The Joint High Speed Vessel Fleet

The Strategy Page ^ | 1/31/2010 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

The U.S. Department of Defense has ordered two more Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV) transports. Two years, the Department of Defense set up a deal where a fleet of new JHSVs would be built, for use by all the services (mainly the army and navy.) At the time, one JHSV was ordered. These 103 meter (320 feet) long, $160 million ships are refined versions of the earlier HSV 2 ship. The army already has leased two of these HSV 2s, and the navy another. The manufacturing of the JHSVs is being done by an Australian firm, in the U.S. All ten should be in service within five years. The army and the navy are seeing a more urgent need for these ships, which can quickly move troops, supplies and equipment around a theater. All this began nine years ago, when the U.S. Navy began leasing a high speed (60 kilometers an hour) catamaran, the Westpac Express, from an Australian firm, to move U.S. Marine Corps equipment around the Pacific. In this it was very successful, and this has served to prove the ability of such a catamaran design to serve in a military role.