Sea Base Utility Vessel
Abstract
In the Navy's current Sea Base concept, significant amounts of cargo and personnel require transport over short distances between ships and between ships and shore. This places a heavy transport burden on the Sea Base's helicopters and LCACs, even though neither vehicle is primarily tasked for this duty. Every hour that a helicopter or an LCAC spends ferrying cargo is time that they cannot be performing their primary missions and an hour off their total life. Furthermore, both helicopters and LCACs are resource intensive, requiring a significant amount of maintenance to keep them in operation. The goal of the Sea Base Utility Vessel design is to develop a concept design to replace helicopters and LCACs in the cargo-carrying role. The SUV should be low cost, yet still capable of operation in Sea State 4 at a service speed of up to 30 knots with a maximum range of 500 nautical miles. It will be able to transport up to 20 LT cargo in various forms in addition to 40 combat ready infantry soldiers. The SUV will be able to offload its cargo in austere port facilities so a shallow draft and onboard cargo handling equipment are requirements. Above all, the SUV will be durable, easily producible, and affordable to purchase and operate.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2008
- Accession Number
- ADA495488
Entities
People
- Douglas Rigerink
- Matthew Newborn
Organizations
- Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division