The US Navy's Ghost WarShip

Built by Juliet Marine Systems, a private company in Portsmouth, N.H., it’s designed to fight swarm attacks, water-born IEDs, and, aargghh, piracy. According to Business Insider, “Ghost is intended to have zero radar signature, and the vessel is supposedly difficult for the enemy to spot, let alone target. The ship is nonmagnetic and hard to detect via sonar, making it ideal for infiltration and surveillance of enemy areas.”

DARPA DASH Robot Detects Enemy Subs

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, and thousands of men and women have given up their lives to protect the freedom of this great country known as America, and no doubt they are more and more technologically inclined these days, with robots playing a huge role in assisting the entire military. DARPA’s latest foray to the underwater scene would be the DASH (Distributed Agile Submarine Hunting) robot which is said to be able to “sniff” out all subs, regardless of whether they are diesel-electric or nuclear, as it combs through both deep and shallow water carefully.

DASH can be described as an underwater version of a satellite which can operate at extreme depths in the open ocean. Once fully developed and operational, the DASH robot, otherwise known as “subullites,” will be able to see action in deep sea enemy sub stake outs. These underwater satellites have a major advantage of their own – they are highly mobile, quiet and unmanned. Should DASH detect an enemy sub, a tiny autonomous vessel or “X-ship” will be deployed in order to remain on the trail of those subs that could prove to be a threat one of these days. 

Via: "Uber Gizmo"

American Drones For Covert Underwater Warfare

First Use Against Iran?

By Julie Lévesque
Courtesy Of "Global Research"

Obscuring the devastating effects of U.S. drones killing innocent civilians around the world, it is with a touch of rather inappropriate humor and enthusiasm that the military consulting companyStrike Fighter Consulting speaks highly of the U.S. Navy’s new Unmanned Underwater Vehicles in its recently published article,Unmanned Drones Take to the Seas:

“It looks like drone pilots are going to need swimming lessons.

The US Navy is currently experimenting with a new breed of drone submarines in the waters next to Newport, Rhode Island. Their hope is that these drones will take the first steps (or the first doggy paddle, if you will) into a future of autonomous submarines.

These drones, which are technically known as Unmanned Underwater Vehicles (of course) could be a “game changer” for the Navy, said Christoper Egan, a program manager at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center.Every single thing that makes aerial drones so effective can just as easily be applied to submarines. (Dabney B., Unmanned Drones Take to the Seas, Strike Fighter Consulting Inc, September 19, 2012, emphasis added.)

What kind of “efficiency” are we talking about here?

Drone warfare has been mostly “efficient” in killing innocent civilians, including children, according to a study by Stanford University and New York University:

According to the new study, just one in fifty victims of the CIA programme of “targeted” drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas are known militants, while between 2,562 and 3,325 people were killed in Pakistan between June 2004 and mid-September this year – of whom between 474 and 881 were civilians, including 176 children. (The News International (Pakistan), Pakistan. CIA Annihilation From The Air: Drone Warfare’s Invisible Dead, September 26, 2012)

We are told that these new “cost-efficient” underwater drones “could be used to map the ocean floor, detect enemy mines, gather surveillance, or assist in anti-submarine warfare [...] The Navy hopes that the Razor would be virtually undetectable by enemy systems.” (Dabney B., op. cit.)

Earlier this year Aviation Week published an article on Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) which confirms that the underwater drone technology is not well established. The new Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) is slated to be used no later than 2014:

The Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (LDUUV) will be large and highly autonomous, carrying out missions at long distances for months. It will act as a mothership, deploying and operating static and mobile sensors for persistent surveillance in coastal waters. Ultimately, it is likely to be armed. The program sounds ambitious, but much of the technology has already been proven.

[...]

The LDUUV will have a large payload bay, making it capable of releasing sensors, communication buoys, smaller UUS and weapons. The Navy’s current emphasis is on persistent surveillance “over the horizon.” However, its most significant impact could be in mine warfare, both offensive and defensive.

