Navy Eyes $1 Billion Support Ships To Supply Carrier Strike Groups

Sea Power, Oct 2004 by Burgess, Richard R

The U.S. Navy has begun studying operational alternatives for a new class of fast combat support ships (T-AOEs) to keep its carrier strike groups resupplied at sea. The ships will be designed as a sea-basing asset and to sustain the combat effectiveness of the next-generation aircraft carrier.

Unlike the slower supply ships of the Military Sealift Command (MSC), which shuttle supplies from shore stations to ships, an AOE normally steams in company with a battle group, and therefore must be capable of speeds of 26 knots or more. Designed with more survivability features relative to other replenishment ships, an AOE supplies a carrier strike group with munitions, petroleum/oil/lubricants and provisions - fresh, frozen or dry. It delivers supplies underway as ships are alongside, or via helicopter.

The Navy plans to purchase four T-AOE(X) ships during fiscal years 2009 through 2011. The "T" indicates the ships will be operated by the MSC.

Meanwhile, the capabilities of four existing Supply-class T-AOEs are being substantially improved. The ships are operated by smaller crews of civilian mariners under contract to the MSC, with small detachments of Navy personnel. They can stay at sea 270 days a year, almost twice the time they could with all-Navy crews, said Jonathan D. Kaskin, director of Strategic Mobility and Combat Logistics for the Chief of Naval Operations.

Because civilian mariners live permanently on board the ships - which have no homeports - they are not limited by Navy operational and personnel tempo restrictions.

While the cost savings gained by smaller crews are significant, Kaskin said, the "primary savings is in higher productivity."

The MSC will keep carrier strike groups supplied with the help of the current fleet of combat stores ships, ammunition ships and oilers, and by the new Lewis and dark-class dry cargo/ammunition ships (T-AKEs) entering service in 2006. However, Kaskin said the fleet requirement for fuel in the interim might require the activation of at least one Henry J. Kaiser-class fleet oiler from reduced operating status.

The design criteria for the T-AOE(X) will include the Navy's new Fleet Response Plan, which requires that the service be able to surge six carrier strike groups in 30 days and two more in 90 days.

"The fleet is happy with the way AOEs operate," Kaskin said, and the new ships will be functional replacements for the four-ship Sacramento class, which will be retired by 2006. However, the T-AOE(X) vessels will not come cheap: he estimates the price tag as "close to $1 billion" per ship.

The Center for Naval Analyses, under the sponsorship of Kaskin and the deputy assistant secretary for the Navy for ships, Alison Stiller, is conducting an analysis of alternative capabilities for the T-AOE(X) concept. It is to be completed in the spring of 2005. Commander, Fleet Forces Command began a study in August, directed by Director-Analyst Jack Ince, to inform the analysis of alternatives

The T-AOE(X) will be built with a double hull, a practice not required for Navy ships but required by law for commercial liquid tankers. The new ship will be highly automated and include quarters for civilian manners, who require larger, private rooms. Unlike the Supply-class AOEs, the T-AOE(X) will be capable of offloading the entire munitions load of an aircraft camer.

The propulsion system for the ship has not yet been selected, but it will not be a steam plant. Gas-turbine direct drive or electric drive are two possible options.

The shipbuilders most interested in bidding on the T-AOE(X) are the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. (NASSCO) - a San Diego-based unit of General Dynamics - and Northrop Grumman Ship Systems, headquartered in Pascagoula, Miss. Both have built logistics or sealift ships in recent years.

According to a Northrop Grumman official, the T-AOE(X) will be fitted with the Shipboard Warehouse Management System, which uses radio frequency identification to quickly locate and retrieve parts and supplies in the storage areas of the ship.

Stephen S. Clarey, NASSCO's director of marketing and business development, said, "The first phase of the [Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo/ammunition ship design] was devoted to cargo-handling systems to improve the flow of cargo throughout the ship. The systems will fit seamlessly in T-AOE(X).

"We consider the T-AOE(X) one of our market opportunities," he added. NASSCO built the Supply-class AOEs and is now building the first two of six Lewis and Clark-class dry cargo/ammunition ships, with an option to build six more.

Clarey said the T-AOE(X) will be designed largely to commercial specifications and standards, but will feature such non-commercial systems as torpedo countermeasures and shock hardening.

Another design criteria for the T-AOE(X) is to support the higher sortie-generation rates required in the Navy's new aircraft carrier design, CVN 21, Kaskin said. An increased capability of the T-AOE(X) to transfer supplies more rapidly will free the carrier for more flight operations and enable it to sustain the resulting higher consumption rate of aviation fuel and ordnance, he said.