Category Archives: littoral

Little Rock out of canuck ice jail

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LAKE MICHIGAN (Aug. 25, 2017) The future littoral combat ship USS Little Rock (LCS 9) is underway during a high-speed run in Lake Michigan during acceptance trials. She was born on the Lakes and, though commissioned more than three months ago, has been trapped in Canadian waters over the winter. (U.S. Navy photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin/Released)

Looks like the Navy is finally going to get their latest littoral combat ship in to some saltwater. While the Freedom-class littoral combat ship USS Little Rock (LCS-9) was commissioned in Buffalo, New York 16 Dec 2017, she has been iced in at Montreal ever since. But that is going to change.

MONTREAL:

An American warship stuck in Montreal since Christmas Eve has finally resumed its trip to its home port in Florida, the U.S. Navy confirmed on Saturday.

The USS Little Rock was commissioned in Buffalo, N.Y., on Dec. 16 but was trapped by ice at the Port of Montreal less than two weeks into its maiden voyage.

A spokesperson for the Navy said officials decided to wait until weather conditions improved before allowing the ship to continue its journey to Mayport, Fla., out of concern for the safety of the ship and crew.

Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson confirmed the ship finally left the city early on Saturday after spending more than three months in Montreal.

It is expected to arrive in Florida early next month after making several port visits along the way.

The proud seventy-three of the 39th Combat Diver Course

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The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) has a number of specialized frogmen units including combat swimmer detachments of the Special Operations Force and the Naval Diving Unit (NDU), dating back to 1971. To become an elite amphibious warrior takes over 20 weeks of training.

The above video shows RADM Tan Wee Beng, Chief of Staff – Naval Staff, inspecting the 39th Combat Diver Course last week.

As noted by LTC Sng Meng Wah, Commanding Officer, Dive School, Naval Diving Unit the Republic of Singapore Navy:

“It has been a tough 6 months for these trainees to transform from civilians to Naval Divers following their enlistment into Naval Diving Unit in March this year. They have learned not just to dive with SCUBA and Closed Circuit Re-breathers, but in the process, have also grown physically stronger and mentally tougher in preparation for them to work in the harsh environment we divers work in.

This underwater parade signifies the start of their journey as a Naval Diver and showcases to their parents the diving abilities that each and every one of these divers have learned over the course of their training in Dive school. I wish them all the best when they proceed to serve their National Service in the various operational units in NDU.”

A peek into how the unit is crafted below

Looks like Lockheed-Martin may get a lock on frigate sales

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With the U.S. Navy just three weeks ago fronting cash ($15 million each) for five different frigate designs for the new FFG(X) Guided Missile Frigate concept, one of the companies, Lockheed, just pulled down a big bonus that could help.

You see, LM just picked up a plump $481 million contract for long lead work on four of what they term Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) ships for the Royal Saudi Navy. The MMSC? An uparmed version of the company’s Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship which is very similar to one of the five proposals greenlighted for the USN’s FFG(X) contract.

Lockheed-Martin’s Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) ship, just really what LCS should have been

MMSC has a range of 5,000 nautical miles and can reach speeds in excess of 30 knots, packs the basic armament of the LCS (57mm Mk110 deck gun, MH-60 Seahawk, UAVs, and SeaRAM) but adds Over-The-Horizon surface-to-surface missiles (8 Harpoons are shown on the sketch), port and starboard 20 mm remote guns (Mk.38 25mms could be substituted), a new fire control radar and a forward centerline 8 cell MK 41 Vertical Launch System equipped with 32 quad-packed RIM-162 Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles. The MMSC is also equipped with the AN/SLQ-25 Torpedo Defense system.

The Freedom-variant FFG(X) uses the same hull as the LCS and the MMSC but includes a mini-SPY style phased array, a set of Mk.32 ASW torpedo tubes and upto a 32-cell VLS. But who’s to say the company won’t leverage the work going on simultaneously on MMSC when it comes to the cut for the FFG(X) winner…

Freedom-variant FFG(X) lcs via LM

Give up a fish, bunk a frogman

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The Royal Australian Navy has been in the submarine business since 1914 when they took a pair of British E-class boats (HMAS AE-1 and AE-2) under local operation. Since then, they operated a dozen different J, K and O-class vessels in WWII, picked up six Oberon-class boats in the 1960s– which were used extensively over 30+ years– and finally, built their own subs, the Swedish Kockums’-designed Collins-class submarines built in the 1990s. One big facet of the RAN’s sub operations going back to the 1940s is the carry of commando units from M& Z Special Forces, Beach Commandos and today combat diver-trained members of 2 Cdo Regt and the SAS.

However, the Collins are tight boats, just 254-feet oal, with many of the 50~ man crew already forced to hot bunk.

Enter new collapsible Submarine Accommodation Capsules, which can be stored in the same way as torpedos. Of course, you give up steel fish to accommodate a few frogmen or other transients, but hey, it’s a small boat.

Of course, historically, anything is better than sleeping on an actual torpedo, which is a longstanding historical trend…

Slumber Deep by Thomas Hart Benton

USS Bullhead (SS-332 )crewman reading in his bunk, atop a torpedo loading rack in one of the submarine’s torpedo rooms. Taken during a Pacific war patrol, circa Spring 1945 80-G-49457

Kenya picking up a bunch of patrol boats from U.S.