And the LDUUV could make offensive mine laying more controllable and clandestine. In the transformational mine concept, the LDUUV lays networked sensors across a wide area. These track and identify every vessel within range. Depending on the situation, any vessel can be engaged, by either an anchored weapon or a torpedo from the UUV itself.

[...]

The Navy plans to release a request for proposals for the LDUUV in 2014. Last October Rear Adm. Barry Bruner, the Navy’s undersea warfare director, indicated that up to 10 LDUUVs would be procured. The LDUUV is being pitched as a helper to complement manned submarines. However, if it achieves the technology goals for endurance and autonomy, it will pose serious questions of what exactly large unmanned craft could not ultimately do. (David Hambling, Large Displacement Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Steaming Ahead, Aviation Week, April 1, 2012, emphasis added. )

If this technology has been proven, it can be used for underwater warfare.

Will unmanned armed submarines be used for “clandestine mining” against Iran in the Persian Gulf?

Reports confirm, in this regard, that military exercises are currently (September 2012) being conducted near Iran’s territorial waters, and are “intended to simulate Iran’s response to a US-Israeli attack, namely what actions will be taken by allied forces in response to military retaliation by Iran”. (Michel Chossudovsky, “Warship Diplomacy”: A Prelude to All Out War against Iran?, Global Research, September 26, 2012.)

Underwater drones are part of the war games, Bloomberg reports:

“The BAE Systems Plc (BA/) 25mm guided ‘‘Mark 38 Mod 2,” and Kingfish unmanned underwater vehicle are among the programs the Pentagon this year accelerated under a “Fast Lane” initiative to counter Iranian naval weapons. One of the most serious threats, the Navy says, are Iranian speedboats that can employ “swarming” tactics.” (Bloomberg, September 19, 2012. emphasis added. )

A recent statement by the Director of Research of the Neocon think tank Washington Institute for Near East Policy has suggested that the US should provoke Iran into “firing the first shot”.

“We are in the game of using covert means against Iranians. We can get nastier at that [...] The United States—along with as many international partners as it can mobilize—should move to more forceful action, be it covert or overt, publicly proclaimed or deniable.” (Patrick Clawson, cited in Michel Chossudovsky, Neocon Washington Think Tank: The US should Provoke Iran into “Firing the First Shot”, September 26, 2012.)

Underwater drones seem to constitute the perfect weapon to be used in acts of provocation.

The U.S. Navy's New Stealth Sub

New Stealth Sub Is Fully Networked, But Cut Off From The Outside World

By Spencer Ackerman
May 31, 2012 | 6:30 am
Courtesy Of "Wired"



UNDERWAY ON THE U.S.S. MISSISSIPPI — Practically every system aboard the Navy’s newest fast attack submarine is state of the art. Unlike earlier subs, the U.S.S. Mississippi’s control room, a hive of classified software and hardware, places sonar technicians and weapons specialists barely five feet apart. The periscope is mostly virtual: fiber optics allow the control room to see the surface world, rather than a physical tube running down from the bridge. But for all the advancements aboard the Mississippi, there’s one persistent challenge — staying connected to the outside world.

Bandwidth on subs is practically a throwback to the era of Magic cards, Discmans, and the best Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episodes. To send and receive messages, the U.S. submarine fleet needs to rise to a depth shallow enough to raise periscopes and antennas; aboard the Mississippi, periscope depth is 60 feet. While there are exceptions to that rule, it sets up a basic tradeoff. To remain undetected and ready to complete their missions, submarine commanders have to be prepared for long periods of silence.

“There are some missions or taskings where you don’t go to periscope depth frequently and put antennas out of the water,” says Cmdr. Aaron Thieme, the deputy commander of Submarine Squadron 4, which includes the Mississippi. “There are some missions or taskings where you spend all your time at periscope depth with your antennas out of the water. There are some that require us not to transmit at all.”

The subs receive their internet access from bandwidth provided by satellites, same as the Navy’s surface ships. But unlike aircraft carriers, destroyers and frigates, submarines can’t augment their connectivity with 4G networks. And once the subs go below periscope depth, they’re effectively cut off from the outside world.

