''Sea Fighter'' (FSF-1) is an experimental

littoral combat ship The littoral combat ship (LCS) is either of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for operations near shore by the United States Navy. It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeat ...

in service with the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

. Its hull is of a small-waterplane-area twin-hull (SWATH) design, provides exceptional stability, even on rough seas. The ship can operate in both

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

and

littoral The littoral zone or nearshore is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore. In coastal ecology, the littoral zone includes the intertidal zone extending from the high water mark (which is rarely inundated), to coastal areas ...

waters. For power, it can use either its dual gas-turbine engines for speed or its dual diesel engines for efficient cruising. It can be easily reconfigured through the use of interchangeable mission modules.

Helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

s can land and launch on its deck. Smaller water craft can be carried and launched from its stern. The vessel is being developed under the program title Littoral Surface Craft-Experimental (LSC(X)) with a hull type designation Fast Sea Frame. The first vessel has been assigned the

hull classification symbol The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) use a hull classification symbol (sometimes called hull code or hull number) to identify their ships by type and by ind ...

FSF 1 and also has been referred to as the X-Craft. The vessel was designed by British company BMT Nigel Gee Ltd (formerly BMT Nigel Gee and Associates Ltd) who continue with a role in the development of the vessel.

Description

''Sea Fighter''s hull is a

small-waterplane-area twin hull A small waterplane area twin hull, better known by the acronym SWATH, is a catamaran design that minimizes hull cross section area at the sea's surface. Minimizing the ship's volume near the surface area of the sea, where wave energy is locate ...

(SWATH) design, constructed out of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

. With twin gas turbine engines, quad water jets, and streamlined hulls, ''Sea Fighter'' is capable of speeds of and greater. It is designed to be a sea frame that can carry interchangeable mission modules resembling

shipping containers A shipping container is a container with strength suitable to withstand shipment, storage, and handling. Shipping containers range from large reusable steel boxes used for intermodal shipments to the ubiquitous corrugated boxes. In the context of ...

. These modules allow it to be easily reconfigured to meet a variety of mission requirements, including mine warfare,

anti-submarine An anti-submarine weapon (ASW) is any one of a number of devices that are intended to act against a submarine and its crew, to destroy (sink) the vessel or reduce its capability as a weapon of war. In its simplest sense, an anti-submarine weapo ...

operations,

amphibious assault Amphibious warfare is a type of offensive military operation that today uses naval ships to project ground and air power onto a hostile or potentially hostile shore at a designated landing beach. Through history the operations were conducted ...

support,

surface warfare Modern naval warfare is divided into four operational areas: surface warfare, air warfare, submarine warfare, and information warfare. Each area comprises specialized platforms and strategies used to exploit tactical advantages unique and inhe ...

, transport and logistical missions, cruise-missile launch, and special-forces interdiction operations. The mission modules are easily loaded and stored on ''Sea Fighters inner deck. The vessel has the capability of launching small craft up to in length from the stern, including assault craft and

submersible A submersible is a small watercraft designed to operate underwater. The term "submersible" is often used to differentiate from other underwater vessels known as submarines, in that a submarine is a fully self-sufficient craft, capable of ind ...

s by means of a custom dual-purpose ramp that also enables

RORO Roll-on/roll-off (RORO or ro-ro) ships are cargo ships designed to carry wheeled cargo, such as cars, motorcycles, trucks, semi-trailer trucks, buses, Trailer (vehicle), trailers, and railroad cars, that are driven on and off the ship on their o ...

operations for

HMMWV The High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV; colloquial: Humvee) is a family of light, four-wheel drive, military trucks and utility vehicles produced by AM General. It has largely supplanted the roles previously performed by the ori ...

and other vehicles. The vessel also has a twin-pad

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

deck capable of operating aircraft up to the size of an H-60 type, including

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

s, and landing helicopters while travelling at speeds of up to . A special deck-lighting system has been developed for ''Sea Fighter'' using low-intensity green lighting around the vessel's edges and helipads. This lighting is particularly effective when using night-vision goggles, making landings on the vessel easier than on conventional warships, even at the higher speeds in which ''Sea Fighter'' operates. The basic design has a displacement of 1,100 tons while measuring long at waterline and broad. Power is provided by a

CODOG Combined diesel or gas (CODOG) is a type of propulsion system for ships that need a maximum speed that is considerably faster than their cruise speed, particularly warships like modern frigates or corvettes. For every propeller shaft there is o ...

arrangement comprising two MTU 595

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-call ...

s and two

LM2500 The General Electric LM2500 is an industrial and marine gas turbine produced by GE Aviation. The LM2500 is a derivative of the General Electric CF6 aircraft engine. As of 2004, the U.S. Navy and at least 29 other navies had used a total of more ...

gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directi ...

s. Diesel power is used for cruising while the turbines provide high-power output for high-speed operation. The two gas turbines power the vessel's four

water jet Water jet may refer to: * A jet of water under pressure, like in an ornamental fountain * Pump-jet, a marine propulsion mechanism for jetskis and other types of boats * Water jet cutter, a tool for cutting and the machining of engineering material ...

s, drawing water from the bottom stern of each hull and powering it through large water turbines, which are responsible for the vessel's high operating speed. Each water jet has thrust vectoring and thrust reversers making it possible to move sideways while docking, or even travelling in astern. Thrust vectoring also makes it possible for ''Sea Fighter'' to make evasive maneuvers while travelling at high speed. This would prevent the craft from being forced to shore or into the path of enemy vessels. ''Sea Fighter''s forward

superstructure A superstructure is an upward extension of an existing structure above a baseline. This term is applied to various kinds of physical structures such as buildings, bridges, or ships. Aboard ships and large boats On water craft, the superstruct ...

consists of a bridge on the lower deck, and a flight operations station on top. The bridge is relatively small, and generally manned by a crew of three. The bridge control stations incorporate glass displays using the modern navigational aids to assist ''Sea Fighter'' in patrolling coastal areas while operating at high speed. Above the bridge is a small flight-operations station with room for only one operator. This glass-enclosed station provides an unobstructed view of the entire flight deck and allows the operator to coordinate the approach and landing of helicopters, and loading of the vessel's mission containers, as well as providing visual aid for navigation. The ship has a computer system to control its systems and for navigation. Steering and throttle control are done by

wire Overhead power cabling. The conductor consists of seven strands of steel (centre, high tensile strength), surrounded by four outer layers of aluminium (high conductivity). Sample diameter 40 mm A wire is a flexible strand of metal. Wire is c ...

rather than mechanical linkage. The first vessel of the type (FSF 1) was constructed at the Nichols Bros. Boat Builders shipyard at

Freeland, Washington Freeland is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) on Whidbey Island in Island County, Washington, Island County, Washington (state), Washington, United States. At the time of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census the p ...

, under contract to

Titan Corporation Titan Corporation was a United States-based company that started as a telecommunications defense contractor with its headquarters located in San Diego, California. It was acquired by L-3 Communications on June 3, 2005 for $2.65 billion and oper ...

, a subsidiary of

L-3 Communications L3 Technologies, formerly L-3 Communications Holdings, was an American company that supplied command and control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance ( C3ISR) systems and products, avionics, ocean products, training d ...

. Nichols Shipyard was selected because of their previous experience in the construction of aluminium-hulled high-speed ferries.

Role

''Sea Fighter'' is destined for employment by the

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

as a testbed for technologies related to the Navy's

effort, as well as direct testing of the hull design. Once trials are completed, the Navy will have the option of outfitting the vessel for operational deployment.

Future development

The Navy and Coast Guard are jointly exploring the possibility of further development of ''Sea Fighter''–type vessels for use in patrolling U.S. coastal waters. With an effective range of unrefueled, the type could also be deployed quickly overseas. ''Sea Fighter'' is expected to pave the way for a future line of fast, long-range destroyers capable of travelling fast enough to avoid or outmaneuver most of the current generation of torpedoes. Such vessels would be capable of crossing the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

unrefueled, and have a very low radar signature, making detection difficult. They would be able to respond quickly to targets located by air or satellite and aggressively attack surface and submerged vessels using their speed to evade torpedo and missile attack.

Concerns

Some concern has been raised with regard to the use of

aluminium alloys An aluminium alloy (or aluminum alloy; see spelling differences) is an alloy in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, nickel and zinc. There are two principal ...

almost exclusively in the construction of ''Sea Fighters hull, as well as future vessels based on the design. While aluminum alloys have a high

specific strength The specific strength is a material's (or muscle's) strength (force per unit area at failure) divided by its density. It is also known as the strength-to-weight ratio or strength/weight ratio or strength-to-mass ratio. In fiber or textile applic ...

, they melt at a lower temperature than steel. Some lay concern has been expressed about aluminum hulls actually burning, but only aluminum dust or powder is considered flammable.. Additionally

galvanic corrosion Galvanic corrosion (also called bimetallic corrosion or dissimilar metal corrosion) is an electrochemical process in which one metal corrodes preferentially when it is in electrical contact with another, in the presence of an electrolyte. A sim ...

may result between the aluminum hull and steel fittings, as happened to the littoral combat ship USS ''Independence''.

References

http://www.maritime-executive.com/article/sea-fighter-fsf-1-repair-and-maintenance-work-complete
*

External links