What is an expeditionary sea base ship? What are its comprehensive performance? Please read the relevant explanation
2024-08-10
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Where is the Expeditionary Sea Base Ship heading?
■ Ren Jie Liu Xiao Liu Juan
In February this year, the US Navy commissioned the USS John L. Canley, bringing the number of Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary sea base ships commissioned by the US Navy to four.
So, what is an expeditionary sea base ship? Why did the United States choose to develop and build this ship? What is its overall performance? Please read the relevant interpretation.
The USS John L. Canley expeditionary sea base ship. File photo
Lewis B. Puller Expeditionary Sea Base Ship. File photo
Trying to move military bases to the sea
As the name implies, an expeditionary sea base ship is a ship that can be used as a military base in a distant sea. According to the conception of relevant US parties, this type of ship is mainly used to ensure that its armed forces can fight under conditions of low-intensity military conflicts.
This idea began in 1983. At that time, the US Marine Corps' barracks in Beirut was attacked, resulting in serious casualties. In the complex international context at the time, the US Department of Defense began to discuss the topic of building a mobile sea base. After several changes, the expeditionary sea base ship project began to be implemented.
Simply put, an expeditionary sea base ship is a large ship equipped with the necessary infrastructure that can move a military base "to sea."
Its hull is huge, and it is not only equipped with ammunition depot, fuel depot, repair room, mission planning room, but also a large number of cabins for personnel.
Unlike other ships, it has a huge loading and unloading platform, and some cabins can be merged and split for functional conversion, so it is easier to "switch" into a cargo dock and realize the loading and unloading of large and even super-large cargoes at sea.
The emergence of expeditionary sea base ships means that as long as the conditions are met, expeditionary sea base ships can be deployed to many sea areas, reducing dependence on foreign ports and shore-based logistics bases.
However, the construction standards of this type of ship are not high, and it is usually converted from low-cost civilian ships. This means that although it has a short construction period and is easy to mass produce, its ability to resist damage is not strong.
The U.S. Navy has high expectations for this type of ship, requiring it to provide support for various combat ships to ensure that the latter have the conditions to complete relevant tasks. Therefore, for the U.S. Navy, the Expeditionary Sea Base Ship is a combat support ship that can be used as a maritime transit station.
Developed from an expeditionary transfer dock ship
The U.S. military originally conceived of building an expeditionary transfer dock ship, whose main task is to temporarily store and promptly send a large amount of supplies. These supplies come from large medium-speed roll-on/roll-off supply ships and ammunition transport ships and other pre-positioned ships at sea.
For the materials transported by the above-mentioned pre-positioned ships, the expedition transfer terminal ship can quickly complete the unloading with the help of the ship's professional supporting facilities, and then transfer these equipment and supplies ashore through air-cushion landing craft or other ships.
Two such expeditionary transfer dock ships were built, the first ship being the USS Montford Point and the second being the USS John Glenn, which were delivered in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The expeditionary sea base ship is transformed from this type of expeditionary transfer dock ship.
In 2015, the third expeditionary transfer dock ship, the USS Lewis B. Puller, under construction, underwent a new change. In accordance with the new positioning of the US military, it was converted into an expeditionary sea base ship, becoming the first ship of this class of expeditionary sea base ships and was commissioned in 2017.
Later, the second ship of this class, the USS Hershel Woody Williams, and the third ship, the USS Miguel Keith, were commissioned in 2020 and 2021 respectively. The fourth ship, the USS John L. Canley, was commissioned earlier this year. The fifth ship, the USS Robert Simanek, and the sixth ship, the USS Hector Cabrata, are still under construction.
Some common features of this class of expeditionary sea base ships can be seen on the Lewis B. Puller.
The Lewis B. Puller is a "civilian-to-military" ship. Its hull comes from an Alaska-class tanker, which has a strong structure and can sail in polar ice areas. The ship was launched in 2014, joined the US Auxiliary Fleet in 2017, and was incorporated into the US Navy's combat sequence in August of the same year.
The USS Lewis B. Puller Expeditionary Sea Base is 233 meters long, and subsequent ships of this class are equally large, second only to the Nimitz and Ford aircraft carriers in tonnage.
