technology – Page 2 – Truths, Half-truths, and Sea Stories

when the lights go out

May 2, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Sometimes the best lighting of all is a power failure. Douglas Coupland / http://www.brainyquote.com

I swear I only measured the voltage of the dead lamp. I didn’t cause the whole neighborhood at that moment to go dark.

Determining the reason why that fixture was bad was on my to-do list for six days. In my garage, I have a cheap light fixture – the one dime-store novels feature in the dingy hotel rooms or corridors – mounted above the kitchen door. One evening, I switched on the light switch – and the lamp went on. I turned it off when I was done. I turned it on again and it immediately went dark. Seems simple enough but can be easily tested whether the light bulb burned out. That’s where life steps in and pushes down on the to-do list. Fast -forward to today. Motivated, I finally recalled where I put my digital multimeter (one of three I have) in an accessible tool bag. I hypothesized – I am an engineering test guy – the light switch itself went bad. But just as touched the meter a second time to the fixture, the house and garage and outside went pitch black. Without a sound.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. Edgar Allan Poe
/www.brainyquote.com

Fumbling in the dark to find my cell phone just inside on the dining table a few feet away, I found the “flashlight” function. First thing through my head was the thought, were I at sea, I would have myself chewed out by myself for being so ill-prepared and untrained for emergencies. O brother! But before I could get all my protective gear, tool bag and batten down the hatches, the lights snapped back on. My mind did not go to all the dark places, when I second-guess my actions. I mean, really. I just came home from a bible study group I lead tonight. I was still feeling the glow of good participation and feedback.

I wonder if this was like the last power failure where a guy hit the wrong switch by mistake. That error a few years ago shut down virtually everything in Southern California for several hours. A “training opportunity.” Tonight, with everything back up within a minute told me that it was human error again.

It’s a lot like my work right now. I have a broken device, some confusing email, and my boss has absolute confidence I will determine the problem now that I am back to work. Can you get it resolved by Thursday? Thanks. No pressure. I just need to run through everything myself. I could sure use a power failure at work about noon tomorrow – maybe for a week? Thanks.

dangerous intentions

April 8, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

The Sunday paper, actual newsprint, is still read in my house. Peruse is probably a more exact term, but I grabbed onto two stories today that declare what a dangerous world we live in, and how some are fighting back.

No, this is not a tale of evil-doers thwarted by good-guys, but rather the story of how a book can get an entire Government flustered, and a raygun available to police forces. Apparently, the Japanese on Okinawa are irritated that a BIBLE was part of a display honoring Missing In Action and Prisoners Of War in a military hospital. We all should know the terrible things that this particular book stirs up. To one who sees self-improvement, it is Truth, Love, Honor, Selflessness. To them, it is the possibility of overcoming the weaknesses of mankind: Hatred, Fear, Doubt, Hypocrisy, and Betrayal. To believers, it is voluntary primer from a supreme Intelligent Designer. But for some who seek Power over others, there cannot be a still higher power.

And then, a featured story of the drone-killer ray gun catches my eye. This is a tool to prevent danger to the State, and its law enforcement, from the foolish person who flies a drone in the path of aircraft. When drones are sold in 7-Elevens, online, and in department stores, everyone has the freedom and means to be hazardous to others. Law Enforcement has to police another misbehavior of some, to whom words (law or rules) or norms (common sense) have little power.

So which is it? Words have Power, or they do not have power? The State doesn’t seem to know either. If someone reads and practices the Torah, Buddhist texts, Hindi theology, or Book of Mormon, my family and I are not threatened. At least, in the western world, it is all voluntary. The Word of Christ has never hurt another soul. People, alone, are capable of that.

misanthropic callers

April 6, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

“He loved the people just as much as he feared and detested persons.”
― Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here

Once I was accused of loving people that I came to know individually, but detested people in groups. And then I came to a spiritual renovation which, painfully at first, changed my whole worldview of humanity. There are bad people. There are people striving to help others. And the whole of humanity in between.

For twenty-five years in the online world, I have been fairly well isolated from the dregs of humanity that poison your computers with viruses, and ploys to get sensitive information. And yet we all – hundreds of millions of us – have been exposed to scams, theft, and fraud by failures of government and commercial companies to protect our finances and our personal information.

