EagleSpeak

New wave of patrol and security craft as reported at WorkBoat:

The days of creating patrol boats by outfitting general-use motorboats and fishing trawlers with machine guns and obsolete naval weapons are long gone. That was World War II.

Jump ahead 80 years, and patrol boats have evolved into platforms that have the latest navigation, communications, and propulsion systems while being designed and built with highly efficient hulls that move easily and rapidly through the water and can carry out multiple missions in locations across the globe.

Three cases in point: MetalCraft Marine is building 65 patrol boats that will mostly operate in foreign waters; a high-speed 35-footer from Moose Boats that’s outfitted with fire-fighting systems; and Inventech Marine Solutions’ 40' patrol boat for a sheriff’s department in Florida, which hits 72 mph.

We need a bigger U.S. Navy - but the fleet can be grown in many different ways. One way is to develop a "micro Navy" (as opposed to "Big Navy" gray hulls) buidling on the lessons learned and discarded from U.S. and allied patrol torpedo boat operations in WWII.









Update these boats with anti-ship missiles, mines, and unmanned drone vessels to be deployed from the boats - you've created a potentially deadly small combatant force for use in the littoral for a faction of the cost of larger ships.

More on this later.

U. S. Navy photo

Well, there is this image from here of the M Ship Company's Stiletto "boat" doing stuff with the Navy.

You might remember Stiletto from an earlier post of mine A real littoral combat ship goes to sea with an Army crew or perhaps the discussion of the hull form from Sunday Ship History: Hickman's Sea Sleds .

Be that as it may, the U.S. Navy is playing with Stiletto as set out here and here:

The Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program kicked off its first Capability Demonstration with the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) off the Virginia coast near Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va.

The demonstration provided NECC Sailors — and 15 industry partners — an opportunity to evaluate products in a realistic maritime environment.

Simulated small boat threats pass by the high-speed experimental boat Stiletto so Sailors assigned to Navy Expeditionary Combat Command (NECC) can observe new technologies in a relevant maritime environment. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

The Stiletto Maritime Demonstration Program team launches and 11-meter rigid-hull inflatable boat from the high-speed experimental boat Stiletto. (U.S. Navy photo/Released)

So, what's it doing? Testing concepts spelled out by NAVSEA here:

Rapidly transition advanced technologies to higher Technology Readiness Levels through flexible installation and demonstration in maritime operational environments

Transition ship, air & land-based C4I capabilities to small craft to enhance Maritime Domain Awareness
Sensors
Data links to offboard sea, air, and land assets
Leverage existing Stiletto sensor, computer, and network
infrastructure
Unmanned / Autonomous asset launch and recovery
Reduce crew injury and fatigue
Small boat launch and recovery operations

That "unmanned/autonomous" stuff? From the right hand side of the page, "Launch and Retrieve 11m RHIB, UUVs, UAVs." Which explains the photo below, showing a UAV launch/retrieval system mounted on the stern:

Probably won't get a photo of the UUV thing.

More from the RFI for this "capability demonstration":

Stiletto, a maritime demonstration platform, serves as a technology demonstration tool for industry, Government, and academic organizations. It provides an opportunity to learn and to improve systems as they function in an at-sea environment and raise a system’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL). The Stiletto program’s physical infrastructure consists of the high speed Stiletto craft with a Command Information Center (CIC), Launch and Recovery (L&R) for an 11M Naval Special Warfare (NSW) Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB), arch space for sensor installation, flight deck for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) L&R, and electronic network infrastructure with wide band satellite communications (SATCOM), along with an 11M NSW RIB with unmanned capability. Both the craft and its systems were designed to be flexible, modular, and re-configurable to enable near “plug-and-play” installation. The Stiletto crew includes engineers and technicians with expertise in multiple maritime technology areas. The crew can provide engineering assistance to integrate systems aboard the craft and to help develop demonstration plans to achieve technical goals.

Electronics Technician 2nd Class Jason Rhodes, assigned to Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, gets familiar with technology controls and interfaces of the high-speed experimental boat Stiletto. (U.S. Navy photo)

Interesting.

Raytheon photo

Robert Wall, an Aviation Week reporter blogs from the Dubai Air Show on an approach to fighting small boat swarms here:

Raytheon and Emirates Advanced Research and Technology Holding (Earth), its UAE partner, see potential application of the Talon laser-guided rocket to take on small boats.

Raytheon's TALON Laser Guided Rocket site:

AH-64D Apache (Boeing photo)

TALON is a low-cost, semi-active laser guidance and control kit that connects directly to the front of 2.75-inch unguided rockets currently in U.S. and international inventories. It has been designed to fill the critical operational gap between unguided rockets and guided heavy anti-tank missiles.

TALON provides an effective weapon against soft to lightly armored point targets while reducing potential collateral damage. Moreover, its precision standoff range results in improved platform survivability.