The maximum speed of this class of ships is 15 knots, and it can travel 17,600 kilometers on a full tank of fuel. The ship is designed with a flight deck, a combat deck and a hangar. There are 4 heavy helicopter landing and take-off platforms on the flight deck. The ship is designed with ammunition depots, ship storage compartments, etc. In addition, the ship can accommodate 300 special forces.
The four expeditionary sea base ships that have been commissioned have improved the U.S. military's material supply capabilities to a certain extent. It is also based on this that the U.S. military has begun to accelerate the construction of other ships of this type.
There are many places where you can use your skills, but you can also easily become a "live target"
In the early days, the U.S. Navy once believed that expeditionary sea base ships should be used first for anti-mine warfare, that is, to act as minesweepers to carry minesweeping and minehunting ships to clear mines and other explosives in the mission area.
The expeditionary sea base ships currently under construction do have this capability. To deal with the threat of mines, this class of ships not only has a hydroacoustic system for detecting mines, mechanical and magnetic mine clearance systems, but can also carry four magnetic minesweepers.
As time goes by, the mission of this class of expeditionary sea base ships has been expanded, and its "places of use" have also increased. In addition to serving as a transfer station for marine materials, the expeditionary sea base ship can also be used as a command ship, for mooring other ships, and as a helicopter landing platform due to its large body. When necessary, it can also carry out humanitarian rescue, disaster relief and other tasks.
But in general, expeditionary sea base ships exist to deploy and use troops and equipment in the world's oceans. Since this class of ships was commissioned, they have become an important part of the US military's military enhancement in key areas of interest.
In July 2017, the first Expeditionary Sea Base ship, the USS Lewis B. Puller, went to the Middle East for its first combat deployment. Since then, the ship has been cruising in the relevant waters of the Middle East for a long time. Since the beginning of this year, as the new round of Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues to heat up, the operations of US Navy combat ships in the region have increased, and the role of the USS Lewis B. Puller has become more prominent.
The second Expeditionary Sea Base ship, the USS Hershel Woody Williams, is deployed at the Souda Bay Naval Base on the Greek island of Crete, mainly to provide support for US Navy ships operating in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. In recent years, as the United States has increasingly paid attention to the African continent, the ship has also frequently appeared in the waters near Africa.
Shortly after the third ship, the Miguel Keith, was commissioned, it was sent to Saipan in the Western Pacific and is now deployed in Okinawa, Japan. The ship has conducted joint exercises with ships of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force many times. In February 2022, it also provided ammunition and other supplies to the maritime formation including the USS Lincoln.
Judging from the actual performance of the expeditionary sea base ship, this type of ship does provide support for the large-scale deployment and flexible deployment of the US military in certain situations. However, the ship's shortcomings are also obvious. After all, the expeditionary sea base ship is built to provide supplies under conditions of low-intensity military conflicts. It is large in size, slow in speed, and has weak self-defense capabilities, making it easy to become a "live target" on the sea. In a highly confrontational combat environment, it needs to be heavily protected in order to survive and play a role at sea.
Or it will also serve as the future "mothership" of unmanned equipment
Judging from the current situation, the manufacturer of this class of ships is still on the road to transform the expeditionary sea base ship. According to the plan, there are many different modification options for the expeditionary sea base ship to meet the new needs of the users.
It is said that the relevant manufacturers have conducted research on the possible usage scenarios of this class of ships in the future, and have put forward some new modification plans in a targeted manner, including building a stern flight deck for unmanned aerial vehicles to fly and additional ship repair capabilities.
Among them, serving as the future "mother ship" of unmanned equipment is one option.
According to the modification plan, in addition to being used to command drones, this class of ships will also be equipped with unmanned submarine compartments and unmanned submarine launch and recovery systems. With these new systems, the expeditionary sea base ship can support the operation of various unmanned equipment, including ultra-large unmanned submarines.
Currently, the Expeditionary Sea Base Ship cannot take off and land F-35B fighters, and can only carry the Marine Corps' V-22 Osprey transport aircraft and CH-53K King Stallion helicopters. Therefore, the modification plan also includes further expanding the ship's capabilities so that it can take off and land multiple types of naval aircraft, including the F-35B.
In addition, the ship will further improve and equip relevant support equipment.
As for how this class of ships will develop in the future and whether it can really play the role of an "expeditionary sea base" as its name suggests, time will give the answer.
(Photo courtesy: Yang Ming)
Source: China Military Network-People's Liberation Army Daily
