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Vic Smith

On Sat, 28 Sep 2013 12:31:30 +0300, injipoint
wrote:

On 28/09/2013 9:15 AM, wrote:
Hi Vic,

I am curious as to the origin of "flank speed".
,,
I have never heard of it before and though Wikipedia defines it, there is no reference to the origin o the tem.

Cheers
Peter

It's a USN term afaik. If you are protecting a convoy and
they turn to avoid a sub, you, the destroyer or frigate, needs to
make up considerable ground to get between them, the targets, and
the bad guys. You needed to maintain a flank position between
the two.

I think your sub guys used it in WW2 to move as fast as they could
to get to their target positions. Although, in those days, almost
anything could outrun a sub. But they sure were hard to find

Sounds right. I can only say for my DDG it wasn't an "emergency"
speed as suggested by a Wiki I read.
More "tactical." And when sea conditions allowed, all my skippers
would use it sometimes for hours on end while in transit, say from the
Med back to the U.S.
Sure, fuel efficiency suffers, but if you have enough and some to
spare to make it to port, or an oiler to rendezvous with, it didn't
matter. Warship skippers - at least in the days of cheap oil - were
probably no different than the typical power boater in that regard.
"Let's get this baby moving!"

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