Cessna Grand Caravan

These rockets were designed for the AH-64 Apache, but it seems that Raytheon and its partner are thinking it could work on other platforms, too, as well as being capable of targeting small boats instead of just armor and land stuff.

See here where the Cessna Caravan and the AT-802U Air Tractor are mentioned. The latter is an interesting aircraft for anti-small boat ops - long linger time, reasonable pay load. As the Air Tractor site says:

Air Tractor photo of AT-802U

Particularly well suited for force application and situational awareness roles in asymmetrical warfare theatres of operation, the AT-802U is both economical and effective. Like a truck, the aircraft is utilitarian in nature: tough, powerful, and configurable to simply get the job done. It can maintain very long endurance over target and can employ a wide range of weapons simultaneously, with a high degree of accuracy to minimize collateral damage.

With its balloon tires and rugged landing gear, the AT-802U is built to land and operate off unimproved airstrips – even dirt roads – providing unprecedented direct support and coordination with ground troops. The AT-802U can fly in extreme heat and dust conditions and with its massive fuel reserves, loiter over target to find, fix and finish when other fighters have to return to the tanker.

Pilot and sensor operator on the AT-802U. Wonder how they'd do off and on a small flight deck?

Advertising from Air Tractor (and no, I don't own any shares in it or Raytheon or Cessna):
Air Tractor At-802u Brochure

From National Defense Magazine, "No Silver Bullet for Thwarting Terrorists Aboard Small Boats":

Small boats provide terrorists with a myriad of options. They could be used in suicide attacks, as was the case in 2000 when al-Qaida operatives in Yemen rammed an explosives-laden dinghy into the USS Cole, killing 17 U.S. sailors. They could attack ships docked at shore, entering ports or sailing off the coast. They could deliver nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological devices, or be used to mine harbors, wrote James Carafano, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, in a paper entitled, “Small Boats, Big Worries: Thwarting Terrorist Attacks from the Sea.”

Ports can also be an entryway for terrorists, as was the case recently when gunmen struck Mumbai, India, and killed nearly 200 people.

“Mumbai was not an isolated incident,” said Allen. “We do know that the capability exists and I think that Mumbai just underscores that.”

Kenneth McDaniel, maritime security deputy division chief at the Coast Guard office of counterterrorism and defense operations, said one of the greatest threats are vessel-borne improvised explosive devices.

The consequences of an IED attack on a U.S. port would be devastating, said Scott Truver, executive advisor for national security programs at Gryphon Technologies.

Carafano article here. A more recent analysis by Dr. Carafano on the Mumbai small boat attack here.

Reported by the Christian Science Monitor Got a boat? You may need a license.:

With some 17 million boats on the water, as many as 70 million boaters, and 95,000-plus miles of shoreline, America has a coastal vulnerability that extends beyond the few miles of range around major ports that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has secured so far.

While the federal government will spend $178 million next year to attain a goal of placing radiation monitors at 98 percent of US ports, many experts say a jihadist cell would be less likely to ship a nuclear device in a container and more likely to deliver it in person in a recreational-style boat.

The attack on the USS Cole, for one, showed that small boats such as bowriders and cuddy cabins can be used to ram large ships and to launch mortar attacks, terrorism experts say.

A part of a proposed solution is to license boaters, just as we license automobile drivers.

Some people seem - uh- a little defensive in arguments countering licensing:

"What concerns us is that [DHS] is trying to basically use boating safety as a fig leaf to cover their real intention, which is to identify recreational boaters and get them licensed," says Mike Sciulla, spokesman for the Boat Owners Association of the United States in Alexandria, Va. "For the government to suggest that boaters should be required to take classes for national security reasons is ... unwarranted."

Identify boaters? Get them some minimal training? The horror...

Now here's a bright idea:

Mott designed a series of prototypes and eventually ended up with a product which he named the BMS07 Boat Monitoring System. The system will send an SMS to up to two mobile phones if the boat is towed, sailed or driven away or breaks from its mooring. If you connect other sensors to the BMS07 you will also receive an SMS if they detect break in, water in the bilge, fire or a low battery. Itís like giving your boat a mobile phone and the ability to tell you whatís happening when you are not there.

Mott says the unique design feature of the new product is its low power consumption; BMS07 uses just 1.6mA while monitoring the sensor inputs. As the systemís GPS unit (which is used for movement detection and tracking) draws the most power, the BMS07 powers it up every 15 minutes and switches it off as soon as it obtains a position.

This all means that ëit draws a very, very small amount of current so it can run off its own small battery. Depending on the amount of sun that your boat receives, and the sensors that you use, you would only need something like a small 5 watt solar cell, which you can buy for $80, to keep the battery charged and the system running indefinitely.

I wonder if boat insurance carriers will be offering a discount if you have such a device on board?


H/T: worldmaritime news.com.