All this makes bandwidth on the subs an even scarcer resource than it is aboard the surface fleet. On the Mississippi, red Ethernet cables dangle from the ceilings of the officer’s wardroom. Only when the sub rises to periscope depth do officers plug the cables into their laptops, allowing them to access the Navy’s classified networks. That doesn’t happen often. The Mississippi has the capability to stay submerged — and silent — for up to 90 days.

For all the Navy’s formidable technological advancements, many of which are visible aboard theMississippi, connectivity lags behind. The Navy has yet to overcome some basic physical limitations. The deeper the sub dives, the harder it is for it to access a satellite. Thieme confirms that there is a depth beyond which the submarine fleet is totally disconnected, but understandably declines to disclose what that depth is. And like surface ships, the further the fleet disperses on or under the open water, the harder it is to keep the subs in contact.

And there’s an additional communications challenge for subs. Allowing sailors to e-mail their families risks compromising the stealth that’s central to the subs’ missions.

“Any time you transmit energy, whether it be electromagnetic or acoustic, fundamentally, it could be detected,” Thieme explains. “At some point, there could be a technology developed that can identify that energy source. Just as we go to great efforts to minimize the acoustic energy we put into the water, we go to efforts to minimize the counter-detectability of the electromagnetic energy that we transmit when we communicate.”

But don’t let that conjure up visions of rogue sub commanders, à la The Hunt for Red October. The chain of command informs the submarine how frequently and even when it needs to reach periscope depth to check in or receive orders. And the command has technical mechanisms — which the crew of the Mississippi will not discuss — for augmenting the bandwidth available to submarines in an emergency. More regularly, a text-only e-mail program called SailorMail allows sub crews to send and receive e-mails over an unclassified network — provided those e-mails are free of attachments, and sailors don’t mind waiting for transmissions at speeds slower than dial-up. For morale, the sub can stream news programs and sports when it’s at periscope depth.

Still, the Navy’s lack of consistent bandwidth for submarines could complicate some its broader plans. Itsnew super-concept for working seamlessly with the Air Force might founder if fighter jets can’t talk to Navy subs.

But underway on the Mississippi, officers are convinced bandwidth deserts are a manageable problem — and one that feeds into the culture of submarine warfare.

“It’s in our DNA to be able to go out and do a mission by ourselves without somebody looking over our shoulder,” says Thieme. “If the capability gets developed so that, regardless of whatever speed or depth we are we can maintain a communications tether or connectivity path, I [still] don’t see submariners becoming less autonomous.”

Exclusive Pictures: Inside The Navy’s Newest Spy Sub

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UNDERWAY ON THE U.S.S. MISSISSIPPI — The Navy’s newest fast-attack submarine is speeding down the Florida coast, on its way to its commissioning ceremony in its namesake state, at 15 knots. And it’s getting outraced by dolphins.

Hours before the U.S.S. Mississippi dives several hundred feet beneath the Atlantic, its sail juts proudly into the warm, whipping southern air. Submariners allow me to see the highest point on the sub for myself — provided I can keep my balance up three steep levels’ worth of ladder and hoist myself out onto a platform the size of a fancy refrigerator. A harness hooked to an iron bolt on the sail keeps me from falling to my death. There’s no land in sight, just blue water turned white around the sub’s wake, a tall BPS-16 military radar spinning in front of us, and a family of dolphins jumping out of the surf in front of the 377-foot boat.

Apparently it’s typical. Where subs travel in the southern Atlantic, dolphins tend to tag along, eager to say hi to their large, silent playmate. “Dolphins like to sing,” notes Petty Officer Joshua Bardelon, a 32-year old from Pascagoula, the site of the Mississippi’s destination, who supervises the boat’s sonar systems.

Those systems are part of why Navy Secretary Ray Mabus is eager to take possession of his newest Virginia-class submarine when it formally joins the fleet on June 2. As much time as it spends listening to dolphin symphonies, the Mississippi is everything from a weapon to destroy other ships to an electronic-attack system to a stealthy transport for Navy commandos.

