CUVX Design Report - the AOE home page - Virginia Tech

CUVX Design – VT Team 2 Page 724.6.7 Weapons ElevatorsEach weapons magazine is serviced by a separate weapons elevator. Weapons elevators deliver weapons fromthe magazines up to Hangar Decks 1, 2, or 3. Aircraft weapons are loaded into the aircraft on Hangar Deck 1. OnlyWeapons Elevators 3 and 4 go directly from the magazines up to Hangar Deck 1. The weapons stop at Hangar Deck3 for assembly before continuing up to Hangar Deck 1. Weapons Elevator 1 goes only as high as Hangar Deck 2where the weapons have are unloaded, assembled and carted back to Weapons Elevator 3 or 4 to be transported toHangar Deck 1. Weapons Elevator 2 stops on Hangar Deck 3 where the weapons are unloaded, moved forward toWeapons Elevator 1, moved up to Hangar Deck 2, assembled, and then moved up to Hangar Deck 1 on WeaponsElevator 3 or 4. This staggered elevator shaft system improves ship survivability by avoiding a vertical shaft fromHangar Deck 1 to the magazine. A summary of the weapons elevator specifications is given in Table 36. Figure 66shows the flow of weapons from magazine to weapons loading; the green arrows are for unassembled weapons andthe red arrows are for assembled weapons.Figure 66. CUVX Profile Showing Weapons Flow4.6.8 Sortie RateSortie rates for CUVX HI3 are determined primarily by 3 operations: fueling and weapons loading, launching,and recovery. Fueling and weapons loading occurs on Hangar Deck 1. The time required to service four aircraft isdependant on the fuel and weapons needed for a particular mission. A maximum of 45 minutes is estimated. Twoaircraft are then hooked up to a track behind the blast deflector door to pull and connect them to the EMALS. Thiswill take five minutes for each aircraft. Total time to service four aircraft and prep for launch takes 65 minutes.Launching consists of opening the blast deflector door, bringing two aircraft through and into the ready position (5minutes), and closing the door. The blast deflector door takes 10 minutes to open and close. The starboard EMALSlaunches immediately and 2 minutes later the port EMALS launches. Total time to launch two aircraft takes 17minutes. Recovery takes 3 minutes for one aircraft to land, unhook, and clear the landing strip, while the arrestinggear retracts. Six aircraft can land before needing to clear the deck. Three aircraft are taken down in Elevators 1and 3 at a time. The greatest cycle time is 180 seconds (3 minutes) for Elevator 1 without decontamination. It takes10 minutes to load and offload the elevator. The recovery deck can be cleared in 26 minutes. Total time to recover 6aircraft takes 32 minutes. The sortie rates are summarized in Table 38.Table 38. Sortie Rate SummarySortie Aircraft/HourService 4Launch 8Recovery 124.7 Combat SystemsThe Mission Need Statement (Appendix A) requires CUVX-HI3 to be capable of operating independently nlittoral warfare environments. For this reason, CUVX-HI3 must be passively defensive. CUVX HI3 must avoiddetection whenever possible, and when detected must be able to defend itself against the threat. Many of the combatsystem sensors require an elevated position to detect targets. These sensors, because of their intrinsic radarsignature, are housed in a special low AEM/deckhouse. Refer to Section 3.2.6 for information on the combatsystems and 4.2 for a description of the AEM/deckhouse. Drawing D5 shows the CUVX HI3 topside arrangementwith topside combat systems and sensors.4.8 ManningAn important goal for CUVX is to reduce manning by 85% from current CVN carriers (including its airwing)by utilizing automation and unmanned aircraft. CUVX-HI3 has a crew of 898 men. This is 15.8% of CVN76manning. The use of unmanned aircraft is a significant factor in this reduction. CUVX original manning estimates