In forty years, I have had bank accounts drained twice. Family and friends have had credit maligned for items purchased in places we never visited nor lived. Or received email from Nigeria, or China, or your sister-in-law, with pictures and links we should never click. Then Facebook and Russians or other ne’er do wells started to manipulate the public, through data analytics of our habits and friends. Trading a Windows-based computer for an Apple or a Linux one only slowed the criminals for a time.

censorship-limitations-freedom-of-expression-restricted-39584.jpeg Once my father-in-law got calls on his cell phone reportedly from my son needing money, and apparently gleaning details by way of social engineering, I knew the scams were getting more sophisticated. And then my son, on his work phone, got called to extort his emotions by false claims of an injured family member. And I have had, on the very phone I was holding, a call incoming supposedly from me.

The milk of human kindness, and positivity for fellow man was in danger of being soured. But the God whom I serve, I have faith will burn the dross of humanity, whether emailing, calling, or manipulating software from Alabama, Mumbai, Mexico or the Baltic. The times of testing have always been upon us. And for this old Sailor, I don’t have the means or the heart to launch Tomahawk missiles. 4347_1153409602051_4092653_n

But I do have the means to needle, cajole, inspire and support family and friends by getting the message out through a blog. Report and record, where possible, these frauds.

And should they be politicians pestering you for your vote, persistent contact to insist on protecting us from technology abuse should help. After all, weren’t the Russians able to cajole you in the voting booth?

Honoring John Harrison’s invention

April 3, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Yesterday a Google doodle honored John Harrison, an 18th Century British craftsman and clockmaker (1693 – 1776) who won the Crown’s prize for developing an incredibly precise measuring device for determining Longitude. For centuries, mariners had the sextant, which enabled them to determine where they sailed relative north or south of the Equator. Calculated with a sextant and maritime tables, sailors determined position by the angle of the sun at noon to the horizon.

As a sailor, I knew that all time aboard ship (and on installations) was in reference to Zulu, or Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich, England marked the line North to South (0 degrees longitude) from which the longitudinal measurement was derived. Given that the Earth’s rotation is very stable, the longitudinal measurement, west or east, derived by accurately knowing Greenwich Mean Time to fractions of a second could be relied upon.

As a self-educated carpenter, artisan, and clockmaker, Harrison found resistance from the royal societies which issued a monetary prize for an accepted device that would meet the requirements for accuracy. From his first tests aboard ship in the 1730s, over several decades, he improved on his design and finally, due the Crown’s influence, he was awarded the prize for his invention. By the mid-1760s, others had developed similar systems so the award was important in establishing John Harrison as the first one who accurately determined longitude.

An experiment conducted in this century using his once much-derided advanced design indicated only fractions of a second lag over the period of a hundred-day test. Not bad for someone who was hundreds of years before the Global Positioning System.

The Taliban Have Gone High-Tech

April 1, 2018April 1, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Weapons given to the Afghan forces have found their way into insurgent and foreign terrorist hands for the past decade. Now, our armed forces are finding high tech night vision goggles, laser -detection devices and more are in insurgents’ possession.

The article in today’s NYT reports what our military have always been challenged by in conflicts particularly since unconventional warfare – guerrilla tactics, remotely detonated devices, and local forces corrupted or threatened by local insurgents – replaced conventional warfare.

via The New York Times

fiddling around

March 24, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Sometimes you get assistance and support from your elected representative. Sometimes you get a letter where they have miss the point the constituent was making entirely.

“Thank you for your letter regarding your concerns about unsolicited calls and the enforcement of the Do Not Call Registry rules. I appreciate hearing from you, and I welcome the opportunity to respond.

I understand that you have registered your number with the National Do Not Call Registry, but that you have continued to receive telemarketing calls with disguised identities and phone numbers. In your letter, you expressed your support for stronger penalties against companies that violate the Registry rules. …”

I actually studied Political Science at the university ages ago, as I had some fantasy about going into government service. But that was before most colleges became a breeding ground of Orwellian thought control. These days I think back to the movie and musical, Fiddler on the Roof. Living as best one can apart from the Government bureaucracy.

Tevye: And in the circle of our little village, We’ve always had our special types. For instance, Yente the matchmaker, Reb Nachum the beggar… And most important of all, our beloved Rabbi.