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As noted by the State Department, the final six of 10 Metal Shark boats, provided through 500 million Kenyan shillings ($4.9m USD) of grant funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, were delivered to the Kenya Navy in Mombasa port last week.

“The 10 Metal Shark boats represent the largest U.S. maritime security cooperation program in sub-Saharan Africa. The United States values the Kenyan commitment to building a more peaceful and secure Kenya and East Africa region,” says the embassy.

The vessels look to be Metal Shark’s 33-foot Relentless series, a trailerable near-shore center console fast boat of the same sort that MS has sold to Colombia to chase down coastal narco/terror types.

The craft will be used to carry Kenyan Rangers on maritime missions, and the country is increasingly involved in supporting U.S. interests in the HOA, especially when it comes to scrapping with Somali pirates and various Islamic militant groups in East Africa.

As for Metal Shark, they are rapidly becoming the go-to for small U.S. Navy craft. Janes reported last October that they have won a contract that could lead to as many as 100 PB(X) patrol boats, a 40 ft, welded-aluminum pilothouse patrol boat that can achieve sprint speeds in excess of 35 kt. The craft are going to the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command’s Coastal Riverine Forces (CRF).

The 40-foot PB(X), note the remote M2 forward and two pintels mounted options astern as well as an LRAD. 

This is just after Metal Shark won a contract for State Department-paid FMS Near Coastal Patrol Vessels for overseas allies in the form of $54 million, to build up to 13 85-foot Defiant-class welded aluminum cutters for the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and other “United States partner nations.”

The 85-foot Defiant is pretty swag.

The 85-foot Defiant

The company also produced a half-dozen 45-footers for the Vietnam Coast Guard last year as well.

Kuwait picking up 15 fast patrol boats

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Depending on Congressional approval, the Kuwaitis are set to acquire 15 “fast patrol boats” from Kvichak Marine Industries of Kent, Washington, and 36 M2 .50 caliber heavy machine guns for the same in a FMS contract worth $100 million. Odds are the craft will be a modified version of the Coast Guard’s new 45-foot Response Boat-Mediums, which can make 42~ knots on diesel-powered waterjets.

A new 45-foot response boat medium (RB-M) passes by the Washington Monument on the Potomac River during a capabilities demonstration. This boat was the first model put into testing and is currently assigned to Station Little Creek, Va. U.S. Coast Guard photo by PA1 Adam Eggers

In USCG service, RB-M’s mount a pair of M240s on pintels, which it looks like the Kuwaitis will upgrade to .50 cals.

Kvichak was one of two primary contractors for 174 44.5’ X 13.7’ RB-Ms for the USCG at about $3.3 million a pop. The company has also made sales of modified versions of the RB-M to Jordon, the LA County Sheriff’s department, and the NYPD (who operate five).

Sure, it wouldn’t seem that it would cost $100 million to pull it off, but the contract includes “support equipment, personnel training and training equipment, U.S. Government and contractor engineering, technical and logistics support services, and other related elements of logistical and program support” as well as having two of Kvichak’s people live in Kuwait for two years for contractor support.

Frigates, forward

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So the Navy has handed out some cash ($15 million each) for five different frigate designs to actually replace the FFG7s, the FFG(X) Guided Missile Frigate concept.

They went to General Dynamics Bath Iron Works (for a Spanish design F100 frigate, which the Aussies are using as HMAS Hobart), Fincantieri Marine’s Fregata Europea Multi-Missione (FREMM) frigate, Huntington Ingalls (for a grey hull frigate based on the Legend-class National Security Cutter they have been making for the Coast Guard), Austal USA (for an up-gunned LCS), and Lockheed Martin (see Austal).

Lockheed’s FFGX, another upgunned LCS variant

Italian FREMM Carlo Bergamini (F590), a score of which may be built/are building for Italy, France, Morocco, and Egypt via Wiki

Austal’s FFGX, a greatly modified version of their current LCS complete with VLS and more sensors

Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Hobart enters Jervis Bay as part of her Mariner Skills Evaluation period (Photo by Mr. Pup Elliott via RAN)

Ingalls Shipbuilding Sea Control Frigate based on National security cutter

Out of all of them, I think the Ingalls pumped-up Coast Guard cutter is the most likely as its the most mature with the least issues, but the F100 and FREMM are very nice (though suffer from “not made here” origins).

Meanwhile, in other ship news, Ingalls just landed a $1.43 billion, fixed-price incentive contract for the detail design and construction of LPD 29, the 13th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship. Ingalls has built and delivered all 11 San Antonios since 2000, a group of massive 25,000-ton 684-foot gators capable of toting up to 800 Marines along with a few helicopters/MV-22s and two LCAC landing craft to put them ashore. The 11th of the class, Portland (LPD 27), will be commissioned on April 21 in Portland, Oregon. The 12th, Fort Lauderdale, is under construction and is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2020. Preliminary work has begun on LPD 29, and the start of fabrication will take place later this year.