The multiple sonar arrays allow the submarine to detect other ships before it’s detected itself. Underway, the boat is dead silent except for the hum of the air conditioning, an indication of the classified tools that mask the Mississippi’s acoustic and electronic signatures to maintain its exceptional stealth. Then comes the boat’s electronic warfare capabilities — which its crew will discuss only vaguely.

“If I’m at periscope depth and I stick my periscope out of the water, people who are looking for me will be using a radar system to find me,” says the sub’s commander, Capt. John McGrath, a 20-year submarine veteran. “But I will know that that radar is in the area and I will use that to my advantage.”

Some of its other weapons are more traditional. The torpedo room, down in the deepest level of the boat, hosts 16 intimidating metal tubes, each wider than bicycle wheels, the bays for its 28-foot torpedoes and Tomahawk missiles. The room looks like a machinist’s workshop, except for the exercise bikes and the racks where the torpedomen sleep beside their weapons — the primary means for the Mississippi to complete its future missions: hunting and destroying enemy ships and subs.

“There are two types of ships in the Navy,” explains Chief Nathan Holmes. “We have submarines, and we have targets.”

Even though the Mississippi isn’t on a combat mission — which is why the Navy allows me to tag along on a boat overflowing with classified systems — McGrath is eager to demonstrate that his boat is a predator, not prey. After I climb down from the sail, he orders the boat’s pilot to dive to 155 feet, a way-station depth that’s far enough underwater to avoid sea traffic but shallow enough so he can get surface rapidly should something go wrong. When nothing does, McGrath orders the pilots to continue on to a depth of 400 feet. The faster the captain wants to go, the deeper he dives.

The dive is surprisingly imperceptible. Even though we’ve just dropped 400 feet in a minute, I barely lean forward. If I had been drinking anything, it wouldn’t have spilled.

That’s the case during my entire four-day stint on the boat. With the exception of a 20-minute exercise in dipping the Mississippi up and down — a queasy affair nicknamed “Angles and Dangles” — I’ve had rockier trips aboard surface ships. The fast-attack submarine is downright placid, even at 20 knots.

The steadiness will be an asset for one of the Mississippi’s other missions: aiding Navy SEALs. There’s a special bay, called a lockout trunk, that allows a tinier sub to dock and deposit a small number of SEALs onboard. Once they’re aboard, the Mississippi will become a Navy special warfare platform — as are many subs that don’t carry nuclear missiles — performing reconnaissance missions and getting SEALs stealthily in and out of where they need to go. The Virginia class’ smaller size allows the sub to “be more maneuverable in a littoral,” says Master Chief Bill Stoiber, the chief of the boat, or senior enlisted man aboard, making it particularly useful for SEAL insertion missions. After the summer, the Mississippi will head for southern Florida to test its special-warfare skills.

As much as the Mississippi is the newest in new for Navy subs, not everything aboard is super-advanced. Satellite connectivity is limited. Submariners like to stay autonomous when they’re below the waves, but that means that information aboard the sub largely stays on the sub, and outside information doesn’t always reach the boat quickly. The Mississippi rises to periscope depth — that is, shallower than 60 feet below, so its periscope can stick its neck out of the water — in order to fire off e-mails or receive communications through classified and unclassified-but-secured networks. Even so, submariners roll their eyes at how slow their connection speeds are. (Think dial-up. In the late ’90s.)

When the sub needs it, it can request extra satellite bandwidth from the Navy — often to send off a video or larger data file. But that “spot beam” is only for special occasions, and it’s a one-off event. Persistent, available undersea bandwidth is a challenge the Navy hasn’t yet figured out how to solve.

Then there are the traditional joys of life aboard a submarine. The Mississippi is home to 138 men, who have to get very comfortable with each other, since there’s nowhere to go for privacy. The halls are barely wide enough for two people hugging the walls to traverse. Submariners are billeted up to 47 per room, stacked up in threes on narrow racks. A typical deployment entails six months of living in these cramped conditions, and the Mississippi is capable of staying underwater for 90 days at a stretch.

