Feature 6 | SMALL NAVAL/PARAMILITARY CRAFT
Gladding-Hearn delivers screening escort vessels
In 2011 the US Navy inducted the last of a total of 12, 64ſt screening escort vessels built by Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding in Massachusetts into Maritime Force Protection Units (MFPUs) based at the ballistic missile submarine bases in Kings Bay, Georgia and Bangor, Washington.
SPC-SV fitted with a 0.50 calibre ROSAM. The recessed rescue platform can be clearly seen.
T
he MFPUs provide
security
for the US Navy’s fleet ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) as
they transit into and out of homeports at Kings Bay, Georgia and Kitsap, Bangor, near Seattle on the West Coast. Tey are a unique, single-mission unit that has specially trained and equipped Coast Guard personnel to man and operate the boats, known as Special Purpose Craſt - Screening Vessels (SPC-SV). Although the US Coast Guard (USCG) operates the SPC-SV, the US Navy owns and maintains the boats. The US Coast Guard’s involvement
came about because legal limitations allow the Coast Guard – but not other forces – to have law enforcement powers in US waters. Coast Guard personnel have broad law enforcement roles, including the authority to establish, patrol, and
Warship Technology January 2012
enforce exclusionary zones, naval vessel protective zones, restricted navigation areas, and security zones supporting naval operations. Te first MFPU was commissioned in
Kings Bay on 24 July 2007 followed by the second unit at Bangor on 26 July 2007. Te MFPU are thought to comprise around 200 personnel as well as two 87ſt cutters, several 64ſt SPC-SVs, other smaller boats as well as chartered, civilian manned offshore supply vessels on contract to the Military Sealift Command. MPFU Bangor typically escorts each transiting submarine with two Hornbeck Offshore OSVs fitted with Mk 38 machineguns and an embarked Coast Guard Security Force along with 87ſt cutters and 64ſt SPC-SV patrol boats that maintain a 1000 yard exclusion zone around submarines. Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding was
awarded the contract to build the SPC-SVs by the US General Services Administration (GSA) without the need to qualify as a Department of Defense contractor. Having to do so would be an expensive proposition for smaller businesses because of demanding documentation and paperwork requirements. According to the GSA’s website, the unit cost of the patrol vessels is US$1.575 million, although the contract price of a fully equipped SPC-SV was US$3.8 million.
Early delivery Deliveries were slated to take place from May 2009 through April 2011 at 60-day intervals, although Gladding-Hearn delivered all 12 craſt in 18 months, having delivered the last boat by January 2011 – some three months ahead of schedule.
25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36