Leibesh: Rabbi! May I ask you a question?

Rabbi: Certainly, Lebisch!

Leibesh: Is there a proper blessing… for the Tsar?

Rabbi: A blessing for the Tsar? Of course! May God bless and keep the Tsar… far away from us!

I actually reached out to Senator Feinstein to demand that the perpetrators of cell phone abuse: spammers, hackers (who masquerade as someone in your contact list — or when you receive a call from your own number! – and malcontents be the focus of more intensive prosecution and penalties. I acted after my son received a call at his work number claiming that his mother had been injured in a traffic accident. It was b.s.

So all my friends and family who truly believe that the proper political party leading the country will make the roads efficient, the cell phones free from telemarketers, and the social media free of Russian meddling have great faith. Me, I will continue to be

Tevye: A fiddler on the roof. Sounds crazy, no? But here, in our little village of Anatevka, you might say every one of us is a fiddler on the roof trying to scratch out a pleasant, simple tune without breaking his neck. It isn’t easy. You may ask ‘Why do we stay up there if it’s so dangerous?’ Well, we stay because Anatevka is our home. And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word: tradition!

Please be assured that I will keep your concerns in mind should the “Help Americans Never Get Unwanted Phone Calls (HANGUP) Act” come before me for consideration in the Senate.

Dust

March 15, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist, died this week.

Lots of people are voicing condolence. Maybe people know of him due to the 2014 movie , Theory of Everything, that many who don’t understand his grand theories know his name. A very intelligent being nonetheless, and one of the most celebrated brains who had ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). (As an aside, I thought Eddie Redmayne portrayed Hawking in stunning fashion in that movie.) Not having read any of Hawking’s work, I nevertheless learned a bit about him.

He went to the grave an atheist. Yet his religion was ‘science’, which for all the debate from atheists about facts versus myths, is still human observation of the universe and its interplay on physical objects. With every passing decade, a “fact” gets refined, or refuted, or re-interpreted. A deduced certainty – weather, tides, or planetary body is still victim to an “uncertainty principle”. Of course, we have launched satellites and people into space, but these have finite parameters. We cannot create an organism from a vacuum. Science still cannot define origins. It cannot define why – in our own solar system – life evolved to the scale it did from gas and dust. It does not explain the origin of the gas and dust. And science does not explain human thoughts.

Stephen Hawking for all his contribution to science wanted to determine a grand unifying theory for the universe. It eluded him.

Some atheists who really examine evidence and limit their biased presupposing, have admitted that they just don’t know. Those who believe what that grand unifying theory is, and have empirical evidence – also from human experience and perspective – in their lives, will continue onward. I do not pretend to know why some very intelligent scientists and scholars do not embrace belief in God, while other’s look at the same evidence and hold an awe for a Master Engineer at the center of everything.

Hawking may now return to dust from which he formed. Sagan may be “star stuff”. And it all may be a futile cycle of randomness that anything exists at all. But what if Eternity is … a corollary of the Grand Unifying Theory? And all that scientific dust….

1_mClp0CFXBTDUpGyVhT6hmg

to boldly go

March 1, 2018March 1, 2018Eric Saretsky1 Comment

Space: the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations.To boldly go where no man has gone before! – Star Trek

Watching the first episode of season One of a Sci-Fi drama last night, The Expanse, on my smart TV (via the internet), I was enjoying how this first episode piqued my interest. Stories of an unconventional cop, political intrigue – the 23rd Century is apparently just as full of plots, terrorists, and manipulation as the 21st is; interplanetary social unrest, and human drama in space. These are all elements of shows I’ve watched for decades. It must continue to be well-acted and well-written as I find it is beginning its third season.

theexpanse_gallery_101recap_15 — image courtesy SyFy Channel

Perhaps it is the era I grew up in. Star Trek (the original series), NASA moon landings, Space Shuttles and the Voyager satellites that left earth in the 1970s are now (2018) in interstellar space. The future held great promise, but the vast expanse of space seems beyond the reach of humanity. The solar system and non-warp technology is much more credible. What was the stuff of science fiction- tiny personal communication devices, automated purchases, computer surveillance systems, self-driving vehicles and electromechanical replacement body parts are reality or in development. With Elon Musk’s plan, people living on other planets in our system are a soon-to-be reality, or not too fantastic for the near future. The future predicted by television shows and movies in the latter half of the Twentieth Century, was often visited by alien races that wanted to eat us (Alien franchise) or obliterate us ( Independence Day).

