us navy catamaran

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US Navy HSV 2 Swift Catamaran

HSV 2 Swift is one of US Military Sealift Command's two High- Speed Vessels and is part of the 26 ships in US Military Sealift Command's Prepositioning Program. HSV 2 Swift is capable of maintaining an average speed of 35 knots (65 km/h) or greater, loaded with 500 short tons, consisting of 350 personnel and military equipment. A minimum operating range of 1100 nautical miles (2,037 km) at 35 knots (65 km/h) was required by the contract, as was a minimum transit range of 4000 nautical miles (7,408 km) at an average speed of 20 knots (37 km/h). Furthermore, she is capable of 24 hour operations at slow speeds (3-10 knots) (6-19 km/h) for experimentation with unmanned autonomous vehicles, and to support dedicated and emerging organic mine warfare missions.

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HSV-2 Swift (High Speed Vehicle)

The HSV-2 Swift (HSV 2) is a chartered high-speed vessel of the US Navy Military Sealift Command. The hybrid wave piercing catamaran was designed and built by Bollinger / Incat.

35 (total people - 353 maximum)

Bollinger / Incat

Length – 97.22m, beam – 26.6m, draft – 3.43m

Displacement

Four x Caterpillar 3618 diesel engines at 7,200kW

38kt at 627t deadweight, 42kt at 300t deadweight

Four 0.5C M2 Browning machine gun stations

The HSV-2 Swift (HSV 2) is a chartered high-speed vessel of the US Navy Military Sealift Command. The hybrid wave piercing catamaran was designed and built by Bollinger / Incat in Hobart, Tasmania.

It is the fourth high speed catamaran built by the partners, after HMAS Jervis Bay, HSV X1 Joint Venture and TSV 1X Spearhead. The HSV-2 Swift is also acting as a prototype for the joint high speed vessel (JHSV) programme.

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The HSV-2 Swift is owned and operated by the New York-based shipping company Sealift. The HSV-2 was leased by the US Navy and delivered to the Military Sealift Command from Lockport, Louisiana, in August 2003.

The vessel was built for the Navy in eight months from the award of contract. Sea trials of the HSV-2 were conducted from February to May 2004. She was designed to conduct sea basing tests and support transformational mine warfare modular payloads.

The vessel has a crew of 35-18 military personnel and 17 civilian contract mariners from the Seafarers International Union and American Maritime Officers.

The vessel serves for 11 months of every year and participates in exercises such as Southern Partnership Station by USSOUTHCOM AOR. The HSV-2 catamaran currently serves the navy in humanitarian missions, experiments, training, exercises and fleet support operations. In April 2011, the vessel was deployed in the disaster relief operations in Haiti.

Design and features of the chartered high-speed vessel

The HSV-2 is an all-aluminium naval vessel. It is 97.22m long and has a beam of 26.6m, a draft of 3.43m and a mission deck of 2,601m2.

The 24.7m x 15.24m helideck of the vessel is NAVAIR certified to carry helicopters such as the AH-1, MH-60, CH-46 and UH-1. She can also accommodate about 350 personnel and military equipment, or a payload of up to 500t at a top speed of about 35kt.

She has space to store and maintain two MH-60 choppers in weather protected space. A ramp at the stern allows loading and unloading of military vehicles of up to 11,793kg, such as an M1A1.

The vehicles are moved to and fro the flight deck using a crane that supports 9,979kg RIB or small craft launch and recovery.

Accommodation onboard HSV-2 Swift

The HSV has 170 sleeping berths, crew storerooms and 128 aircraft-style permanent seating and 122 temporary seating, configurable to additional berthing for 87 people.

It has a 39-seat crew mess / day. Other amenities include laundry space, medical space, a planning room, sanitary and watertight storage spaces, office spaces and computer workstations.

Safety systems, propulsion and performance of the US Navy Military Sealift Command’s HSV 2

The vessel is equipped with two marine evacuation systems consisting of a 17m inflatable slide with SOLAS A pack life rafts for a total capacity of 500 people.

A 30hp SOLAS RHIB dinghy acts as a rescue boat and another 7m RHIB stowed on the deck can carry about 15 personnel. It is also mounted with four 0.5C M2 Browning machine guns.

The HSV is powered by four resiliently mounted Caterpillar 3618 marine diesel engines. Each of the engines produces 7,200kW at 35/53oC and has a vertical dry exhaust system.

Four Wartsila LIPS LJ120E waterjets allow the reverse and steering of the vessel. Four ZF 53000 NRH gearboxes provide the transmission.

An active Maritime Dynamics ride control system with fold-down T-foil, bow fins and trim tabs aft increase passenger comfort. The HSV-2 Swift has a minimum operating range of 1,100nmi at 35kt and can be operated 24 hours a day at speeds of 3-10kt.

It does not need tugboats for pier assistance and can manoeuvre in waters of depths as low as 12ft.

Command and control

The catamaran is equipped with a Mine Countermeasures Squadron Staff (MCMRON) designed command and control (C2) facility. It provides commercial and military satellite communications and has all digital switch transceivers allowing HF, VHF and UHF communications.

The main deck has a combat information centre (CIC) with workstations and tactical displays, a mission planning and post mission analysis room, a conferencing facility and manned equipment space.

