Battle short

That sounds bonkers to me... in oh so many ways...

...somebody, bell that cat!

Uhh... No thanks, and thanks?

Good answer...appreciate it.

You didn't understand my post? Or, maybe, try this? What punch line?

This may be more on topic and useful, hopefully.

A most interesting read, to be sure. Found the words but never found the switch on the box illustrations--a bit fuzzy...did you see it? The article made quite a thing of the UPS being "very light weight," or words to that effect. My guess is "light weight" is a relative term only--because surface ships are very fussy about weight limits. I have rack-mountable UPS's that look very similar to those and with many of same features/benefits...and each is about 90 pounds not counting the glides. (even trying to sell a couple of them.)

Thanks for the posts, and the banter. Amazed that such a little discussion is getting such a share of "good answers."

Oops!

Marvelous...beyond the "call of duty"

Yes - Google searched with "what is a battle short".

The very first "hit" was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleshort

In the water industries, such a thing is known as a 'frig'.

Eh? Would that be brig? Or something to do with cold water... (judging by the pink cheeks)? Please, amplify for this "drylander." What am I "frigging" missing?

CA

Frig - (n) "An U-shaped short piece of insulated wire, typically no more than 50mm long, each end being stripped so as to form a conductive link, usually placed across the normally-open contacts of a mischievious piece of industrial instrumentation so as to maintain the operation of equipment usually dependent upon the mischievious item regradless of its process- or safety-interlock function." (from the PWSlack dictonary of miscellaneous accumulated words).

Wouldn't that be, specifically, the safety frig? What with the insulation?

...also recommend "Penny Frig : <as with socket-plug fuse>; deriv : coined word" as a related-word insertion in your dictionary.

<...What with the insulation?...>

It enables the contrivance to be introduced while the circuit is still 'live'.

Not a recommended practice above 120VAC....

A bayonet is made for short battle.

Shorts is not a good idea on the battle field.

A bayonet is made for short battle.... after a battle at distance.

Shorts is not a good idea on the battle field....Hence, the kilt...or Battle Pampers^TM !

And, if you do wear a battle kilt, please don't get out of the sliding door car. I've still not recovered from the Braveheart scene.

Thumbs up for an excellent answer. Thanks Shawn...and to your parents for knowing how to spell Shawn!

Shawn, your explanation adds a unique and very interesting twist...a twist perhaps essential to a comrehensive understanding of the term(?).

If I understand you correctly, Battle Short does not necessarily mean the actual existence of an (overheat or whatever) fault (although it could) ...only that conditions are such that a mission-critical equipment fault condition could be or is likely to be encountered, and/or could immediately need to be repaired, no matter what...?

Perhaps it would be appropriate, then, to say that Battle Short is the critical-hardware equivalent of "Battle Stations!"? (Likewise and moreover, the equipment itself only needs to survive until the battle is over--perhaps?)

That is exactly correct. Battleshort is only enabled when going into combat and does not necessarily mean that any equipment is damaged. For AEGIS ships it merely requires the press of a button by someone to place the entire AEGIS combat system into battleshort mode.

Oh another thing--it just occurred to me--about battle short mode implementation. How did they come up with the name, battle short? One interpretation could be that interlock circuitry is short circuited somehow. Another, that the battle equipments are (how shall I say?) being operated "short" of all functionality.

Any ideas about this? Also, what about BITE? Would Battle Short also affect, perhaps dis-enable, fault indications until danger passes?

Maybe this is dummy question; hope not.

I was stationed on USS Monterey (CG-61) for 5 years and USS Scott (DDG-995) for two years as a Fire Controlman (weapons control systems, not fire fighting systems)

. As to your other question, I would assume that it is referring to shorting out some of the fault circuitry involved... not all battleshorting involves interlocks, and not all interlocks are bypassed. I couldn't tell you which ones are or aren't bypassed even if I could remember at this point. But, as a for instance, the UYK-44 computer has a battleshort mode, all it does however is prevents the computer from shutting down in case of overheating. Which is a real possibility if the computer room that some of them resides in looses air conditioning.

BITE tests are normally only run offline in the case of at least the UYK-44, 43, and 7 also I believe, which are the most prevalant combat system tactical computers, so battleshort wouldn't affect that in any way.

