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LPD-17 cutaway
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LPD-17 San Antonio Class amphibious assault support vessels are a new class of ship which is just entering service with the US Navy. Much like their predecessors, their mission is to embark, transport, land, and support elements of a US Marine Corps Landing Force. What changes are the capabilities and technologies incorporated to perform that mission. This new ship class includes significant internal technology and design upgrades, and is designed to operate accompanying platforms like the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft and the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle amphibious armored personnel carrier.

Navy sources note that the 9 scheduled ships of this class (reduced from 12) are slated to assume the functional duties of up to 41 previous ships. Ships to be replaced include the USA’s older LSD-36 USS Anchorage Class dock landing ships (all decommissioned as of 2004, LSD-36 and LSD-38 transferred to Taiwan) and its LPD-4 USS Austin Class ships (12 built and serving, LPD 14 Trenton now India’s INS Jalashva). The San Antonio Class ships may also replace 2 classes of ships currently mothballed and held in reserve status under the Amphibious Lift Enhancement Program (ALEP): the LST-1179 Newport Class tank landing ships, and LKA-113 Charleston Class amphibious cargo ships.

Welcome to Norfolk…
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Replacing that many existing ships is already a very tall order. While its design incorporates notable advances, the San Antonio Class has also had its share of teething problems. So, too, has the New Orleans shipyard to which most of this contract has been assigned. Teething issues are not uncommon in new ship classes, but the number of serious issues encountered in this ship class have been higher than usual. The initial ships have been criticized for sub-standard workmanship, and costs are almost twice the originally promised amounts at over $1.5 billion per ship.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article for the San Antonio Class, detailing the ships’ unique features and capabilities as well as its program innovations and issues. We’ll also include an updated list of related contracts awarded throughout the program’s history. As has become DID custom, the most recent additions are highlighted in green type. Now, over 2 1/2 years after the initial ship of class was delivered and accepted, the San Antonio Class has reached Initial Operational Capability, LPD 20 just passed its INSURV trials, and the first ship of class has finally been deployed on a mission…

• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Capabilities and Features
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Project & Timelines [updated]
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Process & Issues
• LPD-17 San Antonio Class: Contracts and Events (1996-Present) [updated]
• Appendix A: Additional Readings & Sources – LPD-17 Ship Class [updated]
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – News and Views [updated]
  
  Continue Reading… »

General Dynamics Team
Trimaran LCS Design
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The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is the U.S. Navy’s newest surface combatant class. Optimized for shallow seas and operations within 100 miles of shore, but deployable across the ocean, LCS ships are a centerpiece of the USA’s new focus on littoral warfare. They will help to counter growing “asymmetric” threats like coastal mines, quiet diesel submarines, global piracy, and terrorists on small fast attack boats. They will also perform intelligence gathering and scouting using helicopters and UAVs, offer some ground combat support capabilities, and share tactical information with other Navy aircraft, ships, submarines, and joint units. Swappable “mission modules,” UAV robot aircraft, and robotic UUV and USV vehicles will give these small ships the specialized capabilities they require for each of these roles – and the quick-replace adaptability they need to keep up.

At present, 2 teams are competing for the final LCS design. The General Dynamics team is offering a futuristic but practical high-speed trimaran based on Austal designs and experience. The Lockheed Martin team offers a high-speed semi-planing monohull based on Fincantieri designs that have set trans-Atlantic speed records. Team Lockheed’s efforts have run into serious trouble, including cancellation of the contract for their second ship. The General Dynamics/Austal team hit the same rocks soon afterward, in part because of the US Navy’s unusual proposal for future business arrangements.

DID places recent developments in context by explaining a bit more about the US Navy’s new surface combatant; detailing the teams, key time line events, and contract awards under the program to date; and providing additional resources and links to complete our in-depth coverage. New material appears in green type. The latest updates involve mission module integration, a report on program status and costs from the Congresional Budget Office, and an article by Naval Technology that looks at the LCS program’s issues to date…

• LCS = Standard Equipment + Mission Modules
• LCS: Budgets and Program Structure [updated]
• LCS: Designs & Teams
• LCS Controversies
• LCS: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• LCS Ancillaries: Mission Module & Weapon Contracts & Key Events
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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JHL: QTR Concept
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In 2005, the US military and NASA announced the kickoff of the Army-led Joint Heavy Lift program, with the award of 5 contracts for the Concept Design and Analysis (CDA) of a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) Joint Heavy Lift (JHL) rotorcraft. This is a futuristic aircraft that’s imagined as having the C-130 Hercules aircraft’s 20 ton cargo capacity, but with the ability to take off and land like a helicopter. No current US military helicopter platform even comes close to that vision, and so the competitors are deploying some radical and different technologies in their attempts to meet these goals. DID covers each of them below.

