A New Ship in the Yard

Below is the unedited version of my article that appears in the June edition of PropTalk.  Follow this link to see it online (page 47).

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Spend any time on the waters around Annapolis and you’ll likely see one.   A common sight on the Severn River and middle Chesapeake Bay, especially during summer months, the 676-class Yard Patrol (YP) Craft have been serving the seamanship and leadership training needs of the Naval Academy for more than 20 years.  However, a new era began in April as the first craft in the latest class of yard patrol craft, YP 703, was delivered to the Academy, the last stop on her maiden voyage from C&G Boatworks in Mobile, AL.

The 703-class program began nearly 11 years ago with an initial requirement justification submitted by the Naval Academy.  A 2003 requirements document further specified the Academy’s needs and outlined the desired characteristics and capabilities of a new class of yard patrol craft.  Working closely with the Naval Academy over the next several years, PMS 325, an office under the Program Executive Office (PEO) Ships at Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), translated the Academy’s requirements into the technical language needed for an eventual Request for Proposal to industry.

USNA’s requirements were based on the needs of midshipmen training and the shortfalls of the current yard patrol craft.  The current YPs are nearing the end of their service life, and older systems are becoming more difficult and expensive to maintain.  Onboard systems, including navigation, propulsion, and control, do not adequately reflect those currently in use on the Navy’s modern combatants.  The need for mixed gendered berthing was also a consideration.

Frank McCarthey is the program manager at PMS 325 responsible for the new YP.  A former Coast Guard officer and graduate of the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Mr. McCarthey grew up on and around boats and worked in a boatyard before college.  He is as uniquely qualified to manage the new YP program as PMS 325 is to oversee it, whose programs range from small, port security RIB boats to the Navy’s newest at-sea replenishment ships (a $7 billion program), and includes both foreign military sales and academic research vessels.

C&G Boatworks of Mobile, AL was awarded a contract for the first six new yard patrol craft, and construction of all six is underway.  The total contract value is $52.6M, or roughly $8.6M per new YP.  The Naval Academy has a need for 18 total new YPs.  “The overall strategy,” according to a NAVSEA statement, “was to procure a non-combatant multi-mission training vessel of small size and low total ownership cost using commercial-off-the-shelf equipment with a robust steel hull with capabilities beyond the existing YP 676 Class.”  Presented only with general characteristics of the new class, C&G designed a vessel to meet those requirements, and by all accounts they have succeeded.

Only slightly longer and wider than the current version, the new YP has a significantly larger displacement (225 tons vice 173), which is readily apparent in a side-by-side comparison.  Speed, range, and endurance numbers between the two classes are all similar.  The new boats don’t just look more like a modern combatant; they are equipped like one (minus the weapon systems, of course).  They have a state-of-the-art fully integrated bridge system with multi-functional displays for navigation, communication, and engines and systems monitoring.  The modern damage control system is reflective of current fleet designs.  Although the new class can accommodate a larger crew (40 vice 31), the systems are designed to require fewer operators, a trend that is Navy wide.  The Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship, for example, requires a core crew of only 40, compared to an only slightly larger guided missile frigate that has a crew of nearly 300.

The Naval Academy is excited to take delivery of their new YPs, which will be used, according to an Academy spokesperson, “to provide midshipmen with valuable, practical, hands-on training in seamanship, navigation, naval tactics, communications, naval phraseology and standard procedures.”  YP 704 is scheduled for a September delivery, with the remaining four to be delivered in 2011.  And what will become of the current YPs?  “That’s a good question,” says Mr. McCarthey.  There may be interest from other service academies, universities, and foreign navies.  PMS 325 will manage that effort as well.

What impact will the new YPs have on the fleet?  LCDR Dennis Volpe (USNA ’96) has served aboard the USS SPRUANCE and the USS GETTYSBURG, and is scheduled to become the Executive Officer of the USS TAYLOR next spring.  He understands the advantage of a YP training environment more representative of current fleet capabilities.  “The new YP fleet provides future naval officers the opportunity to experience, understand, and experiment with modern shiphandling techniques and procedures that better prepares them for future combined Fleet exercises as well as combat operations at sea.”