I’m dating myself now, the navy was using the AN/UYK-20 when I was selling our systems off to them. The battle short had to be tested during the sell off. It involved using a heat gun directed on the thermal sensors until the power was interrupted. Then allowed to cool to the point where power was restored. The set battle short to on and reheat the sensor. The power would remain even when you heard the interlock open.

An example would be, there are thermal interlocks in key areas of the electronics. These interlocks are designed to open or remove power to the unit in the event of an over temperature condition. If the ship is in battle stations the operator would set the battle short switch to ON. This sets relays that short across all of the thermal interlocks. And as Shawn indicated, it also shorts out the safety interlocks that would usually shut down power to a drawer or monitor if it were pulled opened to access the electronics. It’s been a couple decades since I worked on military electronics but the SONAR, Electronic Counter Measures and Fire Control operator consoles all had battle shorts in the form of a toggle switch with a red cover.

The term has also been appropriated by some "critical infrastructure" industries for a similar function. For instance, many electric utilities do not fuse the trip circuit on older power circuit breakers. A solid or hollow copper rod is inserted into the fuse block instead of a fuse. This ensures that, in the event a protective trip is required, the control circuit will keep trying to trip the breaker regardless of the current applied. The purpose is similar to the military: if the protective relaying is calling for a trip, it's better to burn up a trip coil than burn down a building or transmission line. The solid rod is often referred to as a battleshort (probably started by landed sailors). The hollow tube is called a "refrigeration fuse", since it's usually made of refrigeration tubing.

I've also seen some similar functions in nuclear plants, where the need to keep the reactor core covered & cool can sometimes override the normal desire to protect the cooling water pumps. Those switches are usually set up as a "deadman", meaning you must reset is every minute or so, or the bypass will drop out.

A most informative tangent. Thanks.

".... The solid rod is often referred to as a battleshort (probably started by landed sailors). ...."

But is it really a battle short? What those word-smithing sailors might have overlooked, is that military/naval battle shorts are permanent hardware things, and permanently labelled as such, on military/naval equipment. I would suppose it's the stamped labelling that makes a Battle Short switch official.

Geez, and I thought they were camouflaged undershorts .

There is a definition of Battleshort at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battleshort

Sharon Carbine

Listening to the rebroadcast of Apollo 11 comms on the NASA website, The PAO noted that the data networks had battle shorts in place 20 minutes prior to liftoff from the lunar surface. Getting every last bit of data possible in a very short window superceded equipment survivabilty.

BATTLE SHORT MODE OF OPERATION The battle short mode is used when it becomes necessary to run the computer continuously even though an over temperature condition exists. The activation of a battle short switch will bypass over temperature protection interlocks and power will be maintained to the computer for continued operation. An over temperature condition is a result of a failed assembly or inadequate cooling. The requirement to run the computer continuously in an over temperature condition usually only exists under battle conditions. Some computers are also equipped with a horn to warn an over temperature condition exists. This switch is found on some older military radar systems and other critical systems that must remain in operation during emergency situations such as a battle.

Observed on redundant RCA76 warship gunfire control system to over-ride interlock/safety system(s)

e.g. thermal fuse radar director elevation motor, radar VSWR (e.g. bullet hole in waveguide) etc...

Also known as USE TO DESTRUCTION, I would expect this to be used when destruction of equipment is secondary to weapons system use.

e.g. combat priority 1st Fight, 2nd Move, 3rd Float as opposed to normal passage sailing priority of 1st float,2nd Move,3rd fight.

The other term I have heard used in industry decades ago was an “RTDO” (Run-To-Destruction-Override) or sometimes just RTD when used as a feature description. But the advent of Resistive Thermal Devices seems to have created a more common use of the RTD acronym, which may explain it having dropped out of use in the “battleshort” context. When designing controllers for critical path equipment, meaning machinery that must run no matter what, we were often required to design in an RTDO, usually with a keyed switch that only designated managers could use. I had an ex-Navy electrician working for me, he had never heard of an RTDO but knew what it was when I said “battleshort”.

At one steel casting mill I did work at, the continuous caster had to have an RTDO system because if anything shut down unexpectedly, it could cost millions of dollars in repairs to the melt furnace. But they wanted to know immediately who it was that deployed it. So the RTDO we installed had a “captive key” system for the override in which the shift supervisor, line manager and lead electrician all had numbered keys. If they employed them, the keys would be held captive in the lock until the safety manager used his key on an adjacent lock to release it.