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The general use case is Helm controlling the rudders on the left and Lee Helm controlling throttles on the right. They're two separate functions, and while the
by jki275 7y ago
The general use case is Helm controlling the rudders on the left and Lee Helm controlling throttles on the right. They're two separate functions, and while they require coordination to run effectively they don't have to be the same person or the same station or even in the same room.
That's actually the normal mode of operation (split responsibility between Lee Helm on the right and Helm on the left) on a CVN (which uses a very similar system, although with a larger console). It has the ability to control both functions from one side of the console, but that's not the normal mode of operation.
If the bridge ceases to exist, then steering could be controlled from aft steering (directly above the rudders) and throttles from engineering central control (engineering owns the engines). That's a canonical thing, it's the way it's always been -- you have redundancy in those places for many obvious reasons for a warship.
- mannykannot 7y agoThanks for your informative reply, but if I am following what you are saying, the Lee Helm is normally controlling all the trottles, and responsibility for port and starboard throttles is not normally split between two people? - though I take your point that, in the case of damage, there might be no single console capable of controlling both the port and starboard power, so I can see why complete flexibility in the assignment of controls to consoles would be a requirement.
- jki275 7y agoThat correct - throttle control should not be split between consoles. I don’t believe that’s even possible - it was not in the system I worked on. I suspect the article is not exactly correct in this. The controls normally are ganged so they don’t have to be individually changed but for maneuvering individual screws can be commanded separately on the same console if they are not ganged together.
- jpindar 7y agoThere's a control location drop-down above each of the two throttles, which implies they can be split.
- jarofgreen 7y ago> I don’t believe that’s even possible - it was not in the system I worked on. The article says: "As the years passed, Northrop Grumman continued to make improvements to the system. That meant that controls on one ship might not look exactly like controls on another. It was like hopping from the driver’s seat of a Ford truck into a Mercedes-Benz roadster. Sailors could adjust. But it took a while to get a feel for the different controls — and on a fully armed warship, no less."