News Review: Keel laid for first JHSV | ADM Sep 2010

The US Army and Navy have authenticated the keel for the first US Army Vessel (USAV) Spearhead (JHSV 1) at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, symbolically recognizing the beginning of ship construction.

Spearhead is the first ship to be built as part of the US DoD’s Joint High Speed Vessel program, managed by the Navy’s Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships.

The ship underwent a rigorous production review process prior to the start of construction, where the ship’s design maturity, the availability of materials and components and the shipbuilder’s ability to successfully start fabrication were all closely evaluated.

“Our commitment to fully maturing the design prior to the start of construction has already paid huge dividends,” Captain George Sutton, strategic and theater sealift program manager for PEO Ships said.

“Additionally, the use of proven commercial technologies and the shipbuilder’s improvements to their production processes have paved the way for an already very successful program.”

This commercially designed, non-combatant vessel leverages commercial technology and merges the previous US Army Theater Support Vessel and the US Navy High Speed Connector to decrease costs by taking advantage of the inherent commonality between the existing programs.

The future Spearhead is expected to be delivered to the US Army’s 7th Sustainment Brigade in 2012.

The second ship of the class, the future USN Vigilant, will be delivered to the US Navy the following year.

The vessels will be used for fast intra-theater transportation of troops, military vehicles and equipment for missions ranging from contingency operations and humanitarian assistance, to disaster relief and emerging seabasing concepts in austere port environments.

The ships will be capable of transporting 600 short tons 1,200 nautical miles at an average speed of 35 knots.

They will be capable of operating in shallow-draft ports and waterways, interfacing with roll-on/roll-off discharge facilities and on/off-loading a combat-loaded Abrams Main Battle Tank (M1A2).

Other joint requirements include an aviation flight deck to support day and night air vehicle launch and recovery operations.