Rendering of LPD 29, the 13th San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship, note 30mm Bushmaster gun forward

Some Mk VI love, or, how the Navy is relearning mosquito operations yet again

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Above is an interesting look at the inner workings of a MK VI patrol boat assigned to Coastal Riverine Group (CRG) 1 Detachment Guam, part of Coastal Riverine Squadron (CRS) 2.

The U.S. Navy Mark VI patrol boat is a very well-armed successor to classic PT boats of WWII (sans torpedoes), Nasty boats of Vietnam, and Cold War-era PB Mk IIIs. The Mk IIIs, a heavily armed 65-foot light gunboat, was replaced by the Mk V SOC (Special Operations Craft), a somewhat lighter armed 82-foot go fast and the 170-foot Cyclone-class patrol ships.

Now the Navy coughed up the idea for the Mk VI back in 2012, and plan on obtaining as many as 48 of these boats and are deployed in two separate strategic areas of operation: Commander, Task Force (CTF) 56 in Bahrain and CTF 75 in Guam.

At $6-million a pop, they are twice as expensive as USCG 87-foot WPBs and with much shorter legs, but they have huge teeth. Notice the 25mm MK38 Mod 2 forward and aft, the M2 RWS mount atop the wheelhouse, and the four crew-served mounts amidships and aft for Dillion mini-guns, M240Gs, MK19 grenade launchers, or other party favors. Of course, these would be toast in a defended environment like the China Sea but are gold for choke points like the Persian Gulf, anti-pirate ops, littoral warfare against asymmetric threats etc.

They also provide a persistent capability to patrol shallow littoral areas for the purpose of force protection for U.S. and coalition forces, as well as safeguarding critical infrastructure.

You know, classic small craft warfare dating back to to the Greeks.

It looks like ONR is picking up Sea Hunter

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I give you, DARPA’s robot subchaser, Sea Hunter, testbed of the ACTUV program, which is now part of ONR.

From DARPA:

DARPA has successfully completed its Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessel (ACTUV) program and has officially transferred the technology demonstration vessel, christened Sea Hunter, to the Office of Naval Research (ONR). ONR will continue developing the revolutionary prototype vehicle—the first of what could ultimately become an entirely new class of ocean-going vessel able to traverse thousands of kilometers over the open seas for month at a time, without a single crew member aboard—as the Medium Displacement Unmanned Surface Vehicle (MDUSV).

The handover marks the culmination of three years of collaboration between DARPA and ONR that started in September 2014. An April 2016 christening ceremony marked the vessel’s formal transition from a DARPA-led design and construction project to a new stage of open-water testing conducted jointly with ONR. That same month, the vessel moved to San Diego, Calif., for open-water testing.

ONR plans to continue the aggressive schedule of at-sea tests to further develop ACTUV/MDUSV technologies, including automation of payload and sensor data processing, rapid development of new mission-specific autonomous behaviors, and exploring coordination of autonomous activities among multiple USVs. Pending the results of those tests, the MDUSV program could transition to U.S. Navy operations by 2018.

Mexico may be getting some decent surface asset firepower

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The Armada of the Mexican Republic awhile back contracted with the Dutch (Damen) to build a series of four Sigma 10514 POLA (Patrullera Oceánica de Largo Alcance, eng=Oceanic Long Range Patrol) ships to replace the elderly 1960s steam FFs bought from the U.S. and augment their locally-produced light (read= lightly armed yacht) OPVs.

The 344-foot, 2,000-ton frigates are pretty nice and are really comparable to the German MEKO 200s (and frankly better than the LCS). While Indonesia is getting some that are pretty tricked out, the Mexican Navy has opted for a Bofors 57mm, 25mm secondaries (Mk38s), RAM, Harpoon, and Mk. 32 ASW tubes. Check out the below to get a fix on them and how the work will be split into modules between Holland and Mexico.

DSCA approved the following sale earlier this month to help give these ships a little bite. Though the quantities suggest that the outlay is for the first ship only:

The Government of Mexico has requested to buy six (6) RGM-84L Harpoon Block II surface launched missiles, twenty-three (23) Block II Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) tactical missiles and six (6) MK 54 Mod 0 lightweight torpedoes. Also included are eight (8) MK 825 Mod 0 RAM Guided Missile Round Packs (GMRP) tri-pack shipping and storage containers; RAM Block 2 MK 44 Mod 4 Guided Missile Round Pack (GMRP); two (2) MK 32 Surface Vessel Torpedo Tubes (SVTT) triple tube launchers; two hundred and fifty (250) rounds of AA98 25 mm high explosive and semi-armor piercing ammunition; seven hundred and fifty (750) rounds A976 25mm target practice and tracer ammunition; four hundred and eighty (480) rounds of BA22 57mm high explosive programmable fuze ammunition; nine hundred and sixty (960) rounds of BA23 57mm practice ammunition; containers; spare and repair parts; support and test equipment; publications and technical documentation; personnel training and training equipment; U.S. Government and contractor representatives’ technical assistance; engineering and logistics support services; installation services; associated electronics and hardware to control the launch of torpedoes; and other related elements of logistics and program support. The estimated cost is $98.4 million

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