1_mClp0CFXBTDUpGyVhT6hmg — image courtesy Wikipedia

The Day the Earth Stood Still in the 1950s, Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET were the rare exception. In the 1960s, 2001: A Space Odyssey was another where people were the beneficiaries of an alien encounter, but the technology predicted forty years ago for the year 2000 in the story and movie is not far-fetched for 2018. In the 1970s, Silent Running, remains one of my favorites, if it was very heavy with environmentalist commentary ( the last plants on Earth were propelled into space on greenhouse spaceships tended by men who really didn’t want to be there.) The Terminator was a future of artificial intelligence that wanted and kept trying over several sequels and a TV series, to wipe out humans. And many Sci-Fi movies over the years were set in a post-nuclear war ravaged Earth. Totalitarian societies controlled the future. Or the Earth was polluted, or frozen, or flooded, or a barren desert. While a worldwide epidemic that renders apes (or more likely, cockroaches) inheriting the earth, is also sci-fi, I prefer thinking more down-to-earth.

Voyage to the bottom of the sea

February 7, 2018February 7, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Whatever became of the U.S. Navy undersea lab experiments of the 1960’s and ’70s?

CAPT George Bond, USN, lead the research effort for the Navy that lead to something all recreational SCUBA divers rely on today. (No, scuba was invented by a partnership between Frenchmen Jacques Cousteau and E Gagnon (1)). Dive Decompression Tables.

SeaLab I, II, and III were the result of experiments on divers working at depth where avoiding decompression sickness, “the bends”, meant long periods of decompression to recover from only minutes exposure. Underwater, at depth, breathing surface air, as in the scuba cylinders or through a hose-diving helmet, would result in gasses building up in the diver’s bloodstream. Without stages of ascent and wait time, the gas would form bubbles in the person’s tissues causing pain, injury and even death.

Research investigated long-duration exposure underwater, living and working in habitats at different depths (up to 600 feet) whether there were negative effects and finding that a single decompression regimen at the conclusion of the experiment were sufficient to prevent injury. Studies during this time on nitrogen narcosis have provided recreational and commercial divers today with reliable timetables for recovering or decompressing, and the effects on the body. Other developments from the SeaLab program was the development of neoprene which everyone from divers to surfers now use in prolonging exposure to cold seawater.

One notable research participant for the Navy was both a pioneering astronaut as well as an aquanaut. Scott Carpenter, was the second American in space, in the Gemini program, and was an “inner space” pioneer. He spent a then -record 30 days in SeaLab Ii offshore La Jolla, 200 feet beneath the surface. Later, in SeaLab III, an experiment in underwater welding resulted in an accident where one researcher died due to asphyxiation. This was a factor in terminating the experiments in SeaLab III. But the research into saturation diving by the U.S. Navy continues today. In point of fact, it was this continuing research that has lead to special operations involving saturation diving and part of the training for submarine rescue operations. The Office of Naval Research (ONR) Undersea Medicine program is the descendent of these undersea experiments.

http://www.navalunderseamuseum.org/endbell/

https://www.onr.navy.mil/en/About-ONR/History/tales-of-discovery/sealab

(1) In 1942, Cousteau and Gagnan co-invented a demand valve system that would supply divers with compressed air when they breathed

an Ulchi by any other name

January 25, 2018January 13, 2019Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

“Saretsky, Eric W. CTMC (UFL N39 COPS3)” <xxxxx> wrote:
It’s 6 AM in El Cajon and I’m hoping that you’ve been able to sleep. I know how hard it is for you when you are in the middle of problem-resolution (baby-sitting) teachers and students!
I’ll be here all night, so I am just sending you lots of virtual hugs to comfort you!
Love you,
me

My wife found and shared with me old email we exchanged over ten years ago when I was on a Navy Reserve assignment to COMSEVENTHFLT AOR. It was my second visit to Yokosuka, Japan. Seven years earlier, in 1998 or 1999, I had been on Active Duty, aboard the USS CORONADO, when it visited Japan and Korea. That previous time, I had only just begun dating my future wife, and our exchanges by email were very slow and tedious. This, from a ship that was “state of the art” in most things electronic. In 2006 I had been a Reservist nearly six years, married five years and when I received orders to the SEVENTH Fleet for ULCHI FOCUS LENS, it was my first time in seven years that I was again on sea duty. And email was quite a bit more advanced in comparison.

