Tidbits from the net...USNI Proceedings and JHSV specs

Sorry, I have not had time to post here about HSF and related developments. But, over the next few days I will post some select things. First, there have been some interesting related developments, and I review it all, but haven't had time to post publicly about it. Something I might recommend for all are the Google Alerts at http://www.google.com/. They are free and you can subscribe to them for any keyword showing up on the net to be automatically e-mailed to you. That is one way to follow this or any issue.

First, today there is a blog entry coming out of Australia by a professor, Tom Worthington, at the Australian National University who has posted good stuff in the past on Australian fast ferry technology. I noticed him because in the past he has cited the US Naval Institute magazine Proceedings, which I know is read by the parties involved. It was Lecturer Worthington who put the first blog post on the net years ago, that I found, about the Australian firm AMD that sold HSV techology to the Chinese which was re-engineered by the Chinese for an attack military vessel. So anyway, here is Lecturer Worthington's most recent post:

http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2008/07/wider-role-suggestsed-for-high-speed.html
Sunday, July 06, 2008
"Wider role suggested for High Speed Vessels in US Military"

"In 'Widen the Lens for JHSV' (Proceedings of the U.S. NAVAL INSTITUTE, June 2008 Vol. 134/6/1,264), Commander Robert K. Morrison III and Lieutenant Commander Phillip E. Pournelle (U.S. Navy) suggests widening the role for high-speed vessels.

Morrison and Phillip were the commanding and executives officers of HSV-2 Swift, an experimental Australian built US navy high speed ship. The US DoD has a Joint High Speed Vessel (JHSV) program designed to implement the results of the programs run my US Army and Navy. However, Morrison and Phillip argue that the joint program has lower performance requirements than those demonstrated by Swift in actual operations and will unnecessarly limit the uses which such ships can be put.

The authors argue that the JSHVs should be thought of like transport aircraft more than ships. They can quickly deliver a cargo, or a military force and rapidly leave the scene, under cover of dark if necessary. The ships can operate from undeveloped ports without the need of shore facilites using their built in vehicle ramps and cargo arms. They can carry tanks, carry helecopters and deploy small rading craft.

Australian industry has an interest in this debate, as it has two shipbuilders: Incat and Austal who dominate world as suppliers of such ships."

What I think is interesting is that the two recent commanding officers of the Incat vessel the Swift indicate that the Incat ship that they operated has more capability than what is being required in the specs for the JHSV proposals. To me it almost seems like the contract requirements were lowered to allow another company's inferior ship design and capabilities to have a chance at winning the construction contract.

Will put some more things up soon.
Aloha, Brad