CH-53E Super Stallion

At the same time, the US Marine Corps’ vital medium-heavy lift CH-53E Super Sea Stallion helicopters are beginning to to wear out their airframes. Hence the HLR Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR) program, aimed at fielding new-build CH-53K aircraft beginning in 2013-2015. The US Air Force, meanwhile, has its AJACS program, which aims to produce a C-130 replacement beginning around 2020.

All 3 programs may face a rough ride ahead. Runaway cost growth on numerous US defense programs, operational demands, and a looming demographic crisis in social programs all work to create budget squeezes, and hence pressures for program consolidation. The USMC’s affordable CH-53X track upgrade was very nearly sidetracked via a merger with he R&D heavy, schedule-uncertain, JHL, and may not be in the clear yet. The USAF’s AJACS program to replace the C-130 Hercules with a modern 20+ ton transport is also facing scrutiny of this sort, and those pressures, too may increase. Conversely, it is also possible that the JHL program could find itself edged out by a pair of more conventional helicopter and aircraft solutions from the USMC and USAF. DID notes the technologies, the politics, and progress to date.

Recent news includes a report that shows just how far away the US military is from a viable competition and winning design…

• The JHL Program (i.e. “Continue reading…”)
• The Contenders
  • The Modernized Standbys [updated]
  • Sikorsky’s Compound Helicopter Option [updated]
  • The Tilt-Rotors [updated]
• Contracts and Key Developments [updated]
• Appendix A: ‘Borging’ HLR & the CH-53’s Future (Oct 2005)
• Appendix B: Additional Readings & Sources – JHL Program
• Appendix C: Additional Readings & Sources – HLR Program (CH-53X)
  
  Continue Reading… »

HSV/TSV Cutaway
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“UAVs, Blimps, and HSV-2, Oh My!” covered the USA’s leased Incat TSV/HSV wave-piercing catamaran ship designs – and we’ve also covered the Marines’ very successful use of Austal’s Westpac Express high-speed catamaran. These Australian-designed ships’ ability to roll on a company with full gear and equipment (or a full infantry battalion if used as a troop transport), haul it intra-theater distances at 38 knots, then move their shallow draft safely into austere ports to roll them off, has attracted favorable comment and notice from the US Navy, Marines, and Army alike.

So favorable that the experiments have resulted in a program called the Joint High Speed Vessel. While still in its early stages, the final specifications are beginning to gel and the ships appear to be on track for construction funding in FY 2008.

LHA-R Concept
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Modern U.S. Navy Amphibious Assault Ships project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) / Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG). A key element of the Seapower 21 doctrine pillars of Sea Strike and Sea Basing, these LHA/LHD ships transport, launch, and land elements of the Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) via a combination of LCAC hovercraft, amphibious transports and vehicles, helicopters, and aircraft.

Designed to project power and maintain presence, LHA-Replacement (LHA-R, aka. LH-X and now the America Class) large deck amphibious assault ships will replace the LHA-1 Tarawa Class. They’re based on the more modern LHD Wasp Class design, but remove the LHD’s landing craft and well deck. The end product is essentially a revival of the World War 2 escort carrier concept, with integrated berthing, cargo, and light vehicle spaces for Marines. LHA-R ships will be almost 80 feet longer than USS Wasp and 10 feet wider, since they don’t have to fit through the Panama Canal. As a result, these ships will weigh in at 50,000 tons/ 45,700t fully loaded rather than 42,400t full load for LHD 8. Though DID uses the term “escort carriers” due to the size of their aerial complement, note that their overall displacement will be larger than France’s 43,000t FNS Charles De Gaulle nuclear powered aircraft carrier.

This is DID’s FOCUS Article concerning the America Class…

• America Class Ships: 21st Century Escort Carriers
• The LHA-R Program [updated]
• America Class: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
  Continue Reading… »

CH-53E, Cobra Gold 2002
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The U.S. Marines have a problem. The CH-53E Super Stallion medium-heavy lift helicopters they rely upon to move troops, vehicles, and supplies off of their ships are wearing out. Fast. Yet the pace demanded by the Global War on Terror is relentless. Attrition is taking its toll, and CH-53s are being recalled from “boneyard” storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ, in order to maintain fleet numbers in the face of recent losses and forced retirements. By 2012-2015, replacements will be urgently needed.

