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China didn't use its hospital ships either even if they can sail right up the Yangtze to Wuhan. Now these are ships that were designed to be hospital ships from the ground up, and not converted from tankers.

The reason why hospital ships cannot be use for greatly infectious disease is that the enclosed spaces and recirculated air conditioned air is an ideal space for viruses to spread quickly to people. You have those unfortunate cruise ships as the experience and evidence of this.

China is now designing a new class of hospital ship that is intentionally designed to handle infectious diseases. Ventilation systems and all.

The US should be sending its medical military staff to New York in the way that China sent PLA medical staff to Wuhan. But so far the US hasn't. It would have been better if both the Comfort and the Mercy remained home ported and their staff are sent to New York hospitals instead.

As for Switzerland, the country happens to have a very high infection rate with over 20,000 counting on a small country as of the last count. The infection rate in Switzerland is at 1000 cases rising per day.

Tam said:

China didn't use its hospital ships either even if they can sail right up the Yangtze to Wuhan. Now these are ships that were designed to be hospital ships from the ground up, and not converted from tankers.

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The Type 920 was not a conversion True, however a good number of the other Hospital ships are conversion of warships.
conversion is generally cheaper. But comes at the cost of having other issues. In the case of the Mercy it’s slow, can’t land V22 and has issues of the compartments. This is why there has been a push for replacement. With concepts from Huntington Ingrals based off the San Antonio class and Austral with the Spear head class. In a one to one the San Antonio based hull would Offer more But better might be a mix of Spearheads and San Antonio class type the Spearhead is far faster albeit smaller.

Tam said:

The US should be sending its medical military staff to New York in the way that China sent PLA medical staff to Wuhan. But so far the US hasn't. It would have been better if both the Comfort and the Mercy remained home ported and their staff are sent to New York hospitals instead.

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The US Army is already doing that to.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Secondary point is people have accidents or need surgery all the time. Heart attacks, Strokes, slipping in the shower, Fires... the Aim of Mercy and Comfort in the respective cities is to take those.
The fact is you can’t take uninfected patience into a ward with infected patients. As doing so will spread the contagion. The infected have to be isolated.

The SECNAV and Captains of these ships made the mission very clear in reporting before those ships tied to the peri.
They were to serve as a release valve for Non Convid cases.
Early on the idea was to have the Prospective patients screened at a regular hospital then if negative be sent to the Ships. However they have reportedly changed the requirements and now test on the pier isolate until the test comes back and if positive they send them as soon as possible to the Jacobs Center Hospital main DOD patient care for Convid 19 cases is not the Comfort or Mercy but US Army field hospitals.

The press can say what they want and will.
If the DOD and Federal government deem it necessary they would likely open to convid 19 victims. But not having the abilities of a regular hospital in terms of isolation wards is a major issue.
Mercy class are big shipsit’s got 12 operating rooms a thousand beds it’s own labs, Radiology, CT scanner, Pharmacy, ICU, Optometry, Dental facilities, Morgue Helicopter pad, as well as 2 Oxygen generators.
but you know what if you ever see the recovery wards it’s an open bay with bunks. Perfectly fine for recovery from a major fire, or kinetic disaster.
Perfect for an uninfected patient to become infected. Add in that the Medical crews both work and live in the space. It’s not a case of less than ideal it’s potential disaster. The same would hold true for any Hospital ship. But these ships were originally Oil tankers and they kept the walls of the hold. This means that Patients have to be moved from section to section above decks potentially spreading from existing patients to new ones and from crew to crew. This was one of the reasons pointed to for wanting to retire them.

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32 min ago

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"The visible difference between the two cartridges is the Ammunition Data Link (ADL) interface rings on the base of the M829A4 "

What manner of witchcraft is this?! What's an APFSDS doing with a data link?!

Source:

In all likelihood the only thing that happens with the datalink base is it tells the FCS “Hey I am a direct impact round adjust to such. Perhaps it allows tracking by FCS. I doubt it’s a true Smart round guided projectile just yet but it is possible.

I just remembered back in the day 7+ Years back the US Army was experimenting with a guided Rod round the XM1111 and XM1007 both died with FCS but perhaps some of the tech survived. I mean remember the EXACTO round similar idea smaller projectile.

Yea the EXACTO is what I was thinking, but a major project like that should've created some waves. It's possible though.

The MRM-KE was basically an ATGM with a KE penetrator, that tech wouldn't be relevant for a guided sabot.

For now, I think your first explanation is the most likely, it's probably just to alert/inform the FCS as to which type of round is loaded etc.

Before anyone asks the reason for the datalink that was added to the Abrams was the AMP round. It’s a multipurpose high explosive round that can change from HEAT to HEAB modes. Traditionally tanks tend to fire more at infantry or barriers than other tanks, as such HE type rounds are more demanded than AP types.

Yesterday at 8:08 PM

Jura said:

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and
First crew member on USNS Comfort tests positive for COVID-19



2 hours ago

WASHINGTON (NNS) -- The Navy will now require the use of cloth face coverings for all military, Navy civilian and contractors as well as family members while on DoD property, installations and facilities when maintaining proper social distancing between people isn’t possible.

The order is effective immediately, according to NavAdmin message 100/20, released April 5.

“To the extent practical,” the message states, individuals “are required to wear cloth face coverings when they cannot maintain six feet of social distance.”

The message aligns the Navy with the Centers for Disease Control’s recent recommendation strongly encouraging the wearing of cloth face coverings when in public and close proximity between people can’t be avoided.

As is the Navy’s convention, local commanders can issue exceptions to this requirement.

The policy also requires anyone wearing a face covering to uncover their faces when directed to by security forces during identity checks.

“Navy will continue to implement protective measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 to our total force and their families, and the American people,” the message said.

While medical N95 masks are in short supply world-wide, face coverings are not, and the Navy is taking a practical approach to what can be worn.

Official uniform face coverings are in the works, the message said. But until they are procured and implemented, those in uniform can wear medical or construction type masks if they have them.

If not, they can fashion their own or wear cloth coverings such as bandanas and scarfs. In all cases, however, anything worn must be conservative in appearance, not offensive, and conform to the CDC guidance.

Any face covering must meet the following requirements:

· Fit snugly but comfortably against the side of the face and allow breathing without restriction

· Cover the face only from nose to chin.

· Must secure in place with ties or ear loops.

· Any cloth mask must have multiple layers of fabric.

Navy supports, and will continue to implement, all measures necessary to mitigate risks to the force, to our mission and to the spread of the disease and as a result, the message said.

Even when off-base or in not uniform, the message strongly encourages all uniformed and civilian Navy personnel, to follow all CDC guidelines, including the use of face coverings.

Directions to make your own face coverings can be found on the CDC website at

The latest DoD policies can be found at: .

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