Seapower - August 2009

AUSTAL USA ILLUSTRATION

The 103-meter-long Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV) features aluminum catamaran hulls and is designed to carry 700 short tons at 35 knots sustained for 1,200 nautical miles.

General Dynamics’ Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Independence, being built at Austal USA — drive four Wartsila WLD 1400 waterjets, two in each hull.

“This is a proven engine from a performance, reliability [and fuel efficiency] standpoint,” Sutton said.

Regarding motion-control technology, “We’re leveraging the commercial market,” he said. “This motion-control system is a commercial system used on fast ferries throughout the world. That commonality with the engine is very important.”

The JHSV will feature berthing for 150 personnel, not including crew, and provide airline-style seating for 312 personnel. The ship’s cargo bay also will provide 20,053 square feet of space, and be able to accommodate the M1A2, the standard tank used by the Army and Marine Corps, as well as the Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and 20-foot equivalent unit containers.

“Overhead clearance of 15. 5 feet can cover the majority of vehicles and equipment in our arsenal,” Sutton said.

Services available to the containers include electrical power, potable water, low-pressure air with recirculation and access to a local-area network.

A telescoping boom crane mounted aft can transfer 40,000 pounds between a pier and the mission deck,

and 27,000 pounds between the mission deck porch and the flight deck. The ship also can launch and recover a boat up to 40 feet long, and a second boat within 40 minutes of launching the first boat.

A stern articulated ramp can be slewed 40 degrees to a pier or lighterage to load and offload vehicles. The ramp is designed to be deployed in five minutes and retracted in 10 minutes.

Rella said the addition of a flight deck to the JHSV was the main change from the Westpac Express configuration that the Navy wanted in the new design. The flight deck on the upper aft of the JHSV will be able to accommodate helicopters, including the H- 60, CH- 46 and CH-53E — the Marine Corps’ heavy-lift helicopter — in seas up to Sea State 3. The ship is not equipped with a helicopter hangar, but features a parking spot off the flight deck for an H- 60.

The landing area cannot handle a V- 22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft, Sutton said, but can receive vertical replenishment cargo nets from the Osprey.

“Right now, we don’t have a nonskid or blade surface that can distribute the heat from the V- 22, so we’re not saying we can accommodate that,” Rella said. “Structurally, it may have the ability to, but right now, we’re just advertising CH- 53 capability.”