A 700ft² upper C4ISR room and a 200ft2 lower C4I equipment room supply 70kW for electrical and climatic control requirements.

A multicompartment and an equipment room is connected to the command centre configurable to allow five independent missions.

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HSV-2 Swift – The Navy’s Proof Of Concept Catamaran

Catamarans have long held a beloved place in Naval tradition. Capable of staying mostly above the water, a catarmaran reduces friction with the water by allowing the water to pass beneath it in channels. When the Navy first came up with the idea of engineering a hybrid naval catamaran, the HSV-2 Swift, they envisioned a military ship able to work on anti-mine operations. Furthermore, the HSV-2 Swift would serve as a useful testing platform for naval technology . In 2008, Australian ship builder Incat produced the first and only modern naval hybrid catamaran. The United States Navy employed the craft for ten years before selling it to the United Arab Emirates for dredging operations.

The acronym “HSV” stands for “High Speed Vessel”. Because a hybrid catamaran would stay above the water, its aluminum hull and light weight made it an ideal platform for helicopters and unmanned aerial and naval vehicles. When it first launched from Norfolk, Virginia in October of 2003, the Navy envisioned a class of warship able to quickly manuever to the front lines and disable mines or launch a wave of UAVs and helicopters into action.

The first of this class of vessel, the HSV-1 Joint Venture, saw action in the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The HSV-1 Joint Venture acted as a forward staging platform for U.S. Special Forces and Navy SEALS in the acquisition of Umm Qasr, Iraq, a key shipping port that needed to be taken intact.

As for the HSV-2 Swift, it managed to break records for the fastest transit from the Northern Great Barrier Reef to Booby Island. The Swift averaged 39 knots across the area. It also served as a recovery ship for aircraft. Furthermore, the Swift worked to great effect in disaster relief from the 2005 tsunami in Northern Sumatra.

Despite a decent record of service, this particular style of hybrid catamaran was sold off by the U.S. Navy in favor of a new Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport. The Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport was a heavier catamaran craft capable of launching more airborne and sea vehicles. The USNS Spearhead (T-EPF-1) launched in 2011 just in time for the HSV-2 Swift to be decommissioned and sold off to the United Arab Emirates in 2013.

The HSV-2 Swift was never meant as a combat ship. Its armament was purely defensive with only four emplacements for manned .50 caliber machine guns. Of a crew of 35, the majority of the focus of the ship’s activities was centered on logistics and recovery of downed aircraft at sea. It could hold up to 107 people with additional berthing available for another 35, making it an ideal place for a temporary command and control center.

Combat Damage off Yemen:

After being acquired by the United Arab Emirates in 2013, ostensibly for non-militarized dredging operations, it was invariably struck by Houthi rebels in Yemen. Undoubtedly, it was acting as a forward naval operating base for Saudi-backed forces in the area and was thus designated a target. On October 1, 2016, multiple news sources reported that the HSV-2 Swift, while under lease to the United Arab Emirates, was struck by a missile. It was located off-shore from the port city of Mokha, Yemen.

The ship sustained heavy damage, including the loss of crew. The type of missile fired is still unknown. According to news sources from the area, the HSV-2 Swift was towed back to friendly waters to be refitted and repaired.

Powerplant:

Caterpillar 3618 marine diesel engines powered the HSV-2 Swift. Each Caterpillar 3618 engine produces up to 9,655 hp (7198.77 kw).

See HSV-2 Swift Specifications

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Recommended, us navy funds conversion of catamaran transport to an autonomous vessel.

The US Navy has awarded Austal USA a $44 million contract modification to integrate and demonstrate autonomous capability for one of the Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport (EPF) ships currently being built.

Austal is the primary contractor on the shallow-draft, all-aluminum, commercial-based catamaran program and has so far delivered 12 vessels in the class to the navy.

The autonomy package will be introduced on the 13th EPF ship, the future USNS Apalachicola, which is currently under construction at Austal USA’s Mobile, Alabama shipyard.

“Winning a $44 million contract is welcome from a revenue perspective, but strategically this contract award is even more significant for Austal,” CEO Paddy Gregg said.

“Autonomous vessel capability has been identified as an area of strategic importance by the US Navy, so it is promising for Austal that the US Navy has awarded Austal USA a contract for the design, procurement, production implementation and demonstration of autonomous capability of one of our vessels, the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EPF) 13, the future USNS Apalachicola.”

Austal did not elaborate on what degree of autonomy USNS Apalachicola will have following the conversion.

In a report from July 2020, the House Armed Services Committee said the navy initially expects these vessels to be minimally manned rather than fully unmanned in order to maximize concept of operations (CONOPS) development. The committee recommended the navy to modify existing mature manned ships to support autonomous operations in order to develop CONOPS rather than procuring new ships that will need to support manned operations, but will eventually be fully unmanned.

By featuring autonomy systems, EPF 13 is joining the Ghost Fleet Overlord vessels , which are former commercial ocean-going vessels integrated with equipment on board to create unmanned surface vessels.

EPFs are capable of transporting 600 short tons 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots. Each vessel includes a flight deck to support day and night aircraft launch and recovery operations. The ships are capable of interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities, as well as on/off-loading vehicles such as a fully combat-loaded Abrams main battle tank.

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