US Navy rolls out X-Craft

The US Navy's newest high tech ship is the X-Craft or Littoral Surface Craft – Experimental. The testbed for the Navy's future ship called LCS (Littoral Combat Ship), They will be testing this ship in the months ahead and find out all the goods and bads, then incorrporate al the goods into the LCS, its said that it will dramaticly reduce the price of the LCS from the intel they gather from her. She will be christen on 2/5/05. and be given her official name "Sea Fighter" (SFS-1).



This ship is deffinatly made for the modern day world, it can do a variety of different tasks, making it multi-role, from getting navy seals to there destination, to taking out subs, launch VTUAV's, it can also launch a rigid hull inflatable boat. It will have a small crew of 26 and have room on deck for 2 helos, its made out of aluminum for weight reasons, and will be able to cruise at 50 knots. It's a good coast hugger, would be good for disaster areas, since it can get close and get there quick and have 2 helicopters for rescue operations when it arrives.

Links:
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US DoD
Hi-res pics of the Sea Fighter

Good find A very interesting ship.

I found this part of interest

" multi-purpose ramp "will allow X-Craft to launch and recover manned and unmanned surface and sub-surface vehicles"

Military Unmanned surface and subsurface vehicles I wish I knew more about these. I have for quite awhile thought robots would be great for underwater military work. No need for air , food or water they could be small and stealthy.

Im pretty sure that boat was primarily developed by the Swedish army.. Could be wrong though. I remember seeing a show about it on Discovery about 8 months ago.

They will be testing this ship in the months ahead and find out all the goods and bads, then incorrporate al the goods into the LCS, its said that it will dramaticly reduce the price of the LCS from the intel they gather from her.

Lets hope so. Nichols Brothers Boatyard, Ive been there. They make VERY Expensive (some would say TOO Expensive) boats. Lets hope the costs don't go to the extremes and get this beautiful ship keelhauled before it even makes it to the fleet.

Phae

Sweet! I'll be glad when they finally manufacture a sample of the stealth aircraft carriers...

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch
Im pretty sure that boat was primarily developed by the Swedish army.. Could be wrong though. I remember seeing a show about it on Discovery about 8 months ago.

No... It was built by the Nichols Brothers Boatyard in Washington.

Your probably thinking of the Swedish made Visby Class corvette, which is a cool ship, but they dont look alike.

ShadowXIX
Military Unmanned surface and subsurface vehicles I wish I knew more about these. I have for quite awhile thought robots would be great for underwater military work. No need for air , food or water they could be small and stealthy.

yeah, i'm sure it will have some unmanned options onboard.
It says it can launch & recover unmanned sub-surface vehicles.
A strong possibility is that it will have a Sea Fox on board, which is a unmanned rigid inflatable that can provide force-protection capabilities for patrolling ships and portside installations.

basically with the Sea fox and a machine gun mounted on all 4 sides of the ship, they are trying to make another USS Cole type of attack impossible.

I used to work at Nichols bros. back in the early 90's.Good to see they got the contract to build these boats.

nice looking craft. 50 knots thats pretty fast for a ship of its size?

Tahlen

Cool, looks like a sea cat ferry...
Though i think it will get up to high speeds with an aluminuim hull.
What happens if it gets shot at though?

Some people on here might like to know it is designed by a british team
www.ngal.co.uk...
www.ngal.co.uk...

DevilWasp
What happens if it gets shot at though?

- The same thing that happens to any ship.

I assuming by shot, you mean missile or torpedo, and a missile would have trouble because i believe its a stealth ship, and I doubt 1 torpedo could sink it.

Originally posted by Murcielago

DevilWasp
What happens if it gets shot at though?

- The same thing that happens to any ship.

I assuming by shot, you mean missile or torpedo, and a missile would have trouble because i believe its a stealth ship, and I doubt 1 torpedo could sink it.

One modern torpedo would at least cripple it, if not sink it outright. Modern warships are not significantly armoured. They work on the principle that to not get hit at all is by far the best option. Hence the major investment in signatures reduction, electronic countermeasures and CIWS.

[edit on 5-2-2005 by paperplane_uk]