Sea Power: JHSV centrepiece of Austal's US growth | ADM Apr 2009
Gregor Ferguson Sydney
Western Australian shipbuilder Austal Ships faces several important milestones in 2009: constructor's sea trials of its US Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) contender, Independence, are due to begin next month; and the company is already negotiating a contract with the US Navy to build a sister ship - this should be signed around mid-year.
Meanwhile, detail design for its US Navy Joint High-Speed Vessel (JHSV) is under way and the Production Readiness Review (PRR) is due in the final quarter of this year.
Once completed, this will clear the way for construction of the first of class, and orders for long-lead items for the second and third ships in this 10-ship program; construction of ships 2 and 3 is scheduled to get under way in June next year.
And in the US government's Fiscal Year 2010, which actually begins in October 2009, the US Navy is due to order three more LCSs from either the General Dynamics-led consortium of which Austal is a key member, or the rival consortium led by Lockheed Martin.
The likelihood is that this order, and subsequent ones, will be split between the two designs.
Although last November's JHSV order from the US Navy is the harbinger of the biggest export contract ever won by an Australian prime contractor, Austal's CEO, Bob Browning, told ADM last month the LCS program may eventually overtake it - with a requirement for up 55 LCS ships, even if the US Navy splits its orders between the two competing yards a minority share of the program will still represent a massive build program.
JHSV finer details
The JHSV is a more traditional winner-take-all program and saw three yards vying for the contract.
Remarkably, two of these were Australian - Austal, through its US subsidiary Austal USA; and Tasmanian firm Incat which has built three high-speed catamaran logistics ships which were chartered by the US Navy and Army and evaluated exhaustively around the world over the past eight years or so; Incat was bidding through its New Orleans-based Bollinger/Incat USA joint venture.
The third contender was the UK's Rolls-Royce which offered a more conventional high-speed single hull design.
On 14 November the US Naval Sea Systems Command awarded Austal the US$185 million contract to build the first JHSV, with a further nine planned between 2009 and 2013, with a total program value of US$1.6 billion.
These ships will serve with both the US Navy and Army and US defence procurement regulations will see them built by Austal USA's 1,000-strong workforce in Mobile, Alabama.
The Pentagon's long-range plans currently call for up to 25 JHSVs, 13 for the US Navy and 12 for the US Army.
The ship's design is derived from the 101m high-speed catamaran ferry WestPac Express which the US Marines have chartered for personnel and logistics movements around Okinawa and the western Pacific for the past eight years.
But in detail design it is a closer relation to the 107m and 113m Hawaiian Superferry high-speed catamarans the company is currently building at Mobile.
The smaller of these is already in service, carrying up to 866 passengers and 282 cars, or 28 forty-foot trucks.
The primary difference is the upper superstructure which is designed to operate helicopters up to the H-53 family in size; the superstructure includes a shelter enabling a helicopter up to Seahawk size to be stowed out of the way while another aircraft uses the flight deck.
The ship has a permanent crew of 41 and can accommodate 312 passengers with their vehicles and equipment in the 1,863m2 cargo deck.
The loading ramp and deck are designed for loads and vehicles up to the weight of an M1A1 Abrams main battle tank.
For the JHSV program Austal is teamed with US firm General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, who will design, integrate and test the JHSV's electronic systems, including an open architecture computing infrastructure, internal and external communications, electronic navigation, aviation, and armament systems.
The JHSV has a range of up to 1,200nm at 35kts with a 635 tonne payload; self-deploying with no payload its range is 5,600nm.
It is powered by four 9.1MW MTU diesels driving Wartsila water jets through ZF reduction gearboxes.
The ship is designed to survive through Sea State 7 with significant wave heights of 6-9 metres; it uses an active motion control system to smooth out the ride for its crew and passengers.
Global interest
Ironically, interest in the JHSV concept from Canberra appears muted at present, despite the RAN having pioneered the use of such a ship, Incat's catamaran ferry HMAS Jervis Bay, during the 1999 East Timor deployment.
For reasons discussed below, the LCS may stand a better chance of winning an RAN order.
The LCS program is poised at a critical transition point with the first ship, Lockheed Martin's monohull design, Freedom, already at sea and the first GD/Austal trimaran design, Independence, due to start her sea trials next month.
At the time of writing, Independence was undergoing the start-up phase prior to putting to sea for the first time.
While the LCS, like other US Navy shipbuilding programs, has come in for close scrutiny in recent times, Austal CEO Bob Browning believes the program is fairly secure.
