Howdy All you shipbuilders,

Sorry, I've never posted on the Naval side of the site before, but I came across a photo of a new experimental ship that really impressed me and I felt I had to share it with you guys...
The ship I'm talking about is the Joint Venture HSV-X1 high-speed, wave piercing, sealift Catamaran. It is being tested under the auspices of TACOM. The ship is of an extremely interesting design. I was wondering if you gents had heard of it before (knowing you guys, this is probably old news) and what more you know about it.

Thx in advance,

Tread.

Yes, I sat through a briefing about it at Ft. Eustis last year. It is an Aussie design and will be crewed by a US Army Transportation Corps unit. The vessel's master will be a Chief Warrant Officer. Still being evaluated. I've seen brochures about the civilian version in use up in the northeast (Canada/New England) in its intended use as a car ferry boat.

The Army Logisitician magazine has had several articles about the vessel.

LOL....many thx for the response Rob, I thought the 'ship' guys would be making a better appearance on the subject, but, what the hey.
It sure looked like an exciting ship to this land-lubber! Rob, did they cover in your breifing how it was going to be deployed? Even though it looks to be an exceptionally effective design for high-speed transport of vehicles, it also seems to have a rather large, vertical, silhouette! Perfect for enemy targeting it would seem. Maybe this is designed to arrive once the area is secured and under total control of our forces? That would only make sense, I was just curious what the mucky-mucks thought.

Tread.

I've seen it in person and it's sharp. An old Chief I worked with on my first ship was the first Navigator of it. They spent most of their time ferrying cargo. At 40+ knots, it's very good at it.

Tread, my esteemed colleague above and his buddies control all the blue water. This is to quickly transport Army heavy forces into theater. The port will be secured the vessel would have friendly warships in support.

It is not designed to do any Normandy type operations with fighting for beach heads.

For additional information, go to http://www.soldiersmagazine.com and look for the February 2003 issue. The ship is on the front cover and the article is on page 30. There is to be another called TSV-1X Spearhead but will be considerably larger.