Part 1: LUSV as a Deep Strike Platform
The United States Navy’s future build of the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) opens up new possibilities for add-on modular armament options and specialized roles that no other U.S. Navy warship can perform. Granted, the LUSV is not a truly designed combat warship in the strategic and tactical sense, but through the Author’s speculative concept imagination and innovation, the LUSV’s long open cargo deck can provide the U.S. Navy with LUSV role possibilities unseen of, unheard of, and unfit for any other U.S. naval warship, manned or unmanned. Naval News will explore in four parts possible future roles and armament options for: Part 1: LUSV as a Deep Strike Platform, Part 2: LUSV as an Anti-Air and Anti-Ship Platform, Part 3: LUSV as a Vehicle Transport or an Aviation Platform, and Part 4: LUSV as a Specialized Roles or a Fighting Vehicles Platform. These LUSV concepts are based on factual data and Open Source Intelligence information combined with predicated requirements that the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps might need to meet their global demands in the open seas and in the littoral regions.
The U.S. Defense Department has released a short Twitter video showing the U.S. Navy’s large unmanned surface vessel (LUSV) USV Ranger firing a Standard SM-6 surface-to-air missile in a test. This test firing validates three points: First, it proves that the unmanned LUSVs can be armed. Second, it proves that the U.S. Navy can pack (four) Vertical Launch System (VLS) cells into a standard ISO commercial shipping container for concealment, disguise, and distributed firepower. And third, it proves that the U.S. Navy is going ahead with making the LUSV the “Adjunct Magazine” for the Fleet.
TheWarZone has published an informative and in-depth article on the large unmanned surface vessel USV Ranger firing a SM-6 surface-to-air missile as a test. That article explains the shipping container launcher, the USV Ranger, the Standard SM-6’s purpose, and why this test is important to the U.S. Navy.
Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Ordnance Technology Consortium (DOTC) has a webpage showing the funding for the MK41 VLS to fit, transport, and store inside an ISO shipping storage container under the August 2021 contract awards.
In addition, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) provided a rough estimate of the FY2022 funding costs and the 30-year shipbuilding number goals for both manned and unmanned surface vessels that can shape the U.S. Navy’s Future Force and the future VLS cell count.
The short video doesn’t show who and what acts as the SM-6’s fire-control sensor, a Medium Unmanned Surface Vessel (MUSV), or an Unmanned Aerial System (UAS), or an orbiting satellite, or a manned platform, be it a warship or a warplane.
Published stories already exist on the web that explains the Twitter video, Standard missile performance specifications, and the U.S. Navy’s unmanned ships and systems. Based on Open- Source Intelligence (OSINT) gathered from various blogs, photos, and websites, Naval News will speculatively examine what possible future armament and role options suit the LUSV with specific focus on how and why these suggestive options benefit the overall tactical picture for Distributed Maritime Operations, Distributed Lethality, and to increase the “Ship and VLS Count” for the U.S. Navy.
These four-part “What Future Roles and Armament Options for the U.S. Navy’s LUSVs?” opinion-editorials for Naval News are written in sequence and should be read in that order for better understanding and referring back to the examples provided.
Part 1: LUSV as a Deep Strike Platform
For purely hypothetical and speculative analysis discussion purposes, Naval News will explore the possibility of other armed and functional roles for the Large Unmanned Surface Vessel (LUSV) according to the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps current and future desires, challenges, and to counter peer nations’ threats. The author is not an Engineer or a navy ship designer so this story is a work of plausible naval fiction based on a real vessel, the LUSV (the LUSV isn’t actually fielded in numbers and armed yet), and real armament options.
The USV Ranger has a bridge with pilothouse windows equipped with windshield wipers for allowing sailors inside to see. Thus, USV Ranger can be optionally manned or unmanned and it is not known if the USV Ranger was crewed to sail out on this SM-6 test-firing.
“The [U.S.] Navy wants LUSVs to be capable of operating with human operators in the loop, or semi-autonomously (with human operators on the loop), or fully autonomously, and to be capable of operating either independently or in conjunction with manned surface combatants.”
Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on “[U.S.] Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress” Updated August 2, 2021
Naval News reached out to the U.S. Navy for more information on the performance specifications of the LUSV such as endurance, speed and range. The Navy spokesperson replied stating that the LUSV’s information that the U.S. Navy wants to make public is already posted online, citing that LUSV’s speed and range are Classified although open sources state that the LUSV’s range is estimated to be 3,500 nautical miles (4,000 miles or 6,500 kilometers). This range number isn’t particularly fixed as the size and shape of the Navy’s future build LUSVs have yet to be determined, and can fluctuate to accommodate more onboard fuel for longer ranges. This is important because in the private sector, commercial ships bearing very similar designs to the Navy’s LUSV are built in various shapes, sizes, and lengths, thus affecting their performance specifications.