Still, the ship makes a virtue out of solitude. The food is unexpectedly excellent. It’s difficult to store bread underneath the sea without it molding or going stale — and there’s no place to buy more — so the kitchen bakes it fresh every day. It’s tempting to forego a lunchtime hot dog just to eat a delicious empty roll an hour old.

The most striking demonstration of the crew’s tightness comes in the control room. Unlike older subs, the Virginia class doesn’t hive away its sonar stations. The dark room, illuminated by dozens of screens displaying torrents of highly classified data, joins up the pilots, navigators, weapons experts and sonar technicians. Five sonar techs stare at screens filled with green representations of the sounds of the ocean while they listen through headphones. Should they hear an enemy ship they’re hunting, they can holler at the fire control station on the other side of the control room that it’s time to attack.

For now, one of those techs passes me his cans. When I put them on, all I hear is a high-pitched squeak that sounds a little like a squeal of glee. Dolphins.

Photos: Mark Riffee/Wired.com

The Navy's Robot ‘Jellyfish’ Fueled By Sea Water

By Shaun Waterman
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Courtesy Of "The Washington Times"

Scientists funded by the U.S. Navy have developed a robot “jellyfish” — a foot-long submarine that runs on seawater and could be used on spy missions.

Researchers at The University of Texas at Dallasand Virginia Tech created the submarine drone, dubbed “Robojelly,” which is powered by hydrogen and oxygen in the water through which it sails.

The scientists, funded by the Office of Naval Research, reported their findings this week in the academic journal, “Smart Materials and Structures.”

“We’ve created an underwater robot that doesn’t need batteries or electricity,” said Dr. Yonas Tadesse, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas and lead author of the study. “The only waste released as it travels is more water.”

Engineers and scientists working for the military have increasingly turned to the animal kingdom, especially simple creatures like jellyfish or insects, for inspiration when creating new technology.

Scientists at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, for example, are working on ways to create insect cyborgs, by incorporating mechanical elements into larvae and then using them to control the fully grown insect when it emerges.

The Robojelly consists of two fist-sized bell-like structures made of silicone that fold and unfold like an umbrella. Connecting the umbrella are artificial muscles created with nanotechnology that contract to move the vehicle.

“It could stay underwater and refuel itself while it is performing surveillance,” Dr. Tadesse said.

New Navy Jammer Could Invade Networks, Nuke Sites

By David Axe 
January 21, 2011 | 7:00 am 
Courtesy Of "Wired Magazine"

When China’s stealth-fighter prototype took to the air two weeks ago, it intensified what was already aheated debate in Washington over which, and how many, new fighter planes to buy.

Lost in all this noise was the U.S. Navy’s real plan for winning any future air war with China or another big baddie. Rather than going toe-to-toe with J-20s and other enemy jets, the Navy is planning to attack its rivals where they’re most vulnerable: in the electromagnetic spectrum.

The frontline weapon for this electronic war is a new airborne jamming system currently in development. The Next Generation Jammer should allow the Navy to blind the enemy’s radars, disrupt its communications and slip malicious code into computer networks.

The new jammer, and its initial host airplane, the EA-18G Growler (pictured), have quickly become top Pentagon priorities. U.S. regional commanders opted in 2009 to buy more Growlers rather than continue production of the F-22 stealth dogfighter. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates announced this month that he would accelerate the NGJ’s current five-year-or-so development plan, using cash saved from shutting down redundant command staffs.

Four teams are vying for the jammer contract, including Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Raytheon and a pairing of Boeing and New York-based ITT. The Navy expects to gradually eliminate competitors until it’s got one supplier.

When all’s said and done, the resulting program could cost billions of dollars. The result should be what ITT vice president Ed Palacio calls a “highly modular, totally programmable” combination of antennas and processors that can be squeezed into the Growler’s underwing pods, as well as into the F-35 andfuture drones.

