Sea Force A Sea Basing Platform

The need for effective operation from the sea while conducting amphibious operations ashore has never been more evident than in today's modern conflicts. As important as this task is it has not significantly changed since World War I. Sea Force is an attempt to show that sea basing, as discussed by the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) in Sea Power 21, can be accomplished by the year 2020 with reasonable advances in technology. The concept of sea basing implies a number of capabilities that are not inherent in current expeditionary forces, among these are Ship to Objective Maneuver (STOM), indefinite sustainment, selective offload, reconstitution of forces ashore, long range Naval Surface Fire Support (NSFS), and an increased capability in command and control. The Marine Corps has also established the requirement of a 3.0 Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) lift capability that is not currently met by the existing force structure. The Total Ship Systems Engineering Program undertook the task of designing a system of ships that could be brought together to enable the sea basing of one MEB for an indefinite period of time. The Sea Force design completely supports all of the operational requirements of STOM in addition to providing a path for re-supply and a method for reconstitution of forces ashore. Sea Force also is designed to be reconfigurable from a warship to a supply ship during a shipyard availability period with minimal effort through the use of modularity. The first design analysis was based on combining the capabilities of the MPF, LMSR, and LHA ships into a single hull one-ship-does-all concept. The second design analysis was based on an MPF/LMSR variant with a separate LHA design. The third design analysis, the LHA/MPF with LMSR design, combines two ships on similar hull forms but with different structural requirements, layouts, and missions. (53 tables, 85 figures, 11 appendixes.)