Washington Daily News February 05, 2004
Basnight floats an OLF idea
By Bill Sandifer
If it floats, is owned by the Navy and jet fighters land on it, it must be an aircraft carrier.
Historically, that has been the case.
However, a floating offshore platform fits the model with aplomb, as well.
So says state Sen. Marc Basnight, D-Dare, Senate president pro tem. He's suggesting such a platform to break the outlying landing field logjam between North Carolina and the Navy.
In a Jan. 23 letter to the state's congressional delegation, Basnight outlines his suggestion:
"I ask that you encourage the Navy to explore what many believe is a legitimate alternative to the current OLF site: building an offshore platform for pilots to practice taking off and landing the Super Hornets. An offshore platform in the Atlantic Ocean, or perhaps in Pamlico Sound, is a viable option that deserves careful review. In fact, this suggestion was raised earlier as a potential alternative to a land-based OLF, but the possibility barely even received a mention in the Navy's final environmental impact statement. ...
"(A)n offshore platform would improve pilot safety by reducing the risk of costly bird collisions and by providing a more realistic practice area. Moreover, it would not cause further economic damage in one of North Carolina's most economically depressed areas. And it would avoid putting local residents in danger of a jet crashing into a home, a school, or another building.
"By contrast, the current OLF site choice would have several extremely harmful effects in Washington County and in nearby Beaufort County. In all my years of public service, I can think of no proposal that has generated more united opposition than this one."
A strategic concept
The Navy is no stranger to offshore platforms. In 1996, the Office of Naval Research began work on Mobile Offshore Bases, or MOBs, yet another acronym to go along with OLF. The Navy even has devoted a Web page to explaining the MOB in voluminous detail, laced with enough technical information to satisfy a scientist.
But both concepts share more than just a three-letter designation.
In January 1998, a Norwegian firm that developed floating oil rigs capable of withstanding the brutal conditions found in the North Sea, published the results of a $6 million feasibility study conducted for the Navy.
"SeaBase has been conceived as the world's largest ever marine structure," states Aker Kvaerner's Web site. "Kvaerner's vision for the huge semi-submersible structure, the largest of its kind in the world, is 1,600 metres long and 140 metres wide, comprising three large-scale semi-submersible platforms, based on concepts derived from Kvaerners world-class experience in the design and construction of large structures for the offshore oil and gas industry. The three platforms are linked by two semi-buoyant flexible bridges. SeaBase will be capable of absorbing the motions of the high seas, and remain operational as a movable military base, even in severe weather. Facilities aboard SeaBase will include a runway capable of landing up to C-17 transport aircraft, and accommodations for up to 10,000 military personnel."
From Navy concept to Kvaerner publication, the idea has created a stir.
"The United States was interested in the idea of having a large mobile floating base that could be relocated anywhere in the world," writes Dr. Ronald Riggs, a University of Hawaii engineering professor. "It could be placed in international waters, where it wouldn't be subjected to other country's national laws, regulations, and restrictions."
Riggs is among a number of engineers who have conducted research for the Navy.
"Dr. Riggs and Dr. Ertekin's research led them to solving fluid and structural dynamics problems that these very long structures would face," states a UH Web page. "Their research for the U.S. Navy helped gain a better understanding of how multi-module structures would respond and behave in waves, which in turn will help engineers design a more intelligent structure."
Riggs' and Ertekin's researched resulted in construction of a large, floating causeway that allows the Navy to off-load materials in areas where there is no shore access, contends the Web site.
"We got good feedback for that particular product," writes Riggs.
In January 2003, Navy engineers published a Web page devoted to MOB research.
A list of other firms and organizations conducting that research and developing technology for the MOB concept reads like a who's who of Department of Defense contractors, including Boeing, McDonnell-Douglas and Bechtel National. Major universities, including MIT, also are researching the project.
One firm conducting MOB research is well-placed with the Bush administration. Brown and Root, better known as KBR -- a firm alleged to have overcharged DOD for contract work in Iraq -- is a subsidiary of Halliburton. That is the firm from which Vice President Dick Cheney resigned as chief executive officer when he took the number-two slot on the Republican ticket for the 2000 presidential race.
In November 2000, a full-size floating airport moored in Japan's Yokosuka Bay passed muster following the successful completion of 200 test landings, according to Interpool's publication, The Cargo Letter.
Possibly the most interesting offshore landing concept is published on the Navy's engineering Web page. The design is titled "F-18 Offshore Training Platform (Oceana)." Information on the design indicates the structure was to be positioned "20-30 km off the coast of the Virginia Capes." That area, according to Web site GlobalSecurity.org, is a military "surface and subsurface operating area off the Virginia and North Carolina coasts."
Two thumbs up?
The Navy's Web site summarizes with a thumbs-up to MOBs.
"The resulting assessment report was provided to Congress in April 2000. A key conclusion was that all of the key technology issues identified at the inception of the ... program that put MOB beyond the state-of-practice were either resolved or evaluated sufficiently to conclude there were no inherent showstoppers.
"(T)he results are applicable to all large floating platforms. ... At present, we await other assessments and decisions on the utility of MOB to be made by the Secretary of Defense and Congress."
Navy specs show that a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier comes in at 1,092 feet in length, provides a flight deck width of 252 feet, accommodates 85 aircraft and costs $4.5 billion.
By contrast, the Navy's MOB Web site boasts a platform up to 6,500 feet in length and 400 feet in width, in comparison to a projected 8,000-foot runway for the Washington County OLF.
Some of Basnight's staff appear captivated by the notion as well.
"It's an intriguing thought," said Amy Fulk, Basnight's spokeswoman.
© Copyright 2004, The Washington Daily News
