Design
The Kingston-class patrol vessels have many admirable qualities, including crew comfort and ship manoeuvrability, but they represent some design compromises. The program was conceived to advance the use of commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment and construction techniques in a ship designed to military specifications.
While the Z-drive thrusters make the Kingston-class vessels extremely manoeuvrable (able to turn within their own shiplength) and the engines are quite powerful and fuel-efficient, the hull shape, with a blunt stern and "hard" chine designed for minesweeping, prevents the ship from achieving a "sprint" speed and the patrol vessels of other nations are considerably faster. However, the Kingstons' top speed is faster than that of most mine warfare vessels and is comparable to most large non-naval sea-going vessels.
The hull is a longitudinally framed structure and has been designed to minimise steel weight. The construction involved initial production of partially outfitted steel modules which were made into sub-assemblies and then integrated into the ship. The decks were assembled upside down with pre-outfitting of the underside of the deck prior to installation on the ship. In contrast to many modern mine warfare vessels, which often have hulls made of non-magnetic glass-reinforced plastic or similar material, the Kingston class have conventional steel hulls. The vessels are, however, equipped with a magnetic degaussing system that allows the ship's magnetic signature to be manipulated in three dimensions to minimize vulnerability to magnetic mines.
Read more about this topic: Kingston Class Coastal Defence Vessel
Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Teaching is the perpetual end and office of all things. Teaching, instruction is the main design that shines through the sky and earth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)