The US Navy has been building ships for 241 years, so you think they'd have it down by now. And yet, the most fantastic fighting force in world history1 is shelling out millions to fix the hulls on a brand new class of high speed transport. What's so hard about making a big, floating, metal water weapon?
Well, that depends on the mission. The ships in question are Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transports. Sitting high on twin hulls, this catamaran ferries troops, gear, and supplies to a given theater of operation's farthest-flung nooks. You can land a helicopter on its deck, and drive a tank into its hold. In a pinch, it can also do humanitarian work, such as moving threatened civilians to a protected harbor or providing medical care.
That impressive resume has one outstanding hole: The Spearhead-class wasn't built for open ocean cruising. While crossing the Atlantic en route to Europe in September 2014, the class' flagship vessel (appropriately named USNS Spearhead) got roughed up by some foul weather. Where single-hulled ships can slice through heavy waves, a double-hulled catamaran takes them on the foremost part of its flat underbelly---called the forepeak. Hours slamming through three to five foot waves caused $511,000 of structural damage to the Spearhead's forepeak. That's quite the ding.
The problem was the Spearhead's designers probably weren't thinking about high seas. "I don't know if you need to be considering high sea state for something that is doing a lot of inshore work," says Wayne Perry, spokesperson for the US Navy's Military Sealift Command, which commissioned the vessel. That's fair: Huge waves are rare in the close-to-shore waters where this ship was designed to sail.
Retrofitting and reinforcing the hull added over 1,700 pounds to the Spearhead. The reason that weight wasn't there to begin with has to do with a primary part of the ship's mission---be fast. The Navy is mum on exactly how much these refits shave from the Spearhead's top speed of 35 knots, but they insist it is negligible.
The design flaw is class wide—nine other boats need stronger bows. Luckily, five aren't built yet, so the costs will be minimal. However, the retrofit price was shockingly low (if you're at all familiar with military spending) for the boats already in existence: $310,000, $366,000, and $1.2 million for the second, third, and fourth ships. (That last boat's refit cost was so much higher because the Navy had to make a special appointment at the shipyard.) Number five was just christened (Hooray, USNS Trenton!), and the Navy will probably wait until its regularly scheduled yard visit for the update. And my, is she yar.
1 DISCLOSURE: This author is a former member of the US Navy.