“The [U.S.] Navy envisions LUSVs as being 200 feet to 300 feet in length and having full load displacements of 1,000 tons to 2,000 tons, which would make them the size of a corvette (i.e., a ship larger than a patrol craft and smaller than a frigate).”
Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on “[U.S.] Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress” Updated August 2, 2021
The U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines might finally realize that the recent maturity in robotics, automation, the true marrying of software and hardware, and the teaming of manned and unmanned systems can create a lethal, powerful, and useful combination aboard LUSVs adopted and modified for multiple mission roles in the future.
These LUSV concepts might prove very handy and flexible to the Combat Commander as no other U.S. Navy warship can transport and feature the roles and capabilities that the LUSV can, and with these Naval News’ described hypothetical LUSV roles, the LUSV can be more than just the “Adjunct Magazine Shooter” as the Navy first envisioned.
OSINT websites indicate that the LUSV can have performance characteristics similar to the Fast Support Vessel (FSV). The FSV looks very similar to the USV Nomad so let’s assume that the LUSV is a militarized FSV for this Op-Ed even though Seacor Marine® (selected hypothetical example) wasn’t selected for the six U.S. Navy LUSV contracts as shown here. For the sake of this Op-Ed, we’ll use a Seacor Marine’s Amy Clemons McCall® LUSV as an example such as this one. The Amy Clemons McCall® is 202 feet long (within the U.S. Navy’s LUSV’s 200 to 300-feet dimensions, but falls well short of the 1,000 to 2,000-ton displacement at 529 U.S. tons (479,901 kilograms), meaning that the LUSV will be longer and much heavier). Nonetheless, it is the open cargo deck that is the focus of this Op-Ed and the Amy Clemons McCall® example has an open cargo deck of 132 feet (40 meters) long and 26.9 feet (8.2 meters) wide and carries 400 tons. Note that Searcor Marine® FSV models come in many sizes and speeds so the U.S. Navy can select to build LUSVs of multiple sizes to suit their requirements and that the Amy Clemons McCall® is not a military vessel.
With speeds of about 32 knots, the Seacor Marine® FSV Amy Clemons McCall® (hypothetical selected LUSV example in this Op-Ed) can sail into the theater of operation at a much faster speed than the toted 14 knot (16.1 mph; 25.9 km/h) minimum speed for the Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) that the U.S. Navy wants to build for the U.S. Marine Corps, and still keep up with the U.S. Navy’s Carrier Strike Group and capital warships. Note that Seacor Marine® also makes a FSV that can achieve speeds greater than 38 knots, meaning speeds comparable to the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS sails at around 44 knots or 51 mph; 81 km/h) and the Expeditionary Fast Transport (EFT ferry sails at 43 knots (or 49 mph; 80 km/h).
First off, readers should note the photos in this story, paying particular attention to the photo of the USV Ranger with the empty rear deck sailing next to the USV Nomad, and the photo below with the white SM-6 four-cell ISO shipping container.
How Many VLS Shipping Containers Can a LUSV Transport?
This photo of the LUSV Ranger above shows one white shipping container at the stern and a mixture of smaller shipping containers amidships. One can assume those smaller shipping containers house the firing controls, power generator, command center, radar, and associated support equipment for the SM-6 test. On photographic analysis, one can assume that the rear of the LUSV can accommodate three white VLS containers in-line (3 x 4 MK41VLS cells = 12 missiles in a row), and this seems true as the FSV has a width of 27 feet (8.2 meters) and a standard ISO shipping cargo container width is 8 feet (2.4 meters) so 8 feet per ISO cargo container width x 3 containers = 24 feet with about three feet to spare for mounting racks.
TheWarZone article shows that the VLS cells are MK41 standard, able to fire 1,500+ kilometer (932+ miles) Tomahawk subsonic cruise missiles, Anti-Submarine Rockets (ASROC) carrying a small homing torpedo, Anti-Air, Anti-Ship/Surface, Anti-Ballistic Missile Standard missiles, and Anti-Air and Anti-Missile Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles (ESSM) in addition to any future missiles that can fit inside these cells.
This MK41 VLS configuration, with or without shipping containers, can benefit the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps in Long-Range Precision Fires (LRPF) against distant targets and for naval strategic and surgical strike purposes.
Assuming that the immediate space behind the LUSV Ranger’s pilothouse is occupied by the smaller shipping containers for MK41 VLS’s firing controls and power generation, the USV Ranger’s stern photo might allow another row of VLS shipping containers amidships for anywhere from 16-24 Mark 41 VLS cells in horizontal shipping containers that can raise and fire missiles. This doesn’t factor in that the same MK41 VLS cells that can be positioned on the deck vertically without any ISO shipping container housing such as those inside AEGIS warships.
