some countries, you will find that her biggest feature is that the vessels are slender and neat, and the superstructure is low and neatly arranged on the upper deck, without feeling bloated and messy. Bunker Hill, as a famous modern warship, naturally maintains these traditions and advantages.

A large warship with a full load and a displacement of nearly 9,000 tons usually has more than a dozen radar antennas stacked on the superstructure, and various types of missiles, rockets, torpedoes and artillery are installed above the upper deck.

But when I climbed Bunker Mountain and strolled on the spacious and tidy upper deck, the usual heaviness and disorder of those ships were gone. Apart from a 127 mm automatic gun at the bow and two four-piece harpoon missile launchers at the stern, almost no other weapons can be seen.

After boarding the superstructure, you can only see the small hemispherical naval gun aiming radome on the foremast, two ship-to-air missile guidance radar antennas, navigation radar and some communication antennas, while the giant fan-shaped antenna as dense as a spider web on the previous ship has disappeared.

Under the guidance of the ship's officers, I finally found two sets of missile vertical launchers under the upper deck of the bow and four octagonal phased array radar antennas attached to the outer edge of the superstructure. I can't help but admire Bunker Hill for truly realizing a new revolution in ship shape design.

Guided by the officer on duty, we went into the interior of the ship to visit. This is a fully enclosed warship with good ventilation and air conditioning facilities, including officers' lounge, officers' dormitory, soldiers' dormitory, spacious dining room, recreation room, library, gym, laundry room, infirmary and ward.

The spacious and bright bridge is located at the top of the superstructure, equipped with chart table, GPS navigation system and various communication and control equipment. When ships are marching in formation, the commanders and captains of the 5th Aircraft Carrier Brigade usually command from the bridge, while in battle, they enter the combat intelligence center.

After coming out of the bridge, we went straight to the center of the ship-the whole ship operational intelligence center. Under the dim light, the computer display console clearly displays all kinds of data and images. Anti-submarine, anti-ship, air defense and ground attack operations are divided into different areas. The combatants on duty stood in front of the four big screens and demonstrated the display of comprehensive operational information to us, and introduced the functions of each display console one by one.

The last stop of the ship visit is the engine room. In my impression, the noise and temperature in the engine room are very high, so those engineers who wear overalls, gloves and earplugs and are covered in oil are the hardest.

However, when I got down to the engine room, I found it was a completely different scene. The clean and tidy computer room is completely unattended, and engineers no longer have to watch the machine. They are carrying out various remote control and telemetry on the main engine and auxiliary engine in the centralized control room far away from the engine room. The whole ship is controlled by flashing color signal lights and the whole ship damage pipe display system.

After the visit in the ship, I returned to the ship's surface and visited the helicopter hangar at the stern and the SH-60B Seahawk ship-borne helicopter. Bunker Hill carries two helicopters, which are usually stored in the hangar. From the hangar to the helicopter landing platform, it is an advanced helicopter landing mooring device.

In the case of high sea conditions, strong winds and waves, the rolling and pitching range of the ship is very large, and it is often very difficult for helicopters to land on the ship. This landing system can help the helicopter land smoothly through the pull-down device, and quickly stay on the ship's surface or pull into the hangar for parking. There is a row of indicator lights at the top of the hangar to indicate the roll and pitch of the ship. The joint between the flight deck and the hangar is the control center to command the helicopter to take off and land.

A young pilot introduced us to the process of helicopter take-off and landing, and proudly displayed the newly equipped Penguin air-to-ship missile, as well as MK-46 torpedo, sonar buoy and magnetic detector.

Sensitive and effective phased array radar.

Four octagonal phased array radar antennas near the superstructure of the ship are typical symbols of Ticonderoga class guided missile cruisers and important achievements of modern shipborne electronic equipment revolution.

As early as the 1970s, the development and use of long-range aviation and cruise missile weapons of the former Soviet Navy made the US Navy nervous for some time, because they did not have effective weapons to deal with the so-called air saturation attack of the Soviet Navy.

For this reason, the US Navy began to study countermeasures, and finally decided to develop a first-class combat vessels, which is specially used for escort of aircraft carriers, air defense and anti-missile of fleets and response to saturation attacks. This is the Ticonderoga class cruiser that was built in batches later. There are two most commendable killers of this class of ships: one is phased array radar, and the other is vertical launcher.

The phased array radar and its weapon system on Ticonderoga class are named Aegis after Zeus in Greek mythology, which means invincible aegis. This Aegis system was blown to the sky in 1970s and 1980s, and people didn't think it was so magical until 1988 when Vincens accidentally collided with an Iranian passenger plane.

Later, in the Gulf War of 199 1, there was another great uproar, claiming that this kind of radar guided and commanded tens of thousands of aircraft in aviation and successfully guided and launched dozens of Tomahawk missiles. There are so many legends about a radar, which really increases its mystery and temptation.

I really want to know what kind of radar aegis is, and what is its internal structure, working mode and maintenance management? Under the leadership of the ship's officers, we came to the radar room of phased array and the operational intelligence center that controls radar information in the superstructure. After introducing the cabinet, power supply, cooling system and display console one by one, the officers answered some questions that interested me.

The serial number of this phased array radar is SPY-1A. The ship has four octagonal foreparts, each of which is equipped with 4480 radiation units. In fact, these radiating elements are equivalent to the antennas of general radar.

The difference is that this antenna cannot and does not need to rotate. It adopts two-dimensional phase scanning by electric scanning, and has many functions such as searching, tracking and guiding, so it can deal with multi-batch and multi-directional air raid targets and has good anti-jamming performance. It can maintain 360-degree full airspace monitoring, monitor 400 batches of targets at the same time, and automatically track 100- 150 batches of targets.

Phased array radar is only the core equipment in Aegis weapon system. In addition, the system also includes missiles, launch and command systems. The biggest characteristics of the system are wide search range, long action distance, fast response speed and many target batches. It is an ideal weapon system to deal with air saturation attacks such as enemy planes and missiles.

Since there are so many advantages, what explanation does Bunker Hill's sister ship "Vincens" give for the accidental attack on Iranian civil aviation flights? I talked with the ship's combat officers in front of the air combat display console and the military-civilian target recognizer of the operational intelligence center. He was very sorry for the unfortunate incident that happened in July 1988. At that time, the cruiser Vincent accidentally hit the passenger plane, causing all 290 innocent passengers to die, and his mood was particularly heavy.

According to the later survey results, there are several reasons:

First, there is no air control system in the war zone. There are frequent wars in that airspace, with more than 150 civil aircraft flying over it every day, and the warring parties have not established corresponding air control and target recognition measures;

Second, there is no communication channel between the warring parties. American ships have not established flight database, and Iranian civil aircraft and military aircraft use the same airport, which has caused confusion and misunderstanding. The US ship has repeatedly asked for warnings, but the other side clearly knows it, but it thinks that the US ship has no right to interfere with civil aviation aircraft, which is extremely impatient.

Third, the battlefield environment is critical and the personnel on board are nervous. The operator misreported the target speed of 380 knots to 480 knots, the target altitude of 2700 meters to 2 100 meters, and the target was gradually climbing and the altitude was decreasing. At the same time, IFF is not aimed at Flight 655, especially it does not carefully analyze the target characteristics, and mistook a large A-300 passenger plane with a radar cross-sectional area of about 50 square meters for F.