So remember how Chief of Naval Operations Adm. jonathan Greenert announced in March that he was sending four Avenger-class minesweepers (technically they’re called mine countermeasures ships) to the Persian Gulf, just to “be sure … that we are ready” in case Iran tried anything weird aimed at cutting off a massive quantity of the world’s oil shipments.
One question we didn’t ask was; how will the 224-foot long minesweepers get there to the Gulf from their homeport of San Diego?
Like many I assumed they’d steam there. Nope, the Avengers (like that reference?) are being shipped there from the Port of Long Beach, Calif., aboard the massive ship, Tern; a semi-submersible transport vessel that is designed to haul mammoth pieces of oceangoing gear, like ships or parts of offshore oil rigs, around the world. The Tern, operated by a company called Dockwise, looks like a cross between a cargo freighter and a barge and, as you can see in the pic above, she’s carrying the four minesweepers to the Gulf.
Ok, time for a random question; what’s the coolest feature of the Avengers class ships? They’re wooden hulled. Seriously, the ships have wooden hulls that are coated in fiberglass, this reduced the likelihood that they’ll set off magnetic mines and gives them the ability to absorb the energy of a nearby explosion. Pretty damn cool.
Click through the jump for more pics.
Images via SurfaceWarriors Flickr.
{ 53 comments… read them below or add one }
Almost the Helicarrier!
This is the way the USS Cole was brought back for repairs to Pascagoula, the place where she was built.
"Like many I assumed they’d steam there."
Maybe they should read the comments on their own site, on the thread a few months ago I posted this link when talking about how they'd be shipped to the Gulf:
http://www.navsource.org/archives/11/11046105.jpg
You said the Blue Marlin, this is the Tern. No where near ;)
Actually the Blue Marlin is part of Dockwise's fleet. See http://www.dockwise.com/page/fleet/fleetdata.html (Blue Marlin) & http://www.dockwise.com/page/fleet/fleetdata.html (Tern)
"Look at me, my name is Tom and I'm smarmy"
Agree this was posted way back when the article about there deployment was first released.
Believe they shipped similar ships a similar way back in 1990 for the whole iraq part one thing
Is this a cost effective move or is it wear and tear on the crew and ships thing?
Both
I wouldn't want to be on an Avenger class ship in a nice North Atlantic storm.
I'm sure the lift ship saves an overhaul (or 4, I guess) of these wooden warriors.
If they're steaming off from California, they probably won't cross the Atlantic.
Minehunters tend to have slow, precision drive systems. Very good for manouvring *precisely* twenty metres to port where there's a known mine threat. Not so great for steaming a quarter of a way round the world on a deadline!
MSC has been chartering Flo/Flo type ships to lift mineships to CENTCOM and other AORs for decades~ Saves a lot of wear and tear on the main engines. Lifts have been from one to four ships.
Dockwise is one of the largest owner/operators of that ship type. There predecessoir company lifted Samuel B Robert back from the Gulf – way back when
And the Cole too.
That hull construction is really interesting. I wonder what she looks like from the inside. It would be something to be on a modern military vessel and see wood beams lining the hull
Semi-submersible ships, one of the weirder, more useful gargantuan creations of man. If I told you, "hey, let's build a cargo ship that will sink itself!" You might look at me weird, and yet, here we are.
Wasn't there a similar ship used to bring the Cole back?
yes
This is probably how the new LCS will get across the Pacific. ;)
I thought the LCS are as big as they are so they can avoid this.
Yes the LCS are big and fragile. You dont want to be drifting in the atlantic in a storm.
And really your better off fighting in the barge.
Seems like a good time to get out there with some scrapers and paint during the trip across.
Actually, because of the wooden hull covered in fiberglass, you don't set out with scrapers anywhere on the ship. And, if you use scrapers or chipping hammers on the non-magnetic steel, you magnatize it. So sanders and walnut blasting only, sorry.
I think it was the Blue Marlin that brought the Cole back, pictures of the flo-flo operation at the link. http://www.pianoladynancy.com/recovery_usscole.ht…
MV Tern is the sister ship of MV Swan, also operated by Dockwise, which transported the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Nottingham back to the UK after it was grounded and holed off Australia back in 2002.
http://www.maritimejournal.com/__data/assets/image/0014/172103/mj20021101_04.jpg
This would be a perfect opportunity to showcase the awesome LCS and it's amazing anti-mine capability. I think the good Adm is missing a great opportunity to showcase the amazing capabilities of the LCS. It could use some good press and all, after all it been so unfairly attacked for no good reason. Those stinky rotting moldy wooden old Avengers have no place on the modern net centric super fast world of modern warships like the LCS. I mean think about it, the Avenger class would be lucky to do 15 knots. My g o d man, those wooden pieces of crap have over 80 sailors on them, I guess they need that many because there is so much manual labor like scrubbing the deck and fun stuff on that. Heck the LCS crew doesn't have to do any maintenance at all, they leave everything up to the shore rats, that leaves them more time to play with the fancy joysticks and to practice warrior skills and such……..(puke)
Haha
You almost had me there
I like the way you think! :-)
It'll be another 20 years before the mine-countermeasures modules are ready for the LCS. Carefully timed to be ready right around the time the LCS's are decommissioned :-P
I think "mission modules" will very soon join the lexicon along with "Win Hearts and Minds", "Military Intelligence" and " Collateral Damage"
The part of me that isn't laughing at your comment is crying itself to sleep to the gentle hum of an LM2500…
Thats a very interesting ship that brings modular to a whole new level.