US lawmakers are putting pressure on the Navy to cut costs on large ship programs such as the DDX-1000 and CG-X, but the LCS will replace much smaller ships such as frigates, minehunters and mine counter-measures vessels in US Navy service.
Nobody has questioned the importance of these capabilities and the versatile LCS layout enables each ship to accommodate a choice of three different modular configurations for specific missions.
These could grow to include some of the offensive and defensive armament and sensors found on larger warships.
The ship also has a flight deck designed to operate two Seahawk-size helicopters.
There have been reports that potential middle eastern customers have expressed an interest in LCS variants equipped with Lockheed Martin's Aegis SPY-1F lightweight air warfare system, so the growth path for the LCS class is wide open.
Browning told ADM last month there has been a great deal of interest in the LCS from around the globe.
The current strategic environment has thrown up plenty of opportunities for such a ship, including missions such as counter-piracy off Somalia.
Browning declined to discuss specific opportunities for the LCS, but told ADM the company is working with prime contractor General Dynamics, almost on a tag-team basis, to identify credible opportunities in different markets around the world.
The sales potential of Austal's trimaran LCS design should increase once Independence has completed her constructor's trials and is handed over to the US Navy in June this year.
Then there should be clear user data on platform performance and handling and a sound basis for assessing its mission potential in a variety of roles.
While it's far too early for the RAN to be canvassing specific options for the replacement of its eight Anzac-class frigates from about 2020 onwards, a proven multi-role design that's capable of handling specialist roles such as mine and anti-submarine warfare as well as more general surface combatant duties may be attractive.
It wouldn't be hard to imagine a future RAN force structure based on a mix of smaller LCS-type ships able to perform ASW and minehunting tasks, and larger, conventional Aegis destroyers or frigates.
Australian possibilities
It's moot whether or not the JHSV enjoys the same prospects in Australia.
The RAN surface fleet will never be large; whereas the JHSV has a clear role in the US Navy and Army alongside much larger amphibious transport and command platforms, the much smaller RAN may find it harder to justify acquiring a fleet of relatively small logistics platforms to operate alongside its new 27,000 tonne LHDs.
Proponents of a JHSV-type solution for the RAN would need to argue a case built on the strengths of the JHSV design - speed and the self-protection and productivity benefits this confers, and its ability to operate in shallow-draft environments.
As an indicator of its operational potential, WestPac Express can carry up to 950 Marines and 550 tonnes of vehicles and equipment, achieving in one voyage what would normally require 250 cargo and troop-carrying flights.
Similarly, the Incat-design HSV-2 Swift demonstrated the same intra-theatre lift capacity as 17 C-17 Globemaster III sorties; during the Hurricane Katrina relief effort in 2005 the Swift made repeated 12-hour passages along the Gulf coast from Pensacola to New Orleans; trucks covering the same route on damaged roads were taking 48 hours to get through.
Cost matters, too: at US$160 million each (indeed, the later ships will be substantially cheaper than this) the JHSV represents remarkably good value for money.
The strengths of Austal's LCS and JHSV designs derive from the company's huge experience of the commercial high-speed ferry market and Australia's mastery of high-speed multi-hull design and aluminium construction.
They represent a highly successful military adaptation of the company's Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) technology base.
The fate of ASC
Austal's Bob Browning acknowledged this in an interview with ADM last month, prior to the Federal government's cancellation of the planned sale of submarine builder ASC Pty Ltd in Adelaide.
Austal has long been considered a contender to buy some or all of ASC, with or without a partner of some sort.
Browning acknowledged to ADM that market conditions are currently ‘tight' and so the cancellation probably came as no great surprise.
However, if the sale process is revived any time soon (three to five years, perhaps?) Austal is likely to face the same exquisite dilemma then that it faces today: finding a capability partner who understands sensor and weapons integration and the needs of the Australian military customer, and who is welcomed by both the Commonwealth and the US Navy.
General Dynamics, which is Austal's partner on the JHSV and LCS programs, and which is the Commonwealth's capability partner of choice on both the AWD and Collins through-life support programs, would be a logical choice of partner for Austal, but nobody (including Bob Browning) has gone beyond cautiously expressing interest ‘in principle' in buying into ASC, subject always to the terms and conditions the Commonwealth places on the sale.
For the time being the question is academic; and by the time it needs to be addressed once more the contenders and the Commonwealth should have a clearer view of the levels of risk associated with the AWD and future submarine projects, as well as of the technology capability needs of both projects, and the sources of the necessary IP.