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Firebolt, Shamal to Swap Crews

Navy Newsstand

Story Number: NNS030813-11

Release Date: 8/13/2003 2:49:00 PM

By Lt. Garrett Kasper, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command / Commander, 5th Fleet Public Affairs

MANAMA, Bahrain (NNS) -- It typically takes two months for a vessel setting sail from Norfolk, Va., to reach the Arabian Gulf and vice versa for its forward-deployed counterpart to return. Today, the Navy's coastal patrol community can do it in just ten days.

Instead of sailing their 174-foot Cyclone-class patrol coastals from Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., the 28-person crew of USS Shamal (PC 13) is literally deploying without their ship.

Shamal will remain moored abreast of USS Tornado (PC 14) in Virginia, while its crew flies to Bahrain to take over USS Firebolt (PC 10).

The Shamal-Firebolt ship swap is the second time coastal patrol ships have traded crews in Bahrain. In mid-July, the Tornado crew replaced the crew of USS Chinook (PC 9). The Chinook's crew returned to Norfolk, manned the vacated Tornado, and is now ship-sitting Shamal until the original Firebolt crew returns stateside.

Crew swaps for coastal patrol ships are being completed for operational reasons and because of the inherent need to maintain a constant naval presence in the North Arabian Gulf. The PCs fill a critical role in support of maritime security operations for Commander, Task Force 55. Their small size is their biggest attribute, because they can operate in the shallow waters north of the Khor Abd Allah waterway and in the port of Umm Qasr.

"The two coastal patrol vessels in the Arabian Gulf support a variety of important missions in the 5th Fleet area of responsibility," said Lt. Richard D. Butler, commanding officer of Firebolt. "Both Firebolt and Chinook take part in maritime interception operations, and patrol the Khor Abd Allah waterway to reduce the threat of paramilitary and terrorist activity. We also provide security to the commercial tankers that are now starting to fill up at Iraq's offshore oil terminals."

Firebolt and its crew have been deployed to the Arabian Gulf for the past six months, and will turn their vessel over to Shamal's crew in early August. Once the swap is official, Firebolt's crew will fly from 5th Fleet headquarters in Bahrain back to Norfolk.

Shamal's crew departed Norfolk for Bahrain Aug. 3. After a face-to-face turnover with their Firebolt counterparts, Firebolt's crew will stay in Bahrain for several days to support Shamal's full transition to Firebolt.

"During that time, there will be a 100 percent equipment turnover, materiel pass-down, and mission briefs about the local area of operations," Butler said. "Once my relief is assured that a proper turnover has taken place, we'll sign a letter, and the official crew-swap message will be sent."

Because PCs are smaller and take longer to complete trans-oceanic voyages, they need routine refueling and are more vulnerable to increased wear and tear for each voyage. This can add more long-term or unexpected maintenance costs.

While the concept or crew-swapping isn't new to the Navy, it is for coastal patrol ships. Although similar to the Navy's Sea-Swap program, these PC crew changes are being made to support readiness within the Navy's 5th Fleet.

According to Butler, both Chinook and Firebolt are expected to stay in the 5th Fleet theater of responsibility for at least another year, which means at least another crew swap per ship.