Friday, February 04, 2005, 12:40 P.M. Pacific
"Sea Fighter" alters the look of the Navy
By Sandi Doughton
Seattle Times staff reporter
The future of the Navy is sitting in a Whidbey Island shipyard, and Lt. Cmdr. Brandon Bryan can't wait to take her for a spin.
"It's the Navy's hottest sports car," said the Seattle native, gazing at the burnished aluminum catamaran that will be his next command.
Dubbed "Sea Fighter," the 262-foot ship will be the fastest vessel in the fleet, except for a few small patrol boats. The conservative estimate is that its 66,000-horsepower engines will push it to 50 knots, or about 57 mph, but Bryan says top speed will probably be closer to 60 knots, or nearly 70 mph.
Looking like something out of an early James Bond movie, the Sea Fighter is actually a souped-up version of a high-speed passenger catamaran, said Matt Nichols, president of Nichols Brothers Boat Builders, winners of the $46 million construction contract.
But the design marks a revolutionary change for the Navy, which since World War II has been dominated by huge aircraft carriers, destroyers and cruisers.
Sea Fighter, which will be christened tomorrow, was designed to test the technology needed for a new class of ships that will be lighter, faster and more suited to today's military and maritime realities.
"Our fleet doesn't battle the Japanese fleet out on the deep, blue sea anymore," said Cmdr. Mark Thomas, leader of the project, which has totaled about $73 million.
Today's conflicts are more likely to involve nations without navies, or terrorist groups that turn a fishing boat into a suicide weapon.
Small vessels that can operate close to shore could be used for a variety of missions, from detecting and defusing mines, to hunting submarines hiding in the shallows and intercepting enemy supply boats, Thomas explained.
The Sea Fighter is able to enter waters as shallow as 11 feet. The catamaran shape gives it a capacious deck, which can carry two helicopters. A wide ramp in the stern can launch and retrieve small boats, underwater drones or remote sensors.
Water-jet propulsion, coupled with an engine that can switch from gas to diesel power, makes the ship so maneuverable that it can turn on a dime at low speeds, said Steve Nordtvedt, program manager for San Diego-based Titan, the prime contractor.
A T-shaped hydrofoil on the underside of the ship is designed to smooth out the ride, especially in rough seas. The goal is to be able to travel up to 40 knots even through 7-foot waves, Nordtvedt said.
Not currently equipped with any weapons, the ship could be outfitted with torpedoes or anti-aircraft guns if needed.
That flexibility will be a keystone of the new Navy, said Robert Work, a retired Marine colonel and navy analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent, nonpartisan defense think tank in Washington, D.C.
"The future of the Navy is to build modular payloads that fit into vessels that are essentially pickup trucks," he said.
Sea Fighter fills that bill. It's roomy cargo bay can accommodate 12 shipping containers, each holding the gear needed for a specific mission: mine detection; humanitarian aid; anti-submarine warfare; reconnaissance.
"It's simply a hull you can stuff different things in," Work said. "It's very smart."
But many questions remain even within the Navy about the utility and durability of smaller ships, Work added.
"Most officers grew up on the big-ship Navy and the Cold War, and I believe there is a healthy amount of skepticism that small craft will be able to stand up over time."
Sea Fighter weighs in at about 1,000 tons — about a quarter the size of the next-largest ship in the fleet. Will a vessel that light be able to stand up to the forces generated by cutting through pounding seas at high speed? What happens if it hits a mine? Would it be suitable for long deployments thousands of miles away?
"It's a question of whether they will last and whether they be able to carry enough things to make them worthwhile," Work said.
The ship's hull is outfitted with sensors to measure the stresses and strains it encounters. And Bryan and his crew will experiment with a full range of missions and tasks, to see what the ship does well and where it's lacking, Thomas said.
The lessons learned from Sea Fighter will be applied as the Navy begins building two larger prototypes of a coastal combat ship, each with a different design.
And if Sea Fighter performs well, it's also possible the Navy could opt to build more of the small, relatively cheap vessels, Work said.
After being launched next week, the ship will travel to Everett for the final construction touches. Bryan and his crew will come aboard in April, spending up to two months training in Washington waters before heading to the ship's homeport in San Diego.
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