Navy’s Giant Expeditionary Ship Program Drives Forward
U.S. NAVY
General Dynamics National Steel & Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) is set to start construction of the third Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB-5), in the Navy’s Expeditionary Transfer Dock (ESD)/
Expeditionary Mobile Base (ESB) program.
NASSCO already has built and delivered the first two ships of the initiative, referred to as ESDs, the USNS Montford Point (ESD-1) and the USNS John Glenn (ESD-2), and one ESB, the USNS Lewis B. Puller (ESB-3). The company started construction of the second ESB, the Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) in August of last year, planned for delivery in 2018. The Montford Point and John Glenn were delivered in May 2013 and March 2014, respectively, and now are in service, operated by the Military Sealift Command (MSC).
The Navy went through extensive analyses and demonstrations of rapid transfer of cargo and vehicles from large logistics roll-on/roll-off vessels to expeditionary platforms to landing craft before moving forward with the mobile landing platform, based on the Alaska-class crude oil tanker. In 2011, the Navy awarded NASSCO contracts for the Montford Point and John Glenn.
The ESDs and ESBs also will be able to conduct counter-piracy, maritime security, and humanitarian relief/disaster assistance and other crisis-response missions.
Last October, the Navy awarded NASSCO a contract valued at $34.5 million for post-shakedown availability of the Lewis B. Puller, delivered in June 2015 as the first ESB following its successful initial operational test and evaluation.
The ESDs and ESBs are 785-feet long with a 164-foot beam and displace 78,000 tons fully loaded. They are powered by a General Electric conversion hybrid diesel-electric propulsion system that will generate 15 knots and a cruising range of 9,500 nautical miles. The ESDs will be crewed by 34 MSC personnel. The ESBs will be manned by 44 MSC civilian mariners, plus about 100 Navy personnel. An additional 150 Navy personnel will embark the ESBs in the aviation or mine-countermeasures detachments.
Tom Wetherald, NASSCO’s director of business development and strategic planning, says that the ships are too large to transit the Panama Canal and cannot be built on traditional inclined ways. Instead, they are built in an in-ground dock that is flooded when the ship is complete.
Although the ESD and ESB designs are similar, according to Wetherald, they are distinctly different ship types. The ESDs, he says, are “piers at sea” that support offloading maritime prepositioning ships.
For loading and offloading cargo, the ESDs “ballast down,” to allow water to flow over the deck so LCACs can ride into a forward loading area. “We like to think of the ESD as an F-150 pickup truck with a 505-foot-long bed that you can put anything in,” Wetherald explains.
NASSCO also is working on ways to enable the ESDs to interface with LCUs and the improved Navy lighterage system used by the Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF), to offload MPF ships.
The ESBs are oriented to support aviation, built with a flight deck, a large hangar, and aircraft operating spots. The Lewis B. Puller originally was designed to support MH-53E helicopters, with two operating spots and a hangar that can accommodate two helos with rotors folded.
Wetherald says the Lewis B. Puller now is going through modifications to increase the number of aircraft operating spots from two to four and enable the ship to support the MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft. Those modifications will be made for the Hershel “Woody” Williams after delivery and built into ESB-5 during construction.
Captain Henry Stevens, U.S. Navy, manager of strategic and theater sealift programs in the Program Executive Office/Ships, said the Lewis B. Puller “demonstrated exceptional capabilities and inherent flexibility” during her ten months of initial operational testing and evaluation. The testing showed off the ship’s underway replenishment fueling system and launch and recovery of rigid hull inflatable boats.
The post-shakedown work for the Puller will focus on modifications to outfit the ship for adaptive military packages to support special operations. The ship then will deploy for service with the Fifth Fleet.