High-Speed
SEALION is Slated For Transformational Experiments
By RICHARD R. BURGESS
Managing Editor
The U.S. Navy plans to use its stealthy SEALION (SEAL Insertion, Observation,
Neutralization) technology demonstration watercraft in future experimentation
sponsored by the Department of Defense’s Office of Force Transformation.
The service also is using lessons learned from its first SEALION to design
several enhancements for a second SEALION boat.
The SEALION — which is designed for operational experimentation
— will take part in the Office of Force Transformation’s WOLFPAC
Initiative, a program “to explore the ability to command and control
large numbers of geographically dispersed networked assets,” said
Tom Warring, spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command’s Carderock
Division, which is spearheading the SEALION effort.
A SEALION boat will participate “as one such node in this network
designed specifically to explore modular, high-speed, high-performance
littoral craft and their application beyond the tactical level of war,”
he said. No date has been released for the experiment.
The SEALION I, delivered in January 2003, is based in the Norfolk, Va.,
area, where it has been tested by Naval Special Warfare Group Four in
the Hampton Roads waterways and the coastal Atlantic area. The 71-foot-long,
aluminum-hull, high-speed watercraft is designed to demonstrate new technology
in advanced hull forms, human systems engineering and interface, and modular
mission packages.
“The design incorporates innovative construction techniques for
vessels that will operate in the littoral,” Warring said. The boat
is capable of operations in harbors and rivers as well.
SEALION II is scheduled for delivery to the Navy by December 2005. The
second SEALION, as was the first, is being fabricated by Oregon Iron Works
Inc. (OIW) under a $6 million contract from the Carderock Division in
Bethesda, Md. No additional SEALION boats are planned.
The SEALION project is intended to refine the Navy’s knowledge
of advanced hull forms to provide “superior sea keeping capabilities
and improved comfort to crew and passengers,” said Warring. The
pounding endured by special operations forces in other boats in rough
water has proven hazardous to their health, according to Navy medical
studies. Rough boat rides are blamed for injuries to the skeletal system,
including teeth, as well as to internal organs, the studies found.
The SEALION has an enclosed cockpit for the crew and passengers —
such as SEALS — that provides a quiet, comfortable environment,
and improves the ability of the passengers to perform their duties after
a long transit.
Human systems integration (HSI), the ability of personnel to interface
with the craft effectively, was “incorporated into every phase of
the design,” Warring said. The HSI efforts began with a fully surfaced,
three-dimensional model of the craft, which was used as the basis for
a full-scale plywood mock-up. Experienced boat crews tested different
arrangement configurations on the mock-up to ensure operability and maintenance
access.
Warring said that solid modeling, utilizing the Solid-Works computer
program, was used to design SEALION II. SolidWorks uses solid shapes in
three dimensions rather than just the surfaces to provide a more usable,
realistic tool for viewing and working with the design.
The SEALION concept is not planned as a replacement for the Mark V Special
Operations Craft operated by the Navy. However, some of the technologies
demonstrated in the SEALION may prove useful in the development of a follow-on
to the Mark V.
As a technology demonstrator, SEALION I is not armed but is designed
accept a variety of modular mission payloads and could accept a modular
weapons system, according to program officials. SEALION II is being designed
to accommodate a short-range strike missile, to demonstrate a modular
payload with a precision-strike capability.
Navy officials said “there will be no test firing of the missiles
from SEALION II nor will the craft be delivered with missiles.”
SEALION II will be slightly longer that SEALION I and feature several
new capabilities, including a pop-up infrared imaging system built by
DRS Technologies (Parsippany, N.J.), as well as a modular mission payload
bay. The boat also features the Craft Integrated Electronics Suite, built
by Azimuth Inc., a West Virginia-based company specializing in high-technology
services. The electronics suite, along with a local area network computer,
will enable SEALION II to operate with a two-man crew, instead of the
three needed by SEALION I.
The modular aspects of the SEALION have been briefed to the U.S. government’s
Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) team, Warring said. Some of the technology
developed under the SEALION program may be usable by the LCS program or
others, he said.
The SEALION was designed by the Combatant Craft Division of the Naval
Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division.
OIW, with facilities in Clackamas, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., was chosen
to build the SEALION because of its extensive experience in fabricating
precise components out of a variety of materials, Warring said. OIW —
founded in 1944 — can produce a boat “with extremely high
dimensional tolerances through the utilization of precision manufacturing
techniques not typically found in standard boat builders,” he said.
“OIW’s proprietary processes allow OIW to maintain the strictest
tolerances during the development of prototype craft.”
Robert Beal, president of OIW, told Sea Power that the company specializes
in products that cross traditional manufacturing boundaries.” OIW’s
products range from utility boats to sonar domes to tugboats to 48-foot
tourist submarines to powered causeways.
SEALION Technology Demonstrator
Length: SEALION I: 71 feet;
SEALION II: 71-plus feet
Draft: classified; relatively shallow for a 71-foot-long craft
Speed: 40-plus knots; capable of transiting Sea State 5 at 30-plus knots
Propulsion: two MTU diesel engines driving two KaMeWa waterjets, providing
1,136 shaft horsepower per engine
Crew: SEALION I: three; SEALION II: two
Builder: Oregon Iron Works |
