Surface Forces: June 17, 2000

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: The U.S. navy's first "smart ship," the Ticonderoga (CG-47) successfully completed its sea trails. This was 18 months behind schedule. There were many unexpected problems in taking off the shelf computer and networking equipment and making it work in a guided missile cruiser. As a result, the crew can now be smaller, and not worked as hard. Fatigue has long been a problem, even in peacetime. The use of extensive sensors, networks and computers to monitor things makes running the ship a lot easier. This also makes the ship more capable, as computer controlled functions can be performed faster than when you had a sailor sitting at a control board. The Smart Ship systems improve safety, as they catch problems while they are still small, and manageable. All of this makes the ships weapons and sensors ready for combat more often than on older ships. The sensor system throughout the ship. And in It is made up of the following pieces: machinery control, damage control, fuel control, integrated condition assessment, integrated bridge, local area network and wireless internal communications