I got to see those same ships just before they headed out.
Interesting – there was an old Lapwing-Class minesweeper christened USS Tern (actually two of 'em) that were decomissioned in 1945. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tern_(AM-31)
To see Dockwise's "Tern" check this: http://www.dockwise.com/page/fleet/fleetdata-15.h…
Interesting – there was an old Lapwing-Class minesweeper christened USS Tern (actually two of 'em) that were decomissioned in 1945. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tern_(AM-31)
To see Dockwise's "Tern" check this: http://www.dockwise.com/page/fleet/fleetdata-15.h…
I believe the USN did tow it's non blue water capable ships into theater back in the old days.
Having spent a tour as XO on MSC 201 (66-68) , I can tell you they didn't tow well. If you're interested in the history of the US Navy's involvement in mine warfare, contact the Naval Mine Warfare Associatin (NMA) to see about getting copies of back issues of quarterly magazines.
My opinion of the LCS is that it will never be any force to be reckoned with. A bow mounted M-60 on a Boston Whaler with two 75 hp Mercs would be a more effective day to day weapon.
I would prefer an American President who would bomb any country (their ships and harbors) if they mine ANY oceans/bay/sounds anywhere in the World. Mining is an unacceptable Act of War and USA and NATO should retaliate within 24 hours of any mining actions on this planet. Perhaps USA Jobs could advertize for such a leader to apply for the job of President of United States ?
Hmm, therefore Reagan should have bombed the U.S. when we mined the harbors in Nicaragua?
Nicaragua should've declared war on America. Hah.
Though Central America is getting its revenge on America with drugs…
Then we should have declared war on Libya for the M/V Ghat incident?
From harpoondatabases.com (I suppose it could be worse than…Wikipedia!)
"Libyan mining of Red Sea
During the summer of 1984, nineteen different merchant ships belonging to fifteen different countries struck M-08s in the Red Sea. The mines were later traced to the Libyan merchant ship M/V Ghat which had transited the Suez Canal southbound on 6 July 1984, en route to Assab, Ethiopia. Ghat retransited the Canal back towards Libya on 21 July 1984. By reviewing port logs and Ghat’s speed, Egyptian investigators determined the voyage should have taken 8 days but instead took 15. Ghat’s next port call was in West Germany where undercover agents boarded the ship and found damage to her ro-ro ramp consistent with having been opened underway and dragged through the water.
The mining was too much for the Egyptian navy to handle alone. The first American response was by the oceanography ship USNS Harkness (T-AGS-32) to which an EOD team was transported in July. In early August, the amphibious assault ship USS Shreveport (LPD-12) unloaded her Marines at Rota, Spain and embarked four Sea Stallion MCM helicopters of squadron HM-14. Once in the Red Sea, she was joined by British, French, and Italian minesweepers in operation “Intense Look“. While not directly operating jointly with the NATO units, the Soviet navy also assisted by sending the helicopter carrier Leningrad from the Black Sea and a minesweeper from Aden, South Yemen. Leningrad had offloaded her normal “Hormone” ASW helicopters and operated Mi-14 “Haze” minesweeping helicopters.
Libya’s reason for the mining has never been understood. It is possible that it was in retaliation for the cooling of tensions between Egypt and Israel during the 1980s, or, possibly to cause economic damage to the USA by driving up the price of oil. Either way, the only end result was Libya becoming even more isolated internationally."
Even if deployment of mines is considered an act of war (certainly deploying them outside your own waters is), you still have to clear said mines up. So regardless of your view, this is the right move.
Also – I'm not impugning the LCS' capability, but I'd rather deploy proven designs; LCS may have standoff mine hunting ability but if there is a mine deployment, it's got to be cleared *damn* fast – four ships is more than the sum total of LCS hulls currently in the water…
Surprised more effort isn't put into USVs that can be launched from, say, a torpedo tube. Or a garbage chute. There were some blurbs only recently about USVs that could launch from either, but UAVs have been fleshed out for years and years.
Perhaps the Navy thought it would just stand off and fire missiles and never need to come in close; just like the army never thought it would have to do city-fighting in the late '90s?
There are several mine disposal systems in service which are torpedo-ish sized. Archerfish, for example, is already in USN service. The key thing is that these bits of kit are great for neutralising a mine you've found, but not so hot for locating it in the first place because their endurance isn't great and their sensors aren't a patch on a ship's – in order to continuously 'sweep' an area you still need a ship to operate the UUV off, and by nature of its job said ship will be closer to a suspected mine threat than is entirely wise…
While they are out of the water, it might be time to give their hulls a good coat of paint. They look like they could use some periodic maintenance.
Hopefully we will start charging a toll on all ships passing through the US protected straight because we certainly can't afford to pay for this operation ourselves.
US protected Strait (you know what I meant)
As an old blue water sailor that survived a couple of storms and high seas, I was just wondering how these semi submersible cargo ships handle 30-40 foot seas? oops, we just lost an Avenger, oh well, we've got three more. Yes, get out the chippers and paint on the crossing and make sure everyone has a good life line and vest.
I guess the crews don't need the praactice at sea…. brown water navy???
Yes. Minehunters really are brown water ships because that's where mines are.
They have no place on the open ocean and as such they're not designed for it.
For starters their range is not great so they'd have to fuel an unacceptible number of times.
Secondly their drives are designed for precision, not power – if they're properly hoofing it, I think they make about 16 miles an hour… which year did you want them to arrive?