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Text Box: NORFOLK — If it’s a new ship the Navy wants, it may not get any better than this.
It’s fast, with a top speed of 53 mph.
It’s cheap, relatively speaking, at $60 million to $100 million – about the cost of two F/A-18 Super Hornet jets.
It took just 10 months to build, a nanosecond in shipbuilders’ schedules.
It takes only 40 folks to operate it, very appealing to a Navy seeking smaller crews. And get this, sailors: It’s aluminum and doesn’t need paint.
Meet the high-speed vessel Swift, a catamaran from Australia that is pitching its versatility and maneuverability to the Navy and the Army.
Flying through the lower Chesapeake Bay and into the slick calm Atlantic on a demonstration run Tuesday, the Swift is being eyed by the Navy as a way to carry 200 to 300 troops, 600 tons of cargo and a helicopter or two through relatively shallow waters.
Its twin hulls piercing the waves, the Swift created enough motion Tuesday to sicken some novice riders aboard, earning it the nickname the “vomit comet.” But the ship made it to the Chesapeake Light 13 miles off shore in 60 minutes; most Navy ships leaving Norfolk’s port take 2½ hours to the light.
Navy equipment, from unmanned helicopters to submersibles and specialized boats, that are being considered for use on the Swift fill the experimental ship’s mission deck on Tuesday, demonstrating the types of gear the Swift can carry.
It’s bridge crew numbers just five or six people, compared to 12 to 15 on most Navy ships. No one mans the engine room. The chief engineer is on the bridge.
“I love it,” Cmdr. Mark Sakaguchi, commanding officer of the Swift, said as he finished docking at the Norfolk Naval Station, without help from a tug.
A chief petty officer, using a joystick to control the craft’s four water jets, maneuvered the 320-foot long ship to the pier without so much as a nudge.
Lookouts using laser-guided range finders, television cameras and radios assured a smooth arrival.
“I think this is everything the Navy is looking for,” Sakaguchi said.
However, he warned that the demands on the crew are high. No one can take vacation or time off during the ship’s time at sea. Nor

Text Box: can the crew be expected to work endless hours, he said.
Petty Officer 1st class Yosef Seals scans the horizon as the HSV 2 Swift cruises at more than 40 knots off Virginia Beach Tuesday. The Swift requires a total crew of 40 and a bridge crew of five or six.
That’s why the Navy is experimenting with rotating two crews to the ship every four months, to allow one to remain ashore for training and rest.
Sakaguchi, commanding officer of one crew based out of Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base in Virginia Beach, will turn over command of the ship in another few weeks to a crew based at Ingleside, Texas, home of the mine warfare group.
While the ship is assigned to Little Creek, the Navy is using the Swift to experiment with everything from SEAL team mini-subs to unmanned helicopters.
The ship’s cavernous 28,000-square-foot mission deck can handle four M1-A1 Abrams battle tanks, a variety of amphibious landing vehicles or a combination of mine-hunting small boats.
Robert Clifford is owner of Incat Tasmania, which has built 61 of the catamarans of various sizes during the past 25 years.
He’s putting together the latest hull design of about 350 feet, which he hopes the Army and Navy like as they decide between the catamaran or a single-hull ship for a littoral combat ship. “I have no idea how many they would order,” Clifford said as he rode the Swift. “There are no requests for proposals.”
The Swift can carry 200 to 300 troops, 600 tons of cargo and a helicopter or two through relatively shallow waters. While assigned to Little Creek, the Navy is using the Swift to experiment with SEAL team mini-subs and unmanned helicopters.
However, industry and military officials who were aboard Tuesday said they expect the Army to be ready within another month to place an order for a dozen of the vessels. The Navy’s decision is expected later.
Clifford’s company has recently joined Bollinger Shipyard Inc. of Lockport, La., which hopes to build the ships in the United States.
The Swift is an offspring of the high speed vessel Joint Venture which the Army, Navy and Marine Corps have used in the past two years. About the same size, the Swift offers better crew comforts, such as a larger galley and dining facility, more troop space, a flight deck and hangar and a loading ramp and heavy lift crane.

Text Box: The Australian-built HSV 2 Swift is being considered by the Navy as a possible solution to its need for a high-speed combat ship. Four diesel engines drive four water jets that give the aluminum-hulled Swift a top speed of 53 mph.

Text Box: "Inner Strength"
°If you can start the day without caffeine or pep pills,
°If you can be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,
°If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles,
°If you can eat the same food everyday and be grateful for it,
°If you can understand when loved ones are too busy to give you time,
°If you can overlook when people take things out on you when, through no fault of yours, something goes wrong,
°If you can take criticism and blame without resentment,
°If you can face the world without lies and deceit,
°If you can conquer tension without medical help,
°If you can relax without liquor,
°If you can sleep without the aid of drugs,
°If you can do all these things.......
°Then You Might Be As Good As The Family Dog.

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