BATTLE ISLAND

popular mechanics ^ | april 2003 | JIM WILSON

[Lokibob]

 

	Larger than a city, the Joint Mobile Offshore Base will keep freedom fighters safe in hostile terrain.
	BY JIM WILSON
	Illustration by John Berkey

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Experience in constructing ultralarge vessels and deep-water offshore drilling platforms has convinced naval architects it is possible to build a floating military base by connecting individual, self-powered modules. Early in 2003, as the buildup for a war with Iraq shifted into high gear, American diplomats began calling on their counterparts in the Middle East and southern Europe. They asked a simple favor: permission to use local bases for attacks on Iraqi weapons factories and military installations. As the classified cables reporting on the lack of progress in working out agreements flowed back to the State Department, it slowly became evident that America had fewer friends than once thought. It became equally apparent that if the United States wanted sure footing for future battles against terrorism, it would have to look beyond diplomatic arrangements. And so, almost overnight, an idea that had hovered in the shadows since the mid-1990s began to make sense. If American forces could not count on friends, they would have to rely upon technology in the form of a new type of naval vessel, a mobile offshore base.

[MattinNJ]

Thought you might be interested ping|

[Cyber Liberty]

Looks like a giant sitting duck to me, but what do I know?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Interesting, but it had better have top notch defenses and each module better have multiple uses in case one is sunk on the way to the operating theater.

[Ultrconservative]

Sure sounds like a "Death Star" too me.

[Media Insurgent]

I found a web site with a the vital stats for Battle Island. Sounds like it will be popular with the troops garrisoned there.

http://www.nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/

[green team 1999]

looks like one of those toys for kids,that when open have helicopters,tanks,planes,hhhhmmm,old technology then.

[Lokibob]

??????

[ErnBatavia]

Looks like a giant sitting duck to me, but what do I know?

So do aircraft carriers, but with all their high-tech stuff, I'm sure they're pretty safe.

I'd say what COULD wreak havoc on such a platform would be Mother Nature. Ain't no stopping a typhoon!

[Lokibob]

Never mind, I got it. Call me slow.

[Lokibob]

Read the article, they address the hurricane problem.

[husky ed]

Another "Quagmire"
Another "Vietnam"

Wrong thread, sorry.

BTW: read the article on this, thought it was a cool idea.

[Destructor]

It will be commanded by Admiral Darth Vader. By that time the Constitution will be a distant memory.

[Billy_bob_bob]

Think of the B-52. That plane was designed to be a very rugged platform to put a lot of stuff in. It's still being flown fifty years after it was first deployed. Same thing here. Weapons technology can change five times from the time the keel is laid to when it is first deployed, it won't matter. A design like this s/b very flexable and easy to update with the latest in technology, just like a B-52.

[WaveThatFlag]

Jihad Magnet Obsessing Bombers

[Our man in washington]

Possibly not. If you put it reasonably far out to sea, you could just tell all small boats "don't even thinking of coming within a mile of us." A U.S.S. Cole attack would be impossible.

An AEGIS system could shoot down incoming missles.

Internal sabatoge is always a possibility. However, the thing is so big that a dissident sailor could do only so much damage.

Basically, it's like taking a regular base, and surrounding it with miles of water.

[green team 1999]

So do aircraft carriers, but with all their high-tech stuff, I'm sure they're pretty safe.

carriers move and try to hide on a big ocean,but by the looks of this base,is like an oil platform.
now that is a sitting duck.

[JMK]

This is the kind of concept I read in a book a couple of years ago called SeaFighters by James Cobb, in which a floating offshore base was used to support LCAC's which had been modified and turned into a new class of gunboats.

Maybe reality is starting to catch up with fiction.

[Servant of the Nine]

Offshore platforms are dangerous enough without being on one that is a target.

Serving on this thing would be like serving on a first generation submarine. Best stick to personel with no dependants.

So9