Looks Scow like.
Posted on 02/26/2018 9:40:53 PM PST by BBell
The U.S. Navy's newest vessel was christened at Austal's state-of-the-art shipbuilding facility in Mobile on Saturday morning.
The future USNS Burlington is the 10th of the 12 Expeditionary Fast Transport vessels that Austal has under contract with the Navy. They have a combined value of more than $1.9 billion.
"Austal is excited to get Burlington one step closer to joining the fleet" said Austal USA President Craig Perciavalle. "The efficiency at which this complex ship has come together is truly remarkable and a testament to the incredible talent of our shipbuilding professionals here at Austal USA."
Nine Spearhead-class EPFs have been delivered and are fulfilling the Military Sealift Command's requirements worldwide. USNS City of Bismarck was delivered to the Navy in late 2017 and three more EPFs are under construction at Austal's Mobile shipyard.
With an all-aluminum shallow-draft hull, the EPF is a commercial-based catamaran capable of intra-theater personnel and cargo lift providing combatant commanders high-speed sealift mobility with inherent cargo handling capability and agility to achieve positional advantage over operational distances, according to the Navy.
EPF class ships are designed to transport 600 short tons of military cargo, 1,200 nautical miles, at an average speed of 35 knots. The ship is capable of operating in shallow-draft ports and waterways, interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities and on/off-loading a combat-loaded Abrams main battle tank (M1A2).
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
Looks Scow like.
Well it certainly can win an award for ugly.
Ship?! That looks like a barge.
Yeah...a 35 Knot plus barge....complete with a combat-loaded Abrams main battle tank (M1A2) or two.
Hopefully does not have one of those Little Crappy Ships with no armament to escort them.
But these days with what the navy has for crews, the USS New Jersey would probably just crash into them.
The cat design is stable and fast in good times.
She must have water ballast to keep it upright in bad times.
I wonder if it has jets or screws.
One disadvantage of the ship’s design is instability in rough seas and at high speeds. At 10 knots in calm sea states, the hull can roll up to four degrees to each side, while conventional ships would roll very little, which would increase if the ship goes faster in rougher conditions, raising the possibility of seasickness.[7] To achieve its top speed, the ship has to be traveling in waters not exceeding sea state 3 (waves up to 1.25 m (4.1 ft) high). At sea state 4 it can travel up to 15 knots, travel only 5 knots in sea state 5, and has to hold position in any sea state higher; while this might be seen as an operational limitation that can delay its arrival to port facilities, the ship was intended to operate closer to shore rather than in blue-water conditions.
The vessel is powered by environmentally clean MTU Friedrichshafen engines running on ultra-low sulfur diesel using waterjet propulsion
Source for both posts: Wikipedia
USNS?
Yeah, it looks just like the ugly barges that plied on Lake Champlain and unloaded at Burlington VT years ago-
It`s so apropos.
Artist's conception of Expeditionary Fast Transport
USNS....it is. ;)
It’s still an LST.
Old ideas are new again....
L.S.T. Large Slow Target. This one is at least not very slow.
United States Navy Ship. A non commissioned ship owned by the navy.
Military sealift. Manned by civilian crews IIRC.
I had a fishing boat like that when I was a kid.
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