My assignment aboard the USS BLUE RIDGE during UFL was interesting work, simulating tactical intelligence options, “PsyOps”( (psychological efforts to dissuade North Koreans from participating in the event of hostilities) and so forth. Other teams had different scenarios to develop. One of the things I learned, working with a joint unit of intelligence professionals ( Reservists who were also civilian experts in the fields they supported in uniform), is that some battlefield commanders, i.e. the Active Duty Army general heading up this exercise, are “warhead on forehead” types and not given to deep consideration of other forms of military conduct. I had previously seen that in a prior year working with an Air Force team who were reluctant to employ a new technology- because it was new, and not part of their manual (printed before the technology was in development).

Were I to do it again, I would again prefer to be a Navy Chief Petty Officer aboard ship. There is truth in Rank Has Its Privileges. While a Reserve Commander from my unit was also on this same Exercise, he had neither the camaraderie, nor the access to good chow that came with being a Chief in the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess. It’s a tradition that all Navy Chiefs past and present are one, and all Navy units’ CPO Mess are one Mess

new Chief Petty Officers initiated into the BLUE RIDGE CPO Mess (Sept 2006)

One other thing that seems to remain constant over the years since I last donned a uniform, is the fondness for change – in uniform styles, acronyms and Joint Exercise names. When I was reminiscing about ULCHI FOCUS LENS, online I found that this Joint exercise was subsequently changed to ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN. In the decade that this has been in use, I presume the Pentagon is probably searching for a new name. “ULCHI FREEDOM MAGA”? Anyone? It undoubtedly will be huge.

article: U.S. Army STAND-TO! | Ulchi Freedom Guardian

from sails to “the Force”

January 13, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
-Arthur C. Clarke, via brainyquote.com

Today I went to see the latest Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi. But this is not intended as a review of a movie that has been seen and reviewed by others. My thoughts run to (technological) life imitating (science fiction) art. Here’s what I will say about the movie: I enjoyed it. Humor, blasters, evil empires, love and courage. Okay, so some of the plot does mimic a progression that I saw in the original trilogy. And the feel is different from those original Star Wars (non-remastered, CGI -modified rework by Lucas) films I saw in the 1970s and 1980s.

I started thinking how science fiction, particularly Star Trek and then Star Wars, have given us a world where we have satellite-beamed entertainment, video-communicators in everyone’s pocket (Iphone and android), and space travel that is so routine, few are awed anymore. Yet we all yearn to visit other planets, other stars and engage with whomever is “out there”. How many were fascinated by the flyby of Pluto, and the still-communicating Voyager satellites entering interstellar space. We have started to change our view of aliens from those wanting to eat us to visitors.

What lists can you come up with of the science fiction later becoming science fact? Mine starts with writings from a hundred-fifty years ago.

From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne (1865) a vessel in which men travel to the moon.

Science: Sputnik, Soviet launch a man-made satellite into orbit.

2001: A Space Odyssey. Arthur C. Clarke (1951) Origins of man. Finding alien technology and a depiction of space travel (10 years before it became reality) with a supercomputer pilot to Jupiter

Science: NASA space program ( Project Apollo, 1963 -1972) overcoming technical hurdles and developing tools and systems to travel to the Moon, land and then safely return to earth.

Star Trek ( TV series, 1966 -1969) Drama and adventure at faster than light-speed. Stories on the difficulty of maintaining unity in the galaxy. Racial diversity, Love, loss, greed, lust, and alien civilizations.

Science: Apollo – Soyuz, Skylab (1973 – 1979) Initial efforts at cooperation in space, long-term habitation in space orbit, and coexistence on Earth.

Star Wars (1977). This story of good versus evil, love, journey to discover one’s identity and high-tech shoot ’em ups, started what became one of the world’s top-earning movie franchises in history. Planet-vaporizing weapons and plasma-laser light-sabers.

