Every shipbuilder in the Navy these days talks about how his hulking destroyer or Cold War sub is now going to sneak SEALs onto shore. A couple of weeks back, Military.com overlord Chris Michel was down in San Diego, and saw a pretty cool new prototype ship that’s been designed from scratch to handle the mission.
The 89-foot, 60-ton Stiletto will be one of the quickest ships in the fleet, using four Caterpillar C32 engines to cruise at 50 knots or more. It’ll also be one of the sneakiest, according to New Scientist.
Stiletto’s hull has a double-M shape that channels the wake under the craft. There it mixes with oncoming air to produce froth that lifts the ship part-way out of the water, reducing drag and increasing stability, says Greg Glaros, the programme’s leader at the defence department’s Office of Force Transformation.
While a crew of three runs the Stiletto, a dozen SEALs can slip off the back of the ship, in an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat — or they can send a set of flying drones out on spy missions from the upper deck. The ship can stay on station for eight hours while the robots or the special forces are out on their operations. And the Stiletto can keep an even keel while it waits; it’s cleared to operate in Sea State 5 — waves twelve feet high and 157 feet long.
If the Stiletto works out as planned, it’ll be good news for special forces. Because while every ship-maker says they’ve come up with the ideal commando-delivery system, several of the options haven’t worked out as planned.
Take the Advanced SEAL Delivery System. “The subs were originally expected to cost $80 million each; the first one alone has cost $446 million,” notes the Times-Dispatch. “The vessel was noisier than planned — bad news for a submarine. Designs were changed to muffle the sound, and now the mini-sub vibrates too much.” Which is defnitely not how commandos like to travel.
UPDATE 1:28 PM: Of course, Inside Defense had details on the ship months ago. A few:
* One reason for the unique shape is the ship was designed like an aircraft… OFTs first director, Arthur Cebrowski, who died last month, was very firm that were going to build an aircraft on the sea”… The hull has four distinct arches, which look like wings, that utilize air pressure to funnel water and glide along the surface.
* Through its maritime data bus, or on-board computer, the vessel will have the ability to plug and play with different sensors, linking with unmanned vehicles and other crafts of varying sizes, he said. With only one panel of windows for looking ahead, Stiletto will use deck cameras to give the crew a sense of what is happening around the ship.
* Production of the Stiletto prototype began in October 2004, costing $6 million in funds from OFT. Nearly the same amount has been earmarked by OFT and SOCOM combined for experimentation and testing.
UPDATE 2:37 pm: As C-Low notes in the comments, the latest issue of Defense Technology International has the Stiletto on the cover.
The very limiting 8 hours endurance will prove operationally unworkable unless this vessel can be launched from a “big deck” amphib with an accommodating well deck. The new LCS will prove more operationally acceptable and less of a burden to the fleet. Yet another great idea not well thought out?
– DD(X) Systems Engineer
Hello Guys,
I am fond that I am a member of this site, I am active duty on recruiting duty and now this clarifies why it is imperative and such a high demand for seals, the pressure for us to sign a qualified seal is so high priority at this time but I see the big picture and why there is a rush to find and sign them.
Thanx
The concept is solid, BUT, what will the ship do when old man ocean decides to go to sea state 6 or above? Such a sea state limitation would limit its use. Is this ship a calm waters ship only?
This is a remarkable concept — BUT — On Station Time is remarkably low. With the advertised size parameters it would appear that the three man crew should be able to remain on station for a week or more!
Seal missions typically need stealth at every step. If the new “surface vehicle” is delivered by a large deck amphib the mission is flawed from the start. An SDV or ADSV delivered by a sub would seem to have better covertness from start to finish and provide better protection for the Seals.
But how do you get a ship this big to the other side of the world in a hurry? With only a 500 mile range (250 miles each way) it would need refueling very close to any action. It seems more intelligent to find a design that can be airlifted.
It’s an awesome design,and has two excellent
features,it must be the correct eye sore correction for NSW Community.
Is this yet another Congressional Plus-up program just to feed the needy? This boat was not built for NSW nor is it a SOCOM program of record. It is only a technology demonstrator. However, the Navy and NSW had the Norwegian ship KNM SKJOLD (www.knmskjold.org) for a year from 2001–2002 but chose to learn nothing from it. Stealth design, Composite hull etc; Shame on us for not pursuing it.…
Well, it sounds like a pretty good project. It still needs lots of finishing touches though, like :
a) Range is quite short.
b) Diesel is not THE fuel for such ops.
c) vibs to be dealt with.
d) Sharp edges to be taken care of.
Let draughtsmen think of “KNOX type destroyers” first before they start planning on something new. Take care
Do they need more carbon fiber? We have 1000s of yards available!
AHOY…THERE, I hear Zolatone makes for a great color variable. And catipillar genorators are powerful even when used for tugs. Batteries heavy but dependable. Finally double up on cable for those cat’s, .… you all feel me. SOUND stream amps with JBL SUBS?? got to have some tunes. Solong you privateer and good work always. 0629hrs Oct. 03,2007 West Coast