Sly Fox Program Mission 9

If it was a submersible too, then I'd be really impressed. At least someone is thinking out of the box.

The unmanned military capabilities of a hybrid hovercraft and ground-effect vehicle are currently being investigated by a team of NSWC Dahlgren engineers and scientists in a ground effect research and development program known as Sly Fox Program Mission 9.

"The goal of Sly Fox Program Mission 9 is to integrate, test and evaluate the hybrid 19XRW vehicle’s utility as a military vehicle, including an unmanned capability," said Dohn Burnett, Sly Fox Program Manager. "This vehicle has great potential to provide very flexible warfighting capability across a broad spectrum of missions. This team of junior engineers and scientists will be exploring the concepts and designs for changing this vehicle from a commercial water craft to a military system."

Potential Navy and Marine Corps applications of the hybrid vehicle were presented to over 30 NSWC Dahlgren personnel before they watched the craft demonstrated in ground-effect mode over the Potomac River Test Range on July 25, 2007.

"A number of potential sponsor organizations have expressed interest in the hybrid craft’s unique characteristics," said Jim Hebert, NSWC Dahlgren lead for development of a militarized version of the vehicle. "Marine Corps Special Forces think it could potentially transport troops directly from ship to objective; members of the Surface Warfare Development Group believe it could address fast attack craft threats; and the Counter Narcotics Terrorism Group expressed interest in its possible use to locate and stop go-fast boats."

Actually it does peek my interest quite a bit, not because of the possibilities but that people are actually open to the concept itself. This type of program is certainly interesting, but how does it handle in high sea states?

Just for imaginations sake, if say a mothership offloaded 20 of these craft , heavily armed, to patrol up and down a hostile coast, how effective would they really be in causing trouble? Are we talking about NSFS here, or is this just a way to sink small boats and cause general mischief in the littoral?

If they are truly fast, can be heavily armed, can be deployed by one or two man crews, and can sustain operations for periods of 12 - 18 hours straight there might be something to this. It would certainly change the way the Navy could blockade a coastline for example, and depending upon the speed, it could be a relatively inexpensive way to provide fire support to MSO teams without always requiring a helicopter.

In the end this is probably another potential mothership concept waiting to be sunk.