One goal is to simply replace the ancient EA-6B radar-jamming planes flown by the Navy and Marine Corps (with some Air Force exchange pilots). But that’s just the beginning for the NGJ. “Electronic attack system and concept of electronic attack has really evolved over years,” Palacio told Danger Room. “Initially, it primarily was a system to deal with enemy air defenses. But as you start going forward and realize the electromagnetic spectrum does many things … [so] if you build a system that can generate power and modulation over a very broad RF spectrum, it can be used not only in traditional roles, but inmany different roles.”

Besides radar-jamming, the NGJ should allow the Navy to disable remotely detonated, improvised explosive devices — something the EA-6B already does — as well as insert viruses into command networks, a tactic Israel allegedly first used in combat during its 2007 air attacks on a suspected Syrian nuke site.

Hints that air-launched cyberattacks could shut down industrial (and nuclear) operations could explain why the Air Force has been flying stealthy RQ-170 drones near Iran. The NGJ could expand on that apparent capability.

Never mind the F-22 and its admittedly incredible dogfighting skills, or the purported versatility of the newer F-35 in its fighter-bomber role. With the EA-18G and other planes carrying the Next Generation Jammer, the U.S. military will have a weapon capable of doing more than just firing missiles and dropping bombs. Anything that works in the electromagnetic spectrum — and these days, that’s almost everything — will be fair game.

Photo: EA-18G Growler/Boeing

See Also:

• Pentagon: Stealth Fighter is a Lame Jammer, End it Already
• Shocker! Navy Gets New Plane On Time, On Budget
• Killer Drones, Jamming Jets Win Big in New Pentagon Budget
• How the Air Force Lost Control of the Skies (Maybe)
• First F-22 Raptor “Shot Down”
• U.S. Boosts Secretive Jammer Fleet

David Axe reports from war zones, shoots television and writes comic books.
Follow @daxe and @warisboring on Twitter.

How The US Navy Is Making Its Subs Even More Deadly

By Andrew Tarantola
On October 23, 2011 at 12:00 AM
Courtesy Of "Gizmodo"

The US Navy’s fleet of heavily-armed SSGN subs will run through their nuclear fuel supplies by 2026. At that point, they must be replaced at a cost of $US8 billion apiece. Problem is, $US8 billion is roughly half of the Navy’s annual ship production budget. So what’s the Navy to do?

It plans to stretch — literally — its Virginia-class attack submarines by an extra 28.7m to store 26 extra missiles (for a total of 40) and outfit them with an advanced sensory suite — at a quarter the cost of a new SSGN, just $US2 billion apiece. Sure the SSGN carries 154 Tomahawks, but there are only four SSGNs in the US fleet — compared to the 10 Virginia-class available. This modification will help spread the fleet’s firepower out more evenly.

Once the Virginia-class subs reenter service, they’ll be accompanied by torpedo-shaped “large-diameter Unmanned Underwater Vehicles” packed with long-range sensory equipment to act as a remote and highly-manoeuvrable extra set of eyes and ears. They’ll also carry a UAV that can be launched from the expanded Tomahawk tubes.

Israel To Get 6th Dolphin Sub

Infolive.tv - Israel News - Germany will sell Israel a sixth Dolphin class submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles, German Defense Minister Tomas de Maiziere said.

De Maiziere discussed the deal at a meeting last week in Jerusalem with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

The German defense minister said his country would subsidize the deal giving a total of $189.2 million.

The submarine is capable of launching nuclear armed ballistic missiles

Israel already has received three Dolphin class submarines from Germany and will get two more in 2012 and 2013.

The first two were given as a token of appreciation for Israel's restraint in the First Gulf War and also as a step to boost Israel's defense capabilities. The other three were funded by Germany at a third of their cost.

The new submarine, called the U212 , will be fitted with new German technology that combines the conventional diesel system with an air-independent propulsion system used for slow, silent cruising with a fuel cell equipped with oxygen and hydrogen storage.