The Mark 41 VLS cells can hypothetically be positioned all vertically on the LUSV’s deck (such as those on U.S. Navy AEGIS warships) as shown on this test trailer test-firing a Maritime Tomahawk for the U.S. Marine Corps (see photo below). Such a vertical VLS cell configuration would affect concealment, stealth, and ship profile in addition to possibly affecting center-of-gravity, seakeeping, pilothouse line-of-sight, and LUSV’s sailing performance, but it would greatly increase the number of VLS cells carried because of the smaller footprint (possibly the 64 VLS tubes that the U.S. Navy first mentioned in the Congressional Research Service’s August 2, 2021 statement).
However, the U.S. Navy seems to prefer the horizontal VLS layout where the cells are raised out of the ISO shipping container.
“The Navy wants LUSVs to be low-cost, high-endurance, reconfigurable ships based on commercial ship designs, with ample capacity for carrying various modular payloads—particularly anti-surface warfare (ASuW) and strike payloads, meaning principally anti-ship and land-attack missiles. Although the Navy testified in June 2021 that each LUSV is to have 64 vertical launch system (VLS) missile-launching tubes, the Navy subsequently said this was a misstatement, and that the correct figure is 16 to 32 VLS cells.”
Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on “[U.S.] Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress” Updated August 2, 2021
Note that 32 VLS cells could be possible because the U.S. Navy wants a LUSV that is 200-300 feet long and the example 202-feet FSV Amy Clemons McCall’s® cargo deck is 132 feet long. U.S. Navy LUSVs can be built longer than 202 feet to transport more ISO shipping containers for more than 32 VLS missile tubes in ISO shipping containers. For the sake of speculative discussion, 16-24 VLS cells seems about correct for the USV Ranger’s estimated length based on photo analysis for the ISO container at the stern if duplicated on the Ranger’s stern and amidships. That would still leave some deck space behind the pilothouse for additional shorter modules for VLS cell power, computers, electronics, maintenance, datalinking, and command and control.
Regardless of the VLS transportation configuration that the U.S. Navy ultimately decides upon, the test-firing of the Standard SM-6 missile proves that the U.S. Navy is addressing a crucial need in having to replace and provide VLS cells for Distributed Maritime Operations and Distributed Lethality with the retirement of older AEGIS radar-equipped warships and their banks of VLS cells.
Mark Cancian, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) expert on military forces and operations, offered his insight on using the LUSV as an “Adjunct Magazine” to Naval News:
“LUSVs could operate as an `Adjunct Magazine’ and provide the swarming tactics that some naval strategists envision. There is a lot of development and experimentation that would have to happen before that were possible. However, the Navy is just beginning that work.”
LUSV as Hypersonic Missile Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL) Transport
The U.S. Navy’s LUSV can transport 40-foot ISO shipping containers of the U.S. Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW with 1,725 miles/2,775 kilometers range at Mach 5+ speeds) on modified Army M870A3 trailers acting as a Transporter Erector Launcher.
According to the U.S. Army graphic, two LRHWs can fit on a modified M870A3 trailer and the 6×6 FMTV Battery Operations Center (BOC) can also come aboard. Chances are that the TELs won’t be driven off the LUSV onto shorelines because the LUSV can’t beach itself, but if required for sea-to-shore transport, the Army M983A4 tractor is 34 feet (10.4 meters) long and 8.6 feet (2.6 meters) wide and the M870A3 is 45.5 feet long. The Navy’s LCAC and SSC hovercrafts have a cargo deck length of 67 feet so the approximately 80-foot LRHW TEL tractor and trailer combination won’t fit on a Navy hovercraft. (The LHRW TEL tractor and trailer combination will fit inside a 200-400 feet Light Amphibious Warship deck for direct shoreline offloading).
For LUSV launch, in theory, three 8.6-foot wide and 45.5-foot long M870 TELs can fit across the LUSV’s stern and three trailer TELs amidships for 12 LRHWs and the FMTV BOC and TEL power modules behind the pilothouse, or 6 LRHWs TEL trailers with three Army M983A4 tractors for dockside offloading.
The following specifications on the M870A3 Semi-trailer shows that such a LUSV with M870A3 TELs carrying LRHWs is very plausible. The semi-tractor prime movers can be either U.S. Army or U.S. Marine Corps armored cab tractors. The LUSVs will still retain enough cargo deck space and length for the 6×6 FMTV Battery Operations Center (BOC) and any associated TEL power generation, fire control, datalinking and communications, and safety equipment modules.
