SOME NEW LINKS WORTH THE TIME OF NAVAL PROFESSIONALS

FOR WEAPONS OFFICERS, GUNNERS MATES, FIRE CONTROL TECHNICIANS, ALL MANNER OF ARMORERS AND FANS OF THE INDIAN NAVY: Last up date 1/9/2015

                                                                      

TRISHFUL: http://trishul-trident.blogspot.in/   The Indian Navy for many years had to function on a very anemic budget. Yet, the officers and ratings over the years built a world class navy out of fire sale equipment much of it from the former Soviet Union and Russia. But the "Tigers" as we like to call them didn't just buy off the shelf, bring in some Russian advisers, and translate the operations manuals and placards. The Indian navy at all levels engaged in back engineering, analysis, and technological improvement of their fire sale weapons. Their efforts brought the Indian navy from undistinguished Third World naval status to the list of the top four navies on Earth. That was when they were still operating on adjusted, modified, adapted fire sale equipment purchased from diverse sources. Given that success, we suspect that in terms of professional competency , the kind of professional competency that fosters innovation, the Indian navy is running a close second to the U.S. Navy in terms of an innovative organizational culture. 

 The U.S. Navy despite a budget that would be the envy of any of the other top four navies is still underfunded in terms of its global responsibilities. Historically the U.S. Navy , like the Indian Navy has known much harder financial times and has had to emerge as an innovative force. It was the U.S. Navy that has been the sustained leader in aircraft carrier operations, underway replenishment, nuclear submarine operations, submerged missile launches some of the ear marks of  top navies today. Part of the U.S. Navy's culture of innovation is the uniquely independent U.S. Naval Institute    , a forum of independent thought where officers, ratings, and civilians of every stripe may publish innovative proposals, and analysis without having to be politically correct within the political culture of their local command or other realm of employment. There is no asking "may I" when publishing with the Institute's PROCEEDINGS. The editorial board of the Institute reads like a WHO's WHO of the entire naval establishment giving any article that is published a unique status that makes it difficult to attack from a stance based on office politics. Critics of published ideas are welcome and can easily appear in print as rebuttal articles or simply letters to the editor. 

 We haven't found a single source of Indian naval thinking as comprehensive as the Naval Institute but we note the emergence of a growing collection of Indian naval subject matter periodicals, websites, and blogs that provide in a less visible and institutionalized set of forums for the same types of discussions. We will try to make these known to our readers over time and provide links to those available on the Internet. TRISHFUL is such a blog especially for those with particular interests in the nuts and bolts of vessels, air craft and weapons systems. We know little about the blogger Prasun K. Sengupta but we have carefully reviewed the blog and find it full of authentic information, much of it quite detailed about the hardware and occasionally strategy and tactics of the Indian Navy. The site should be of interest not only students and fans of the Indian navy but also those highly interested in Russian weapons systems. Often the site carries posts on Indian back engineering, testing, and innovations related to systems originally acquired from Russia. We highly recommend the site to anyone interested in the Indian Navy generally and most particularly to those interested in the after market development of Russian weapons exports.

FOR SUBMARINERS AND FANS OF SUBMARINES:

 :Photo: U.S. Navy

 This collection of links came out of our Key Word Search reviews. We have no way of knowing if the searchers referred to our site were model builders, naval architects, submarine fans, or actual submariners but we noticed a number of searches of late for "submarine plans. We were very disappointed to realize that we had nothing posted at the time for such searches. We remedy that here and will post these to the naval interest section and other special interest pages to hopefully make these links easy to literally "stumble across".

1. http://www.heiszwolf.com/subs/plans/plans.html  HEISZWOLF.COM 45 technical plans of submarines are presented. The plans are organized in a chronological fashion so that a more or less historic overview of submarine technology should be obtained. 

2. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=plans%20submarine&clk_rvr_id=600714036006&adpos=1o1&MT_ID=69&crlp=16500781234_2416792&device=c&geo_id=10232&keyword=plans+submarine&crdt=0   Submarine Plans on E-bay What is available on this site of course changes daily. However when we searched it we found everything from concept sketches to full blown plans and scaled model plans on everything from Japanese and German WWII submarine designs to Disney's version of the NAUTILUS. The price range was from $2.99 to about $29.00.

3.http://www.vacuumtransit.biz/  A "How to" video on building a two man home built submarine.


4. Submarine 101 :  http://www.submarineboat.com/submarine_101.htm Descriptions of the various types of personal submarines available including those with potential for amateur construction.

5.AQUA SUB: A one man "snorkel submarine " plans originally featured in MECHANICS ILLUSTRATED

6. MINISUBS .ORG: http://minisubs.org/page34.php  Discussion site for those interested in building their own personal submarine or submersible

FAST PATROL BOATS:

Royal Norwegian Navy corvette Storm. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic

1. Safe Boat, U.S. manufacturer of small fast patrol boats: http://www.safeboats.com/

2. Bollinger Shipyards, U.S. Builder of the USCG and Navy fast Patrol Craft in Louisiana, Builders of the USCG Fast Response Cutters.      http://www.bollingershipyards.com/

3. MUNSON PATROL BOATS: Manufacturers of small, mostly outboard propelled boats  http://munsonboats.com/patrol.php