Navy’s Newest Ship Is A Sea Truck

By David Axe
September 19, 2011 | 7:12 am
Courtesy Of "Wired Magazine"


There’s not much inside the Navy’s newest ship, and that’s exactly how they like it.

338 feet long, 93 feet wide, low and blocky, USNS Spearhead is basically a thin aluminum shell wrapped around four diesel engines, rudimentary control facilities for its 40 crew plus 312 airline-style passenger seats. The rest of the $250-million, twin-hull catamaran vessel, christened this weekend, is empty space … with an expansive flight deck on top.

“The vessel is in essence a large and fast maritime ‘truck,’” Eric Wertheim, author of the definitiveCombat Fleets of the World, tells Danger Room. What she carries, and where, is left to the imagination of the Pentagon’s regional commanders. “Flexibility may the best attribute of this ship,” says Capt. Douglas D. Casavant Jr., Spearhead’s first skipper.

Spearhead and the other 22 planned Joint High Speed Vessels (JHSV), built by Austal USA in a brand-new shipyard on Alabama’s Mobile River, are a product of the Pentagon’s recent obsession with “modular” vehicles. The idea is to build basic machines, fast and cheap, and quickly modify them with new weapons, sensors and other payloads. “Our 20,000-square-foot mission bay area be reconfigured to quickly adapt to whatever mission we are tasked with,” Cassavant says.

As a design philosophy, modularity doesn’t always work. The Littoral Combat Ship, a version of which is also built by Austal, ended up being built faster than its swappable weapons and sensors, leaving the $600-million warships mostly useless empty shells, for now. But empty could work for the JHSV; it’s focused on non-combat, logistics-style missions. In fact, the swift catamarans — with a top speed of 45 knots, compared to just 30 knots for most warships — will be crewed by civilian mariners from the Navy’s Military Sealift Command instead of combat-trained sailors.

Which non-combat missions the JHSV handles could vary widely. “It could be for getting U.S. assets into a disaster relief zone quickly, or it could be for getting friendly forces evacuated out of a war zone in an emergency, or for unloading Marines and soldiers into an austere port once it’s been secured by an initial assault,” Wertheim says. “It can also play an important role moving stuff from a remote staging base at sea to wherever it’s most needed ashore.”

And that’s not all. Special Forces could use the JHSVs as a fast, low-profile staging bases for secret raids into enemy territory, though the vessels’ civilian crews and light, strictly defensive armament meansthey can’t get too close to a hostile shore.

And retired Rear Adm. Robert Reilly, back when he headed Military Sealift Command, talked about replacing today’s gargantuan hospital ships Comfort and Mercy, both converted from oil tankers, with JHSVs carrying portable medical equipment. Switching to smaller hospital ships would allow the Navy to bring humanitarian assistance to shallow, remote ports too small for Comfort and Mercy.

That is, if the Navy’s new pickup truck ship can withstand the elements. Spearhead builder Austalrecently caught flack for omitting a standard corrosion-protection system from a Littoral Combat Ship it built. That ship, USS Independence, began disintegrating after just a few months in the water. “The dirty little secret is that the Navy fully expects to have the same problems with the JHSV,” naval analyst Raymond Pritchett claims. Austal spokesman Craig Hooper declined to comment for this story.

Pritchett adds that the corrosion problem “is well understood, so a solution can be found.” Let’s hope so. It’d be a shame for the Navy’s new pickup truck of the sea to rust away for lack of Tru-Kote.

Photo: Navy

See Also:

• Navy’s New Warship: Bargain, Death Trap or Both?
• Plenty of Blame to Go Around for ‘Disappearing’ Warship
• Everyone Wins in Navy Warship Bait and Switch
• While Libya Rages, Navy Sends Its Newest Warship to… San Diego …
• Navy’s Trimaran Fighter Speeds Ahead
• How the Navy’s Warship of the Future Ran Aground

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David Axe reports from war zones, shoots television and writes comic books.
Follow @daxe and @warisboring on Twitter.