Opening day of the baseball season. The first day on a new job. Cracking open a new book. The beginning of any venture inspires optimism and brims with new possibilities. The same can be said of a new ship class. The Maritime Administration received funding to acquire a new training vessel for the nation’s maritime academies. Dubbed the national security multi-mission vessel (NSMV), the ship primarily was designed as a training platform that also can support humanitarian assistance/disaster response activities. Capabilities such as a surge capacity to house 1,000 people, a 10,000-square-foot roll-on/roll-off deck, a helipad, and a significant crane capacity lend this vessel to a number of military roles. Its $300-million price tag makes it affordable as well. Here are a three ways the Navy can adapt the vessel to other uses.
Bring Back Troop Transports
The Army deploys brigade combat teams (BCT) with 4,500 soldiers, vehicles, and support equipment [1]. A constellation of airlift, sealift, and prepositioned vessels move them from their home bases into theater. They have plenty of vehicles to get them where they need to go . . . until they hit water. Unfortunately for the Army, the Pacific is full of it.
So the BCT could be stuck on one island, wanting to reinforce a position on another island 1,000 nautical miles (nm) away. A battalion of light infantry with 800 soldiers and 100+ vehicles would suffice, but how to get them there?[2] They could load everything in three expeditionary fast transport-class ships (T-EPFs) and arrive in a little more than 24 hours. They could take about 16 trips on C-5 aircraft (about two hours each way). Better yet, they could load the battalion onto one NSMV and arrive in about 65 hours. It would be a tight fit, but it could be done with little modification to the existing NSMV design. Note that the NSMV costs less than three T-EPF’s ($185 million each) or 16 modernized C-5s ($90 million per modernization).
Distribute Magnanimity
The NSMVs would be a strong design for a hospital ship. It already incorporates a small hospital and a lab. The open space currently designated for training and classrooms could be converted to medical facilities. It even boasts a helipad for medical evacuations. An NSMV-based hospital ship would be similar in size to the nonprofit hospital ship Africa Mercy, which has five operating theaters, an intensive care unit, a CT scanner, and 80 hospital beds. An NSMV with trauma-focused equipment and staff could limit costs. The Navy has two 40-year-old hospital ships, and increasing the number of hospital ships with NSMVs could ensure they are more widely distributed geographically and available when needed.
Be In Charge
The ideal command ship would accommodate plenty of people, have a large, flat, unobstructed area for communications equipment, be wired for internal communications, and have meeting areas and conference rooms. Look no further than the NSMV. The NSMV’s compliment of 1,000 people is less than the 50-year-old USS Blue Ridge’s (LCC-19) 1,550, but the NSMV would not require a crew of nearly 600 to operate the ship. The vessel boasts 18,000 square feet of clear space above the superstructure. Fiber optic cables run throughout and there are plenty of meeting rooms. The Navy would have to invest in communications equipment, possibly defensive weapons, and propulsion modifications to increase speed, but the basic ship would only cost $300 million. Even doubling the price with redesign and outfitting would leave it well short of the cost of the next likely parent design, a San Antonio-class LPD at approximately $1.5 billion.
Off to a Good Start
The maritime administration has secured funding for the first NSMV. The Navy can build off this momentum by partnering with the Maritime Administration and the maritime academies to evaluate the ship. Give end users—the Army, the medical corps, and command staffs—an opportunity to tour the vessels and make recommendations for modifications. The ships could be used in exercises, when not in use training cadets, to test different concepts of operations. If the Navy and the end users agree that the vessel could be modified to suit their needs, the NSMV could be an inexpensive, low-risk acquisition and deliver more than its opening-day promise.
[1] Congressional Budget Office, The U.S. Military’s Force Structure: A Primer, July 2016, 19, 34. Note that the calculations are based on published weights of the vehicles and 500 lbs per soldier.
Lieutenant Adornato is a reserve engineering duty officer (unqualified) and a civilian employee of the 35th Civil Engineering Squadron in Misawa, Japan. He previously served in the NOAA Corps and he spent his first night at sea training on board the training vessel Kings Pointer.