Posted on 08/21/2002 6:55:49 AM PDT by TADSLOS
The Joint Venture (HSV-X1) catamaran high-speed vessel being leased by the Army has performed well over the past six months, including operations in support of Operation Allied Force, taking part in the Millenium Challenge ‘02 experiment, and rapidly transporting a company of Stryker Interim Armored Vehicles, according to an Army program official.
"The beauty of this technology is that we can deliver a combat ready force, complete with soldiers, full armor, full fuel, full ammo, complete with situational awareness and with its complete set of leaders," Col. Genaro Dellarocco, the program manager for force projection enabling systems, on Monday told Defense Daily during a telephone interview. "No other platform can do that today. Not with this speed."
The Joint Venture is being leased by the Army, in cooperation with the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, from Australia’s Incat for testing high-speed catamaran capabilities, potential operational impact and technologies. Under the contract, Incat converted the vessel from a commercial passenger and freight ship to a theater logistics vessel testbed at its Hobart, Australia, shipyard.
In March, the Army said it planned to send the Joint Venture to the Persian Gulf to support OEF (Defense Daily, March 28).
Dellarocco said that the vessel was in the OEF Area of Operations (AOR) for about 60 days, between April and mid-June, but he could not go into great detail about what actions the ship performed.
"They conducted several missions in support of Operation Enduring Freedom," he said. "It moved troops and equipment around the AOR."
The U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) was impressed by what the Joint Venture could do, Dellarocco said.
"There’s a good chance that a vessel will go back to the AOR in the near future," he said. "CENTCOM recognized it as an asset too valuable not to use."
After the Joint Venture returned from the Persian Gulf, it sailed to the West Coast of the United States to take part in Millenium Challenge under the control of the Navy.
"They had a good time with it," Dellarocco said. "They maximized a lot of types of operations."
Dellarocco said that the Navy operations included the use of C4I systems, helicopters off of the ship, and special forces troops such as SEALs.
According to Incat, during the experiment the Joint Venture was used to provide a link between the port of San Diego and an undeveloped boat basin of Del Mar. The vessel was able to navigate the basin because of its small draft.
"To get a ship of this size into this basin is a feat unto itself," Cmdr. Dean Chase, project manager for the Joint Vessel with the Navy Warfare Development Command, said in an Incat statement. "The capability just doesn’t exist in our inventory today. It is very exciting."
The Army took back control of the Joint Venture at the beginning of this month to transport 14 Stryker infantry carrier vehicles that were taking part in Millenium Challenge at Ft. Irwin, the Army’s National Training Center. Stryker is made by Canada’s General Motors Defense [GM] and General Dynamics [GD].
On Aug. 9, the Joint Venture loaded up with 14 Strykers and 12 other vehicles, including AM General High-Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (Humvee), Oshkosh Truck [OSK] Heavy Mobility Expanded Tactical Trucks (HEMTT), and Stewart & Stevenson [SSSS] Family of Medium Tactical Vehicle (FMTV) trucks.
According to Dellarocco, a crew of just 20 soldiers was able to load the 26 vehicles on the vessel in just 35 minutes, without any rehearsal.
The Joint Venture then sailed 1,500 miles in just 40 hours, at a speed of more than 30 knots, to deliver the vehicles to Tacoma, Wash., which is near Ft. Lewis, where the Strykers are based.
Dellarocco said that 25 of the vehicles were offloaded in 13 minutes, while one of the Humvees took a while longer due to a dead battery. He added that the job could have been done even more quickly if they hadn’t had to shuttle drivers between the offloaded vehicles and the ship.
The Joint Venture is currently en route to the East Coast, preparing for a transit through the Panama Canal, Dellarocco said. Once there, it will sail to Europe to support exercise Victory Strike in Poland.
Dellarocco said he wasn’t sure what the vessel would be doing once it got to Europe to support the exercise, but he said it was widely anticipated.
"The Army transporters have been waiting with bated breath," he said.
After supporting the exercise, the vessel would return to the United States for maintenance. Plans are for the Navy to take control of it again in November through February for several experiments, including training crews for a similar high-speed vessel that the Navy plans to acquire as an interim measure to replace the stricken USS Inchon (MCS-12) mine warfare command ship, Dellarocco said.
The Navy recently extended the deadline for industry to submit proposals for the Inchon replacement (Defense Daily, Aug. 20). The Navy is already chartering the high-speed catamaran transport Westpac Express from Australia’s Austal for use by the III Marine Expeditionary Force (MEF) based in Okinawa, Japan (Defense Daily, Feb. 1).
Meanwhile, the Army is considering leasing a second, bigger high-speed catamaran (Defense Daily, March 11).
Dellarocco said that the second lease vessel was approved for funding by the Pentagon as an advanced concept technology demonstration. However, he said he is currently awaiting the final passage of the FY ‘03 Defense Appropriations Bill, which is currently in conference.
"We will probably pursue that vigorously when we get the green light," Dellarocco said. "Essentially, it would be the very first TSV (theater support vessel)."
The Army envisions a need for up to 14 TSVs to replace its current Gen. Frank S. Besson, Jr.-class Logistics Support Vessels to be able to rapidly move Army forces (Defense Daily, Nov. 20, 2000).
Dellarocco said the second vessel would have significantly greater payload capacity, able to carry 1,250 tons compared to 545 tons for the Joint Venture.
Overall, Dellarocco said the Joint Venture has done very well during the lease.
"The senior Army leadership, it has gotten their attention," he said. "It literally delivers Army transformation
Experimentally of course.
Sweet looking ship, thanks for the pic and post.
Yup, they do. When I was in the Marine Corps, I was once transported in an exercise on an Army landing craft. They have quite a few vessels.
To my knowledge, the Air Force's armor consists of V100 and V150 Cadillac-Gage armored cars to supplement airfield and facility defense. This may have changed though, in recent years.
LOL! No, I guess not...
Yep. The application potential is great. It's amazing that the military has waited this long to capitalize on an ancient idea for modern amphibous warfare.
But unfortunately they are also fuel and maintenance hogs.
I didn't know that the Army had assets that would be considered "naval".
Actually, the U.S. Army had ships and boats before the U.S. Navy was even created, during the Revolutionary War. The U.S. Army has operated full sized troop transport ships, off and on, especially during WWI and WWII. I believe they were commanded by Army officers but crewed by civilians.
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