M870A3 Semi-trailer Characteristics
| Length | 45 ft 5.3 in (1,385.1cm) |
| Width | 8 ft 6 in (259.2cm) |
| Height Overall | 105 in (266.7cm) |
| Ground Clearance at Axle | 1 ft 2-3/4 in (37.5cm) |
| Fording Depth | 20 in (50.8cm) |
| Weight GCVW | 131,800 lb (59,837kg) |
| Payload | 80,000 lb (36,320kg) |
| Weight Empty | 23,950 lb (10,863kg) |
| Tires | 13 275/70 R22.5 16 ply commercial, On/Off road tread |
| Brakes | Air actuated S-cam, two-shoe, expanding, self-centering with ABS |
| Suspension | Chalmers walking beam |
| Max Speed, Highway, 40-ton Load | 55 mph (88.5 km/h) |
| Max Speed, Secondary/Gravel Roads, 40-ton Load | 30 mph (48.3 km/h) |
For an all-maritime Hypersonic missile force devoid of U.S. Army soldiers aboard the LUSVs, the U.S. Marines can use the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike (CPS) Hypersonic missile if the Marines are willing to fund mounting the CPS Hypersonic missile on M870 TEL trailers with Marine Logistic Vehicle System Replacement tractors to form land-based Long Range Precision Fire Hypersonic units. Due to the financial budgetary constraints of the U.S. Defense Department, and knowing that the U.S. Marines do not have much experience with large land-based Hypersonic missiles, this Naval News author has decided to adhere with using the U.S. Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon as the prime example for this LUSV Hypersonic Deep Strike role.
“The Army’s Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon program is expected to pair the common glide vehicle with the Navy’s booster system. The system is intended to have a range of over 1,725 miles and `provide the Army with a prototype strategic attack weapon system to defeat A2/AD capabilities, suppress adversary Long Range Fires, and engage other high payoff/time sensitive targets.’ The Army is requesting $301 million in RDT&E for the program in FY2022—$500 million under the FY2021 request and $531 million under the FY2021 appropriation. It plans to conduct flight tests for LRHW in FY2022 and FY2023, field an experimental prototype in FY2023, and transition to a program of record in the fourth quarter of FY2024.”
Congressional Research Service (CRS) document on “[U.S.] Navy Large Unmanned Surface and Undersea Vehicles: Background and Issues for Congress” Updated August 2, 2021
LUSVs transporting the U.S. Army’s LRHWs would be a more flexible option besides the U.S. Navy’s Conventional Prompt Strike Hypersonic Missiles aboard just three USS Zumwalt-class destroyers (replacing the 155mm gun turrets) and a limited number of converted nuclear-powered U.S. submarines.
As a high-priority, important, and expensive National Security Strategic Asset, LUSVs with U.S. Army LRHW TELs aboard would need to be protected better from peer nation warships warplanes, submarines, and special forces as they cruise the oceans as a potential joint U.S. Army/U.S. Navy “Show of Force.” Nonetheless, the presence of 12 LRHWs mobile in the open seas is a mighty effective deterrence against any form of aggression as the LUSVs’ presence won’t be as easily known or tracked compared to capital warships. Joint Forces Distributed Maritime Operations and Joint Forces Distributed Lethality maneuvers around the globe can take the LUSVs with LRHWs at speeds comparable to the U.S. Navy’s capital warships. Best of all, the TELs will be right there on-call 24/7 to strike from the Area of Operations’ open seas and not based in the United States that would require time and effort for transportation via military cargo plane or sea transport to the crisis scene to fire the Hypersonic missiles from land. The LUSV greatly increases the tactical flexibility of having Hypersonic (and perhaps Tomahawk cruise) missiles in the general vicinity of any posing threat in addition to increased survivability of having unpredictable maneuvering mobile assets at sea independent of fixed runways and fixed land launching locations that can be targeted by peer nation’s long range tactical ballistic surface strike missiles. Additionally, the U.S. Navy can combine U.S. Army M870 LRHW TELs with Navy ISO shipping containers and provide long-range offensive and defensive missiles for Anti-Air defense using Standard and ESSM missiles and Anti-Surface and Anti-Ship defense using maritime Tomahawk missiles, protecting the vital Hypersonic TEL missiles aboard. Even decoy LRHW TELs and ISO shipping containers can be staged as an effective deterrent to keep the adversary guessing on if the LUSV is strategically armed or not with Hypersonic missiles and the exact number carried aboard.
Crew and equipment safety issues such as providing life vests and life rafts for the U.S. Army TEL soldiers and having water and foam sprinklers and firefighting crash trucks in the event of a catastrophic LRHW rocket motor malfunction will have to be factored in. Fortunately, the LUSV design specifications should have adequate berthing aboard for the U.S. Army soldiers, Navy sailors, and Marines to cruise around the seas for several weeks tour if the U.S. Department of Defense opts to have Hypersonic missiles aboard LUSVs.
Naval News’ Author Comments will explore some further LUSV role and armament options in the following Opinion-Editorials Parts 2-4.
