The Patrol Torpedo (PT) Boat of World War II fame has a place in today’s Navy. This is not a nostalgic or romantic notion but a practical solution to a very serious and vexing problem. The current Navy relies on multi-billion-dollar destroyers to contest and gain sea control, but destroyers don’t need to be the first, or only, choice for every mission. The Navy needs an alternative platform, in large numbers and at a much more affordable cost, to contribute to the battle for sea control. A fast attack craft would complement and balance the current fleet of capital ships, and the PT boat is a proven model.
The PT boat is a combat-tested platform. PT boat action during World War II is well documented in history books and popularized in movies. Serving in multiple theaters, PT boats effectively and consistently challenged their adversaries. These fast ships, manned by courageous sailors, fought magnificently against long odds. PT boats were able to challenge much larger capital ships, defend merchant shipping, attack convoys, perform scouting and reconnaissance missions, and infiltrate or exfiltrate small units and key leaders from enemy-controlled areas - all in the effort to contest sea control.
The PT boat augmented the capital ship’s capabilities, becoming a force multiplier by adding flexibility and additional fires to fleet operations. This was one of the lessons learned from Guadalcanal (August 1942-February 1943) where the PT boat took over from the destroyer fleet to challenge the Imperial Japanese Navy’s nighttime resupply missions (Tokyo Express) and allowed the U.S. Navy to preserve major warships for the high-end conventional fight. Today a well-armed PT boat flotilla would help establish sea control, reducing the requirement for a destroyer presence and allowing those ships to focus on the high-tech threats for which they were designed, such as anti-ship cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and submarines.
The U.S. Navy needs a platform it can deploy in large numbers and still challenge the full spectrum of an adversary’s navy, from high-end platforms to maritime militia. In preparing to fight a near-peer competitor, the U.S. Navy for years has relied too heavily on its main battle force to carry the fight and win the day. In a war of attrition numbers matter and losing too many capital ships too soon will be catastrophic.
Today’s acquisition and ship building processes are long and bureaucratically challenging. The World War II PT boats built by ELCO, Higgins, and Huckins were wooden power boats. While mass producing PT boats today requires capable manufacturing facilities, they need not be large shipyards used to build our current combatants or support ships. Furthermore, designers and the acquisition community must resist adding excessive capabilities to the new PT boat that lead to cost over-runs and unnecessary configuration management challenges. Keeping the PT boat’s original analog qualities intact is ideal, especially in view of the modern cyber threat.
Today’s PT boat should be outfitted with the traditional array of .50 caliber machine-guns, 40 mm cannons, rockets, mortars, smoke generator, and radar. But the torpedo would be replaced by the modern anti-ship missile, one simple to employ and able to “fire and forget.” Ultimately, as in World War II, experimentation is required to find the right mix of weapons systems to meet modern mission requirements.
The PT boat sailor of World War II was a true warfighter. Like the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, PT boats were built to fight. They were commanded by junior officers and crewed by eight enlisted rates who learned their craft in a short period of time and applied that directly against a peer competitor. These sailors exhibited guts, brains, and daring - timeless qualities valued by the surface fleet in any era. Imagine imbuing a new generation of surface warriors with this fighting spirit as they advance to lead and command larger fleet ships.
Captain Hernandez is a former commanding officer of the USS Patriot (MCM-7), USS Milius (DDG-69), and Mine Countermeasures Squadron Three. He is currently a military professor and chair of the Joint Military Operations Department at the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI.