Mine Warfare Office Outlines Ambitious Modernization Plan

Defense Daily | June 25, 2002 | Hunter Keeter

[Stand Watch Listen]

The Navy’s mine warfare branch of its expeditionary warfare office has developed a mine countermeasures (MCM) modernization plan for FY ‘03 through FY ‘09 that could include major platform and weapons systems replacements and upgrades, according to a service official.

With the FY ‘03 budget now under debate on Capitol Hill, the mine warfare modernization plan being vetted as the Navy builds its FY ‘04 through FY ‘09 draft budget includes several concepts for replacement of the decommissioned mine warfare command ship Inchon; the possible consolidation of MCM helicopters from a mix of Sikorsky [UTX] H-60s and H-53s to a single class of aircraft; and the introduction of standoff and precision strike capability to mining operations.

The mine warfare branch, along with the Navy’s aviation requirements office, N78, is conducting a study into the feasibility of consolidating Navy H-53 and H-60 fleets into an all-H-60 force.

"Ideally, if you can go to a single platform, it gives you some commonality and cost savings," Capt. Thomas Davilli, head of the mine warfare branch, last week told Defense Daily during an interview. "Obviously there is a big difference from the H-53 to the H-60 [in terms of power and lift]. The ideal from N78 as espoused by their helicopter master plan is to get down to one H-60 airframe. We are studying this now as we approach the service life of the H-53s, which depending on your source, we need to start retiring in the FY ‘07 time frame and would have to be out of the inventory in about the FY ‘12 time frame.

Two points complicate the issue of discarding the H-53s, however. One is that should the Navy retire its H-53s, the cost savings may be negligible as the parent naval aviation support organization, Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), would still fund the supply and maintenance of Marine Corps CH-53Es.

A second point in favor of keeping the H-53 capability in the fleet is that, with the service focused more and more on buying multi-mission platforms, N78 may desire to keep additional capability resident in the MCM aircraft fleet. One thing the Navy has learned in the war over Afghanistan is that Marine H-53s remained for a long time in the operating area because, of all the helicopters deployed, H-53s and the Army’s Boeing [BA] H-47s "were the ones that could handle the altitude," Davilli said.

"So the choices are to get rid of the H-53 or to do a service life extension," he said. "We are very happy with the current H-53. We would like its life to be extended but we are not looking for a more powerful engine, longer range, night vision...we are not looking for any of that. If we chose to go that route, we would be looking just to extend the life of the aircraft."

With the former MCM command ship (MCS) Inchon out of service, the Navy has worked out a temporary replacement strategy developed by Fleet Forces Command to rotate large-deck amphibious assault ships, such as those of USS Wasp (LHD-8)-class, through the MCS mission assignment. Recently, in the Persian Gulf the Navy tapped the former USS Tripoli (LPH-10) to become the de facto mine countermeasures command and support ship, Davilli noted, a process that is to be repeated in the fall with USS Kearsarge (LHD-3).

"The long-term fill [for the MCS mission area], having just completed a mission area assessment with Johns Hopkins University, is that it is highly dependent on the character and composition of your AMCM [airborne mine countermeasures] load, as you might expect. This then relates to the H-53 decision," Davilli said. "What we are going to do is take an operational pause while the Navy decides what kind of aircraft is going to be the dedicated AMCM platform. If you are really going to build a ship, then you’ve got to get it right [up front in the design]."

A full range of options is being explored for the future MCS platform, tying in with what the Navy’s special planning office, "Deep Blue," has espoused in the Afloat Forward Staging Base concept as well as with the Navy’s plan to acquire a dedicated task force command and control platform (JCC(X)).

During the conflict over Afghanistan, the Navy dedicated two of the six aircraft carriers it rotated through the Arabian Gulf operating area during the height of the conflict to supporting Special Operations Forces and their largely-Army rotary wing flight operations. One idea now gaining credence is to inject the afloat forward staging base capability into the future MCS concept.

Whatever choice is made with regard to an MCS replacement, Davilli indicated that a single hull like Inchon may not be up to the task in the future.

"We think that one ship is the wrong answer because unless you have some very unique arrangement once in a while it has got to go into down period," he noted. "The dedicated force is the rapid response force you want to be able to call away within 72 hours. So we are looking at multi-use ships that could cover two or three missions. It ranges from looking at an LHD-type vessel, which might be overkill but then might have other uses, to something innovative."

One proposal is to develop a "float-on, float-off" ship like the Norwegian Blue Marlin, a massive transport that was able to lift to the United States the stricken USS Cole (DDG-67) after a terrorist attack Oct. 12, 2000 in Yemen (Defense Daily, Nov. 1, 2000).

"We could build barges that could be modules--a hangar module or a berthing module for example--that you could then float onto the ship," Davilli said. "The interesting thing is that you could have those barges pre-positioned in, say, Japan, and the float-on, float-off ship could transport the surface vessels from Texas to the war area. Once they got into the area, they could offload the surface vessels and float on the barges, and you would have an MCS. That could also double as an afloat forward staging base for Army or Navy SOF. Additionally, if you had another incident like the USS Cole, you could offload your barges so the helicopters could still operate from the barge in port, meanwhile the float-on, float-off ship could lift the Cole and bring it back to the United States. The float-on, float-off ship could also serve as a dry dock to repair a surface ship’s sonar system."

The Navy has its dedicated MCM ships--USS Avenger (MCM-1) and USS Osprey (MHC-51) classes--that self-deploy to operating areas, though in some cases these smaller vessels have been loaded onto heavy ocean transports for deployment.

To augment these and provide command and control for their activities in mined areas, the Navy is also interested in a distributed mission concept. For example, the MCS mission could be accomplished by several smaller ships--perhaps high-speed hull forms--that could host a few aircraft and provide a nodal network of command and control during an operation, Davilli said.

The service is expected to make a decision on the long-term MCS replacement path "within the next year or so," he added.

In the area of mining, the Navy is also working an improvement plan. One element of that plan is to continue the development of the Quickstrike concept--an air-dropped bomb equipped with a target detection device. The service is interested in adding microprocessing capability to the Quickstrike that would more specifically define a target set of interest to Navy operations. For example, the Quickstrike with an enhanced target detection capability could be fine-tuned to detect and destroy small boats, fast patrol craft, diesel-electric submarines and the like.

Additionally, the Navy is working on a plan to add precision and standoff capabilities to its airborne mine-laying efforts. The service is exploring adding a mine kit to current Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) weapons developed by Boeing originally as GPS guidance kits for 2,000-pound bombs dropped by Air Force and Navy planes. The mine kit concept for JDAM would allow air-dropped mines to be released from much higher altitudes than possible today, as well as allowing these weapons to find their target areas with greater precision.

[Fish out of Water]

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Thanks for the post - I copied and passed around the office - we're a bunch of old H-53 guys.