High-Speed SEALION is Slated For Transformational Experiments

Sea Power, Oct 2004 by Burgess, Richard R

The U.S. Navy plans to use its stealthy SEALION (SEAL Insertion, Observation, Neutralization) technology demonstration watercraft in future experimentation sponsored by the Department of Defense's Office of Force Transformation. The service also is using lessons learned from its first SEALION to design several enhancements for a second SEALION boat.

The SEALION - which is designed for operational experimentation - will take part in the Office of Force Transformation's WOLFPAC Initiative, a program "to explore the ability to command and control large numbers of geographically dispersed networked assets," said Tom Warring, spokesman for Naval Sea Systems Command's Carderock Division, which is spearheading the SEALION effort.

A SEALION boat will participate "as one such node in this network designed specifically to explore modular, high-speed, high-performance littoral craft and their application beyond the tactical level of war," he said. No date has been released for the experiment.

The SEALION I, delivered in January 2003, is based in the Norfolk, Va., area, where it has been tested by Naval Special Warfare Group Four in the Hampton Roads waterways and the coastal Atlantic area. The 71-foot-long, aluminum-hull, high-speed watercraft is designed to demonstrate new technology in advanced hull forms, human systems engineering and interface, and modular mission packages.

"The design incorporates innovative construction techniques for vessels that will operate in the littoral," Warring said. The boat is capable of operations in harbors and rivers as well.

SEALION II is scheduled for delivery to the Navy by December 2005. The second SEALION, as was the first, is being fabricated by Oregon Iron Works Inc. (OIW), under a $6 million contract from the Carderock Division in Bethesda, Md. No additional SEALION boats are planned.

The SEALION project is intended to refine the Navy's knowledge of advanced hull forms to provide "superior sea keeping capabilities and improved comfort to crew and passengers," said Warring. The pounding endured by special operations forces in other boats in rough water has proven hazardous to their health, according to Navy medical studies. Rough boat rides are blamed for injuries to the skeletal system, including teeth, as well as to internal organs, the studies found.

The SEALION has an enclosed cockpit for the crew and passengers - such as SEALS - that provides a quiet, comfortable environment, and improves the ability of the passengers to perform their duties after a long transit.

Human systems integration (HSI), the ability of personnel to interface with the craft effectively, was "incorporated into every phase of the design," Warring said. The HSI efforts began with a fully surfaced, three-dimensional model of the craft, which was used as the basis for a full-scale plywood mock-up. Experienced boat crews tested different arrangement configurations on the mock-up to ensure operability and maintenance access.

Warring said that solid modeling, utilizing the Solid-Works computer program, was used to design SEALION II. SolidWorks uses solid shapes in three dimensions rather than just the surfaces to provide a more usable, realistic tool for viewing and working with the design.

The SEALION concept is not planned as a replacement for the Mark V Special Operations Craft operated by the Navy. However, some of the technologies demonstrated in the SEALION may prove useful in the development of a follow-on to the Mark V.

As a technology demonstrator, SEALION I is not armed but is designed accept a variety of modular mission payloads and could accept a modular weapons system, according to program officials. SEALION II is being designed to accommodate a short-range strike missile, to demonstrate a modular payload with a precision-strike capability.

Navy officials said "there will be no test firing of the missues from SEALION II nor will the craft be delivered with missiles."

SEALION II will be slightly longer that SEALION I and feature several new capabilities, including a pop-up infrared imaging system built by DRS Technologies (Parsippany, N.J.), as well as a modular mission payload bay. The boat also features the Craft Integrated Electronics Suite, built by Azimuth Inc., a West Virginia-based company specializing in high-technology services. The electronics suite, along with a local area network computer, will enable SEALION II to operate with a two-man crew, instead of the three needed by SEALION I.

The modular aspects of the SEALION have been briefed to the U.S. government's Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) team, Warring said. Some of the technology developed under the SEALION program may be usable by the LCS program or others, he said.

The SEALION was designed by the Combatant Craft Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division.

OIW, with facilities in Clackamas, Ore., and Vancouver, Wash., was chosen to build the SEALION because of its extensive experience in fabricating precise components out of a variety of materials, Warring said.