He noted that NSW is currently deriving a significant amount of lessons learned from operations of the first two SEALIONs, and the command believes that those lessons learned could be used as the basis for requested enhancements on the third hull.
Oregon Iron Works also won the source selection for the first platform in the CCM category: Combatant Craft Medium MK I.
CCM MK I will reach initial operational capability (IOC) of two craft in November 2015 (reflecting a nearly one-year program delay now credited to an earlier protest when the program went from three vendors down to two) with a full inventory objective of 30 craft in FY 20.
The 60-foot MK I reflects an NSW plan to meet both CCH and CCM requirements. Although size and the latest performance technologies make the platform capable of functioning as a replacement for the 82-foot-long MK V, the MK I also reflects the transportability and fleet interoperability of a smaller craft. For example, while the MK V was designed for air transport only by C-5 aircraft, the CCM MK I will fit into a C-17.
A SEALION II gets up to speed. NAVSPECWARCOM photo
CCM MK I will reach initial operational capability (IOC) of two craft in November 2015 (reflecting a nearly one-year program delay now credited to an earlier protest when the program went from three vendors down to two) with a full inventory objective of 30 craft in FY 20. The program is currently funded for just over half of that desired quantity.
The 16 craft currently funded are seen by planners as providing NSW with a consistent “two detachment presence” anywhere in the world.
“The way we look at it there would be four boats – two ‘dets’ of two boats each – forward and 12 boats back,” Carlson said, adding that each detachment of two boats forward would have three detachments of six boats in the rear.
“Each one is in four different six-month phases,” he explained. “So we see it as a training/deployment continuum of 24 months. That’s how we calculate how many boats we need.”
The Combatant Craft Medium MK I is expected to reach initial operational capability with two craft in November 2015. NAVSPECWARCOM photo
Another CCM category craft just beginning deliveries is the Combatant Craft Assault (CCA).
Carlson characterized it as “another non-developmental item; a government off-the-shelf boat that we didn’t put any development money into.”
“But it was the right boat,” he continued. “At only 40 feet, it’s smaller than the CCM MK I, so it can go on and off a Navy ship, making it more expeditionary than the MK I. You can’t just crane a MK I on and off an ‘amphib.’ But you can with a CCA.”