Dominant Logistics
HSV - Liberty Ship for the 21st Century
World War II has been described as many things but rarely has it been called what it truely was - a Logistics War. On virtually every front, the war was a battle of attrition with the outcome ultimately determined by who could build and transport the most hardware to the fight. In a war typified by exceptional logistics, perhaps the ultimate system was the Liberty ships.
Liberty ships weren't fast, they weren't sexy, they weren't even particularly good ships. But they were cheap, they were plentiful, and they moved ungodly amounts of materials to where they were needed. Ironically, in a military that is finding it more and more difficult to transport its hardware for missions abroad, this lesson learned has apparently been forgotten. But an ideal platform is available today to correct this gross error in judgement.
Trials are ongoing for a ship called the Joint Venture, or High Speed Vessel. This particular ship is a wave-piercing catamaran leased from Australia. Like the Liberty ships, the HSV is cheap and could easily be made plentiful, but unlike the Liberty's, the HSV is an excellent design for a variety of military support roles.
The design incorporates two decks allowing for helicopter operation on top with a large open deck in the hull. The ship requires a crew of 30 or fewer sailors depending on the mission. It can carry as much as 400 tons of materials at speeds in excess of 20 knots. With lighter loads, the HSV can travel at more than 40 knots. It is also highly manueverable and can operate in shallow water. And all of this comes with a price tag of about $80 million.
A single HSV could carry an entire Abrams platoon and still have substantial room and payload remaining for additional vehicles or supplies and even with a full load, it can still travel about twice as fast as large transports. In some reports, entire Marine battalions were transported in single HSV loads - similar results would be achievable with most Army infantry battalions. Or you can simply use the ship as a transport for massive quantities of materials.
An interesting concept would be to power the HSV using Baker-Rodriguez Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology. This technology offers a means to store massive quantities of hydrogen gas for an engine to burn. If we can economically include the means to electrolyze seawater and transfer the hydrogen into the fuel cells, the HSV would have virtually unlimited range while using no traditional fuel. A suggestion from Larry Altersitz is that perhaps solar panels on the superstructure be used to power the electrolysis system and if this is feasible, we could completely eliminate traditional fuel from this vessel. While you wouldn't want to use a hydrogen power system on a traditional combat vessel due to its extreme volatility, it would be ideal for transport vessels like the HSV. Combat HSVs should continue to use traditional power systems but support HSVs should use the fuel cell technology.
In a naval role, the HSV can be used for underway replenishment, mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare, or even as a submarine tender. With its expansive decks, you can throw just about any system inside the HSV and use the ship for a new role. Because of this extreme level of versatility combined with its capabilities and low costs, we need to field 200 of these ships.
A fleet of HSVs would give our navy the flexibility to rapidly adapt to the changing roles of future warfare scenarios. These ships are well suited for supporting larger forces but can also operate independently in many situations. It would cost less than $17 billion for the complete 200 ship fleet. And converting from a supercarrier-dominated force to an LHD-based force will free up sufficient personnel to man this new fleet of vessels. Let's not forget this lesson that so many in WWII learned the hard way. You can't build an entire navy out of dedicated ultra-expensive large ships - you have to have some smaller, cheaper vessels that can do the job more cost-effectively. The low-intensity conflicts of the future will only make this critical lesson more important.
References:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/hss.htm
http://www.dtic.mil/armylink/news/Oct2001/a20011022hsv-1test.html
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6236716%5E1702,00.html
http://www.techtv.com/news/culture/story/0,24195,3369950,00.html
http://foxxaero.homestead.com/n_incat_020829.html
http://www.iht.com/articles/91481.html