Serious question.... if it was all real
I figure a lot may have to do with the budget... but the Nathan James seems just too small a ship to do all that's being needed and suggested in the show. Surely you would need an Air Craft Carrier or at the very least a battle ship?
My granddaughter is serving aboard an Arleigh-Burke class destroyer identical to the Nathan James. She's trained to operate the big turret gun on the deck.
The ship is 510 feet in length and 66 feet wide. There's approximately 300 sailors aboard. There's a helicopter deck on board too.
Last year when a Malaysian passenger plane went down in the South China Sea, her ship was in Singapore and was sent in to assist the Malaysians in finding the airplane and recover the bodies. There were one or two helicopters working constantly from the ship, along with the rubber boats we've seen the Nathan James use.
I think a U.S. guided missile destroyer is capable of doing most of what is suggested.
The last American Battleship, the USS Missouri, was decommissioned on March 31st 1992.
In most Navies today Destroyers are the largest Surface Combatants. Only 3 Nations still operate Cruisers. The US is among them with the Ticonderoga Class.
The Arleigh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyers are Multi-Mission Vessels, and actually have signifiantly more firepower than WWII Cruisers.
Some comparisons between Arleigh Burke and Ticonderoga:
Lenght:
TC = 567 ft
AB = 505-509 ft
Beam:
TC = 55 ft
AB = 66 ft
Draft:
TC = 34 ft
AB = 30.5 ft
Displacement:
TC = 9800 t
AB = 8315-9800t
Aircraft carried:
TC = 2 helos
AB = up to 2 helos
Crew:
TC = ~400
AB = ~303-323
The Arleigh-Burkes also have 2 RIBs for VBSS Teams, I'm not sure but I believe the Ticonderogas do not have those Teams.
The replacement Cruiser Program CG(X) has been cancelled and their original mission is to be taken up by the 3rd flight of Arleigh-Burke Guided Missile Destroyers.
Even fixed ships like destroyers have some flexibility in how they are outfitted, depending on their missions. And considering that it was sent out for a specialized land-based mission right before the virus hit, it would have been specially loaded for ground ops and scientific research rather than just ship-to-ship combat or other types of missions.
I think they would have serious resource issues if it were any larger of a ship. Bigger ships require more crew, more fuel, more food, etc. The Nathan James is probably the optimal size. I served on an FFG, and that would definitely be too small.
shareI think the problem is that on television it seems smaller than it is. I know 300 people live and work in it but it "looks" too small to have living quarters and other areas. When the show started I figured it had maybe 50 people on board. It's just hard to show scale when you're in the middle of the ocean.
shareConsidering they're probably pretty short of experienced sailors, an aircraft carrier wouldn't be a good idea. They've got a crew of a thousand or more... Plus you need all the escort ships, pilots, supplies, etc. Aircraft carriers are pretty vulnerable by themselves, they never go anywhere alone.
The James seems to be operating within its limits, yeah. But the biggest BS is how they manage to repair the thing after its battle last season with the crazy Brit sub, and now after taking a missile hit too. It's a bit of a process repairing a modern naval vessel to that extent, it requires materials and specialized crew they'd be unlikely to have access to.
If you are referring to the missile attack in episode 9 then it didn't hit the James, it blew up right in front of the bridge when it hit the flak that was sent up by the James.
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