Enter the Heavy Lift Replacement (HLR) program, also known as the CH-53X and given the formal designation CH-53K in April 2006. The program’s value is estimated at $4.2 billion, and its requirements will define the future of the US Marine Corps’ medium-heavy lift capabilities. In recent news, Sikorsky just received $3.04 billion for the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) of the CH-53K aircraft, to include 4 SDD aircraft, 1 ground test vehicle, and associated program management and test support.

DID describes the CH-53K’s requirements, covers some of the potential improvements, and notes the treacherous political waters this program will need to survive, in order to wind up delivering US Marines the tools they’ll need to survive. The latest news involves program management help; it’s coupled with other updates re: key program sub-contractors….

• The HLR Program Lifts Off (= Continue reading…)
• The CH-53X / CH-53K
• HLR Program: Contracts, Events & Milestones [updated]
• Appendix A: Flying Between Scylla and Charbydis: Navigating The Political Shoals
• Appendix B: Interesting Ideas: The CH-53X Skycrane Concept
• Appendix C: Additional Readings & Sources
  
  Continue Reading… »

V-22 With M777
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The V-22 Osprey has attracted both praise and criticism during its long journey through development toward front-line deployment. Its characteristics have also had an impact on other weapons programs being developed for use with the aircraft. This article deals with two of those programs being developed to help strengthen the USMC’s badly eroded artillery capabilities.

One is the $74 million Internally Transported Vehicle (ITV) program; the United States Marine Corps says testing on American Growler, Inc’s vehicle is on track. The ITV – often incorrectly identified as the “Growler” – fits in the narrow belly of the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. The Marine Corps eventually expects to field about 600 to 700 of the two-ton, $120,000-a-copy tow trucks if they are accepted for fielding. ITVs will be delivered in two basic configurations: a Light Strike Variant (LSV), designed for Marine Corps infantry and reconnaissance battalions; and, the Expeditionary Fire Support System (EFSS) Prime Mover (PM), designed to tow the EFSS 120mm rifled mortar and the EFSS ammunition trailer. A decision to field them should be made by October 2007, a Marine Corps spokesman said. With respect to EFSS and other programs…

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Westpac, Expressin’
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DID has covered the operational success of the Westpac Express, a high-speed catamaran from Austal that looks like a larger version of the fast ferries it sells all around the world (most recently to Oman). The Westpac Express has been intrumental in changing the way the US Navy approaches sealift, and future programs like the Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV) owe a great deal to the innovative designs and performance of Australian shipbuilders Austal and Incat. Westpac Express also provided Austal with a foundation of manufacturing experience and customer comfort that led to the innovative GD/Austal trimaran design for the new Independence Class “Flight 0” Littoral Combat Ship.

Westpac Express isn’t a Navy-owned ship; technically, it’s a chartered vessel. In July 2005, we noted an 18-month extension to its charter. Now that service period is being extended still further via a new charter, as the vessel continues to prove its usefulness (Hat tip: reader Lee Wahler).

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Deployed TransHospital
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Back in July 2005, DID covered EADS’ TransHospitals, a modular system that could clip convenient ISO Standard 20×8x8 container modules together in order to assemble field medical facilities of any size. TransHospital is just one of EADS container-based offerings, and part of a slow global trend toward containerized systems.

Singapore was noted in the article as a TransHospital buyer, and their MINDEF recently held a formal unveiling of their newly-operational system. It includes interior pictures, along will other details regarding the new systems. As Captain Lim Poh Thiam put it, noting one of the prime advantages of container-based facilities: “All our equipment are already packed and ready for use in these containers which means we can be deployed more quickly than in the past. So we are ready to go anytime!”

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Darkening prospects?
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On April 25, 2006, the Swedish Armed Forces submitted their 2007 budget proposal [note: page in Swedish]. The Armed Forces’ plans include continued commitment in the Balkans and Afghanistan, and they anticipate that from 2008, Sweden “will have the capability to contribute to two major and three minor crisis management operations simultaneously.” The English release adds that “units in the Navy and the Air Force should be given a greater role in international operations.”

There might be fewer of them, though. General Lieutenant Mats Nilsson was frank: “We need to have a proper number to be able to operate the [JAS-39 Gripen fighter] in the long-term from the type of organization which parliament and the government have determined.”

What does that mean, specifically? How could it affect a number of international fighter competitions? And where does “strategic air movement” fit into the picture?

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