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Focused Mission Ship Studies to Help Chart Course for Future Navy

NAVSEA News Wire

12/6/2002

By JOC David Nagle, Naval Sea Systems Command Public Affairs

WASHINGTON - Six industry concept studies are currently underway that will help the Navy define future requirements for a focused-mission, multi-capable, high-speed ship that can perform a variety of missions. Naval Sea Systems Command recently awarded six, $500,000 contracts to perform 90-day concept studies that will explore a range of approaches in an overall effort to define future ship requirements. These studies will further refine the Navy's requirements and knowledge of technology options for the proposed Littoral Combat Ship and other future ship classes.

According to Rear Adm. Charles Hamilton, Deputy Program Executive Officer for Ships, the contractors were asked to develop a concept for a ship designed to counter three specific threats - diesel submarines operating in the littorals; fast, armed small craft; and mines.

"Each of these threats provide unique challenges in providing access for naval forces as we move into different operating theaters," said Hamilton. "We want to serve that niche market with a specific class of ships to respond to those specific threats."

Future focused-mission ships would be smaller than present-day surface combatants. Hamilton envisions that a focused-mission ship would have a displacement between 1,000-4,000 tons and a draft of less than 20 feet, as compared to an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that has a displacement of about 9,200 tons and a draft of 31 feet. A focused-mission ship would also employ a non-traditional hull shape and be capable of speeds of up to 40-50 knots.

The most significant feature envisioned for the focused-mission ships is its ability to employ modular mission packages or modules that could be easily added and removed from the ship to support specific missions. These modules would include specialty crew detachments that would deploy with the ship to support their specific mission.

"For example, if there were an anti-surface warfare module with rigid-hull inflatable boats and sensor packages, the people best trained to use that equipment and support that mission would come as part of a detachment, serve with that particular module, and then rotate back [to their base or squadron] when the mission ended," Hamilton explained.

Once the studies are completed, the Navy plans to use the results and, along with data collected from other experiments, to draft a new solicitation for up to three preliminary designs for LCS. According to Hamilton, the designs would focus more specifically on speed and payload capabilities, while investigating new ways to design and build the ship hulls or platforms in the most cost-effective manner.

"I suspect at the end of the study, we'll know additional things about composites, honeycombed aluminum and other weight-reducing materials and the implication of using those materials from a survivability and weight and design producability perspective," said Hamilton. "What we learn may drive us toward a preference for a hull type."

A future focused-mission ship would also play a key role in all three components of the Chief of Naval Operations' "Sea Power 21" vision - Sea Strike, Sea Shield and Sea Basing, according to Hamilton.

"Sea Power 21 is about the application of power in ways we have never done before, using different deployment packages and different ways to project power," said Hamilton. "A focused-mission ship will play a part in Sea Shield by providing assured access through its mine and littoral warfare capabilities. It will have a part in Sea Basing as a newer element for joint mobility and sustainment, and in Sea Strike by providing persistent Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance work to joint forces for power projection."

The admiral added that the recently awarded ship concept studies set the Navy on a course not only to craft the capabilities for LCS, but also to assist in shaping the 21st century Navy. "This is an exciting time for the Navy," he said. "I'm looking forward to the best minds in industry and in the armed forces to help in this endeavor."