Page 31: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (October 2002)

NASSCO Delivers USNS Soderman to U.S. Navy

National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of General

Dynamics, delivered USNS Soderman (T-AKR 317) to the U.S. Navy. The Soderman is the eighth and final new construction ship completed by

NASSCO under the U.S. Navy's Strategic Sealift

Program.

The eight newbuilds were completed at NASS-

CO from 1993 to 2002 under the Navy's 20-ship

Strategic Sealift Program. All of the ships were named for U.S. Army Medal of Honor recipients.

The USNS Soderman was named for Private First

Class William A. Soderman, a World War II recip- ient of the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in

Belgium in 1944.

The sealift new construction ships are large, medium-speed, RoRo ships (LMSRs). The ships are assigned to the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift

Command, and are prepositioned to quickly deliv- er U.S. Army tanks, armored personnel carriers, tractor-trailers, and other equipment and supplies to potential areas of conflict around the world. The ships also can provide surge sealift support of remote military actions. Their multi-use capabili- ties make these cargo ships among the most flexi- ble ever built.

The USNS Soderman is 950 ft. (289.5 m), has a beam of 105 ft. (32 m) and displaces approximate- ly 62,000 long tons when fully loaded. The ship has over 390,000 square feet of cargo carrying space. The gas turbine-powered ship will be able to sustain speeds up to 24 knots when fully loaded.

The strategic sealift ships are the largest ships that can fit through the Panama Canal.

NASSCO is building two RoRos for Totem

Ocean Trailer Express and has begun construction of the first of four double-hull tankers for BP. Vort- mann added that NASSCO has also been awarded contracts to build the first three T-AKEs, a new, innovative class of dry cargo ammunition ships that will meet the Navy's logistics needs for the next 40 years.

Family of Ships Employs Spiral Design

The U.S. Navy's Surface Combatant Family of

Ships (SCFOS) will employ a transformational acquisition approach and focuses on developing a ship that can accommodate modular combat sys- tems. The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) combat sys- tems modules will be developed separately from ship construction and will be integrated in an open systems architecture model. Additionally, early

LCS development will heavily leverage pre-exist- ing technologies. By leveraging the existing R&D efforts performed by the Navy and industry and accelerating the timeline for requirement develop- ment and acquisition, LCS will keep delivery times significantly shorter than those of traditional ship programs. To allow LCS to take advantage of and to incorporate emerging technologies, the program will employ a spiral development process.

The Navy's Spiral Development effort for the

SCFOS is being led by Rear Admiral Don Loren, and the Program Executive Office (PEO (S)), Rear

Admiral Charles Hamilton.

As the Deputy Director, Surface Ships in the

Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Loren is the resource sponsor for the U.S. Navy's current and future surface combatants. He is responsible for surface ship warfighting requirements, mainte- nance, repair, modernization, and readiness on the

OPNAV staff. "Spiral development allows progressive fielding of more capable systems and more capability over time as technology matures, says Loren. "It gives us the potential for more rapid fielding of systems," says Loren. "It reduces initial costs and mitigates risk.

According to Loren, the Navy will require "Tech- nology Management Plans" to ensure that technol- ogy insertion is properly planned and managed to avoid excessive ship impacts. "Through the spiral development process, technology gained during the development of one ship, such as DD(X), can also be leveraged for the other members of the family," he says.

Loren says the Navy will also develop a Technol- ogy Insertion Plan for evolving DD(X) and seeding technology to Family of Ships, and evaluate scala- bility of DD(X) to CG(X).

The LCS acquisition approach focuses on devel- oping a ship that can accommodate modular com- bat systems. Combat systems modules and unmanned vehicles will be developed separately from ship construction and will be integrated in an open systems architecture model. "Now with leak detection9 mmu

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