Science: the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983 (called mockingly, Star Wars). Intent was to develop – particle beams, lasers and missile defense systems

Star Wars movie trilogy and Star Trek movie/ television franchises, (1980s -2009) Food synthesizers, medical diagnostics, hibernation, and transporter “beaming”

Science: naval electromagnetic rail gun, launching projectiles at supersonic speeds (since 2007)

Science: quantum teleportation experiments and transporting particles in 2017 (“beam me up, Scotty!”) With quadrillions of calculations needed to beam Kirk about, the technology is still in a galaxy, far, far away.

Has Global Warming scrapped icebreakers too soon?

January 12, 2018Eric SaretskyLeave a comment

via The Business Insider, January 12, 2018

The Navy’s new littoral combat ship, USS Little Rock, was commissioned on December 16 and planned to head for open ocean the next day, with stops along the way.
Its departure was delayed, and it has been stuck in Montreal since arriving there.
The Little Rock is the fifth Freedom-class littoral combat ship to enter service and the most recent ship to enter service for the Navy.

The US Navy’s latest littoral combat ship, USS Little Rock, was commissioned in Buffalo, New York, on December 16 and scheduled to depart the following day for its home port at Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, Florida.

Unfortunately for the Navy’s newest commissioned warship, the weather has not been cooperative.

The ship’s commanding officer, Cmdr. Todd Peters, decided to delay the departure from Buffalo for three days because weather conditions on Lake Erie. It left on December 20, traveling through the Welland Canal to reach Lake Ontario and then through the St. Lawrence Seaway for a regularly scheduled stop in Montreal.

Photos posed on the ship’s Facebook page on December 27 showed it had made it to Montreal. The ship was scheduled to leave the next day for Halifax, Nova Scotia and then reach open ocean by December 30.

However, because of ice and a lack of tug boats to guide it out, the Little Rock remains in Montreal, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson, public affairs officer for the US Naval Surface Force Atlantic, told Business Insider on Thursday.

While in Montreal, the ship’s crew has done routine repair work, including on a cable associated with the ship’s steerable waterjet, which is part of the propulsion system. That system has caused problems for other littoral combat ships.

Those repairs were completed on January 4, Hillson said, and in the days since the crew has been doing routine work to “ensure readiness” for any future taskings.

US Navy littoral combat ship USS Little Rock heading toward Montreal, December 27, 2017. USS Little Rock/Facebook

The Little Rock is the most recent ship to enter service for the US Navy, commissioned two days after the USS Portland, a San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. The Little Rock is the fifth Freedom-class littoral combat ship to join the fleet. There are also five Independence-class littoral combat ships in service.

The vessel is 389 feet long and has a draft of 13.5 feet, according to a Navy fact sheet. It has a top speed of over 45 knots and displaces about 3,400 tons with a full load.

It has a modular design that allows it to carry out anti-surface, anti-mine, and anti-submarine operations, and the ship’s approximately 70 sailors are trained to perform a number of tasks. It is outfitted with a helicopter pad, a ramp for small boats, and can carry and deploy small assault forces.

US Navy littoral combat ship USS Little Rock The littoral combat ship USS Little Rock is launched into the Menominee River in Marinette, Wisconsin, after a christening ceremony, July 18, 2015. US Navy

Its flight deck is the largest of any US Navy surface combatant, and its armaments include an MK 31 Rolling Airframe Missile System, an MK 110 57 mm gun, crew-served and small-caliber guns, and other weapons systems that can be tailored to specific missions.

The ship is scheduled for more training and combat-systems testing in 2018, Peters, the ship’s commanding officer, told The Buffalo News.

The ship’s crew completed a previous round of assessments scheduled for 121 days in only 63 days. Once the next round of testing and training is finished, the ship will start conducting missions, according to The Buffalo News.

While the Little Rock’s current problems are caused by nature, it has been waylaid by manmade issues in the past.

In September 2016, the Navy halted all littoral combat ship operations after the fourth accident in the span of a year. The halt also prompted the Navy to have leaders at the Navy’s Surface Warfare Officer’s School review the littoral combat ship training program and recommend changes if they saw fit.

Congressional leaders have criticized the littoral-combat-ship program. Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain has blasted the growing cost of the ships as a “classic example” of defense acquisition gone awry. McCain and others also expressed frustration when the White House intervened in May to include an extra littoral combat ship in the Navy’s 2018 budget request.