The Trimersible Enters the Fray As Navy Refines Its Sea Basing Concept

By RICK BARNARD
Editor in Chief

The Government of Turkey inadvertently has added some political buoyancy to a key element of the U.S. Navy's Sea Power 21 strategy prepared by Adm. Vern Clark, chief of naval operations, to bolster the ability of U.S. military forces "to project direct and decisive power around the globe."

Sea Basing, or the ability to maneuver from the sea, is fundamental to the success of the Sea Power 21 strategy first articulated by Clark in October 2002. The Navy will have to expand its use of sea basing, stated Clark, as "the availability of overseas bases declines." On 28 February, the Turkish parliament rejected U.S. requests to base ground troops in Turkey to open a northern front against Iraq. The U.S. armada in the eastern Mediterranean was forced to instead sail through the Suez Canal to Kuwait, a side trip that delayed the arrival of the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq by about four weeks.

Arthur K. Cebrowski, the Defense Department's Director of Force Transformation, said during a recent Sea Power interview: "There is a compelling reason to pursue operational maneuver from the sea and operational maneuver from strategic distances. In a word, it's Turkey. We're dealing with matters of strategic geography."

Sea basing is a concept, not a physical structure. In his strategy paper, Clark states that "netted and dispersed sea bases will consist of numerous platforms, including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, multimission destroyers, submarines with Special Forces, and maritime prepositioned ships."

An "Old Idea" Revisited

Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a unit of the defense and energy giant Halliburton of Houston, Texas, believes it has an old idea that fits neatly into the Navy's new strategy. Its Trimersible concept is based on the company's years of experience in the construction and operation of semisubmersible platforms for the oil and gas industry.

The Trimersible, the design of which envisions a monohull platform fitted with two semisubmersible pontoons, could be tailored for a variety of missions such as a command-and-control center or "nothing but storage," said Dennis Wright, vice president, strategy and marketing, of KBR's Government Operations unit.

The size of the Trimersible could vary, based on mission requirements. "If the Marines are looking for something more agile, this could be scaled down," said George Sigalos, director of government relations, KBR Government Operations.

But KBR's initial concept is for a behemoth that, at 1,181 feet in length, would be slightly longer than an aircraft carrier. But its breadth, 656 feet, would be about five times that of the USS Abraham Lincoln, the carrier recently visited by President George Bush.

Fast and Flexible

Despite its size, the Trimersible could traverse the Atlantic at a speed of 12 to 15 knots. "And you could link two of them together" for landings and takeoffs by C-130 transport planes, Wright said.

Designed for deepwater operations, the Trimersible would not be attached to the sea bottom but would remain on station by means of an automated power plant controlled by Global Positioning System devices. "It works kind of like the cruise control system on your car," Wright said. Sigalos said KBR is assessing several propulsion options, but the Trimersible would not be nuclear-powered.

In operation, the Trimersible would have space for up to 42 large helicopters, about 6,500 cargo containers, and almost 2,000 vehicles in addition to 10,000 troops. The craft could perform a wide array of tasks "in the severest of sea states and conditions," according to KBR.

There are about 400 semisubmersible platforms--built at an average purchase price between $400 million and $500 million--now in operation throughout the world, most of them owned by oil and gas companies.

At present, there is no U.S. military requirement, or mission element needs statement, for a craft like the Trimersible. "Right now, we're conducting an awareness campaign," said Douglas Williams, project manager, KBR Deepwater Technology. The campaign included a visit last July by Clark, Gen. James L. Jones (then the Marine Corps Commandant), and John Young, Navy assistant secretary for research, development, and acquisition, to the Gulf of Mexico to see the semisubmersible Deepwater Horizon.

The visiting officials were able to see the military possibilities of a semisubmersible, said Williams. "It has lots of real estate and load-carrying capacity. You could make a case for putting a Patriot missile battery on it." In addition, notes KBR, the Trimersible is not "encumbered with sovereignty issues." *