FEATURE ARTICLE

February 2005

EFFORTS TO DEPLOY SEA BASES COULD DRAW LESSONS FROM SPECIAL WARFARE

by Roxana Tiron

As the U.S. military attempts to develop the technology and doctrine that will allow it to launch and sustain missions solely from the sea, special operations forces have been carrying out such operations on a smaller scale for more than two decades, according to a top Navy official.

Navy sea, air and land teams (SEALs) together with Army and Air Force special operators have been practicing a form of what officials now call “sea basing” since the 1980 Iran-Iraq war, when two oil platforms in the Arabian Gulf were converted to sea bases, said Rear Adm. Joseph Maguire, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command. Additional Navy boats and helicopters from the Army 160th Aviation Regiment were used, and the platforms were outfitted with command -and-control cells, he said.

As the military services continue to work out the kinks of conducting joint operations and figure out each service’s role in sea basing, Maguire contends that special operations are “inherently joint,” and could offer some insights.

Connectivity is essential in carrying out joint missions from a sea-base, he told National Defense. It is the one requirement that still gives the Special Operations Command some headaches. “Even if you think you are joint, you still have some [gaps] that exist between the services as far as connectivity of the nets,” he said in an interview in Panama City, Fla. “If we live in a joint environment, we have to be able to talk up and down and across the spectrum with absolutely everybody.”

Special operations forces conducted sea-basing missions during the past three years. For the war in Afghanistan, Navy special warfare based most of the tactical aircraft on the USS Kitty Hawk carrier, he said. “We kept a small contingent of F/A-18s, and we put on board our 160th Aviation regiment, our AFSOC [Air Force Special Operations Command] MH-53 Pave Lows heavy lift penetrators, as well as Army and Navy special operator contingents,” Maguire said. The distance from the carrier to Afghanistan was conquered with the help of multiple mid-air refuelings, he added.

In Iraq, the special operators made use of the Joint Venture catamaran—known as a high-speed vessel—to guard oil platforms in the Persian Gulf and ferry supplies from Bahrain, he said. As part of their mission, commandos “conducted 133 ship boardings, and we also discovered two mine-laying ships, and were able to destroy those as well,” he said.

Based on the success of the Joint Venture—leased by the U.S. Army—Adm. Thomas Fargo, the head of the U.S. Pacific Command, asked Army Gen. Bryan Brown, head of the U.S. Special Operations Command, to come up with a platform that would be suitable to fight in the Pacific, Maguire said.

That discussion resulted in the Special Operations Command leasing the Joint Venture and deploying it in the Pacific Ocean, he said. “I wanted a platform that was responsive and robust,” Maguire explained. “But one thing that was instrumental was that we absolutely had to have aviation with the platform.”

The Army indicated it was not going to extend the lease for the Joint Venture, made in Australia, for 2005-2006. “I had an opportunity to get this platform. As you know, there is some sensitivity about leasing vessels that are foreign-made.” However, SOCOM worked with Congress and the Defense Department, and was able to continue the existing contract with the Army, and lease the vessel for this year and possibly for 2006, explained Maguire.

If SOCOM is satisfied with the ship’s performance, it may stand up a high-speed vessel program for U.S.-made ships, he said.

The Joint Venture, made by Australian shipbuilder Incat, now is undergoing $15 million to $20 million worth of upgrades in Hobart, Tasmania, to enable it to perform special operations missions.

“I am putting in a very robust command-and-control package in that,” Maguire noted. “I am changing the stern. Right now, it has a very humble way of launching boats. It is just a monorail that is able to launch small boats.”

The modifications will include a launch and recovery ramp at the stern for 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boats, “so that we are able to recover all the RHIBs from that in a very timely fashion,” he said. The flight deck will be certified for nighttime flight operations and the vessel will have more aviation support capabilities. “There are going to be tactical aircraft on board and other craft, so I am modifying the ship so it is able to support aviation,” he said.

A cryptology support detachment also will be on board, he added.

The high-speed vessel will have a crew of 30 sailors, who already have gone to Fort Eustis, Va., for training, he said. Army personnel also will be on the ship. “We will have 16 U.S. Army soldiers ... through the Transportation Command, and they will be manning the ship with us,” he said.

Also included will be an additional five commissioned officers, two counter-mine officers, and, most importantly, a supply corps officer, said Maguire. “This will be a rather challenging logistics support, operating in the area,” he said. Logistics support for the ship will be problematic. “We will have some special forces on board from time to time and Army aviation,” he said. “It is an emerging requirement for logistics.”

Apart from adding the command and control suite, SOCOM will try to integrate a maritime unmanned aerial vehicle, called Neptune, said Maguire. “Launching UAVs from the sea is not so much a problem, but recovering them is somewhat challenging.”

The Joint Venture will be operated by U.S. SOCOM-Pacific, in Hawaii, Maguire said. The vessel was supposed to be moved to Hawaii in December to outfit it with the technology that is “too sensitive for us to install in a foreign country.” The craft eventually will travel to Singapore to conduct experiments and annual exercises and to “establish our presence in theater,” said Maguire.

While the vessel is “humble” at 313 feet in length, it can reach a speed of 45 knots, which sold it to special operators, he said. “We have to maneuver out there, and speed really counts. What we are going to do is put it out there and prove the concept, see if this works.”

The Naval Special Warfare Command plans to build on this experiment. Toward the end of last year, the command experimented with submarines as launching pads for certain missions. The exercise involved three submarines, multiple surface ships, UAVs, unmanned underwater vehicles, SEALs and SOCOM-Pacific.

“The goal of this exercise was to use the connection we established for joint power projection,” he said. Ultimately, employing submarines in sensitive missions was meant to show how the missile-carrying SSGN submarines contribute to naval special warfare, Maguire explained. The SSGN program is designed to convert four ballistic-missile Ohio-class boats into cruise-missile submarines with added features for special operations forces. They will be able to carry two advanced seal-delivery vehicles (ASDS) or two legacy seal delivery vehicles, or a combination of both, he said. “The SSGN will be a sea base.”

Naval Special Warfare has been working in conjunction with the Navy on the SSGN program to highlight its importance for the special operators. “We have work that has been successful for some time,” he asserted.

With the SSGN, the SEALs would be able to stay at sea for extended periods and the ASDS can shuttle forces to and from the platform or into other areas. However, he added, there are certain vulnerabilities that come up with the use of submarines that need to be countered. One of those is the threat of diesel-electric submarines. Diesel-electric boats, although relatively low-tech, can operate covertly in coastal areas or in the vicinity of U.S. floating bases, possibly blocking U.S. access to combat zones and making U.S. vessels vulnerable to torpedo attacks, officials cautioned.

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