THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 18, 1995 TAG: 9510170314
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The Navy's harbor at Little Creek is becoming known as the sea service's ``fast lane'' with the addition of two new Special Warfare Command boats.
It already is the home of the East Coast fleet of nine $10 million Cyclone-class coastal patrol boats - each a four-propeller, 170-foot, 40 mph craft designed for a variety of missions, but reserved for special warfare operations.
Little Creek also is the home of a growing fleet of fast rigid-hull inflatable boats used by Navy SEAL team members for operations close to shore.
Now comes an even faster craft, the first of 10 to be based at Little Creek.
Called ``Mark V'' Special Operations Craft, the first two production models arrived in Hampton Roads recently, flown from New Orleans, where they were built, to Langley Air Force Base in Hampton.
Costing $4 million each and capable of speeds nearing 60 mph, they will be used by SEALs and Special Boat Units for missions such as medium-range insertion and extraction and limited coastal patrol and interdiction.
They are under the overall command of the U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, near Tampa, Fla.
The Mark Vs are 82-foot-long, aluminum-hulled craft driven by twin 2,285-horsepower diesel engines connected to water jets.
With a four-foot navigational draft and a range of more than 500 miles, they were created to carry a crew of five, plus a SEAL platoon of 16 and four combat rubber raiding craft. They can be armed with 7.6 mm and 40 mm weapons, 7.62 Gatling guns, twin 12.7 mm and 25 mm guns, and STINGER anti-aircraft missiles, depending on mission requirements.
The idea for the craft came during Operation Desert Storm, when special warfare command officials found that earlier classes of post Vietnam-era patrol boats could not satisfy modern operational requirements, the Navy said.
``In many cases this craft is more flexible,'' said Gary Helmick, deputy program manager for the Mark V. ``It can go faster and farther than its predecessors and has the capability to be tailored to each mission.''
It is the only craft of similar size in the special boat unit inventory that can fit inside large cargo aircraft, such as a C-5 Galaxy. That gives the command a rapid-response capability to support theater requirements, said Helmick.
The first two boats destined for Little Creek arrived aboard two C-5s at Langley earlier this month. They were taken to Fort Eustis in Newport News for outfitting and are scheduled to arrive at Little Creek later this month.
The special warfare command will eventually receive 18 more of the boats, two for each of 10 detachments, meaning that 10 will be at Little Creek and 10 at the Coronado, Calif., headquarters for the Special Operations Command.
The Mark V is built by Halter Marine Inc. of Gulfport, Miss., at Equitable Shipyards in New Orleans. ILLUSTRATION: U.S. NAVY PHOTO
The Mark V has a crew of five and can carry a SEAL platoon of 16 and
four combat rubber raiding craft. They can be armed with a variety
weapons, depending on the mission.
Graphic
ABOUT THE MARK V
Length 82 feet
Top speed More than 55 mph
Range More than 500 miles
Propulsion Twin 2,285-horsepower diesels
Crew 5; up to 16 passengers
Cost $4 million per vessel
by CNB