More LANTFLT Underway Data

A while back, we had a quick look at the underway hours for LANTFLT courtesy of a small avian. Here is some more data from the same helpful source to give us a sense of trends - we have some aggregate class underway hours data for the same classes of ships for LANTFLT 2005-2008, now, and (for comparison) some PACFLT data for 2008. I'm sorry for the image; blogger still doesn't like tables, and thus table images are much saner to look at (if not so good for page layout). Click on the tables to get a full-size version that's easier to read.



The most important trend for our arguments from last time is that indeed we see hull hours creeping upwards.

The LSDs move from 2295 hrs in 2005, steadily up to 3454 hours in 2008. Although the LSD force took a 1-hull bump to 7 in 2006, one of those hulls had a mere 540 or so underway hours...meaning that the average is somewhat misleadingly low for the class that year. The LANTFLT LHA force seems to be dropping in terms of hours, but it's also gone from a 2-ship to 1-ship force. Looking at its numbers, it seems to be maximally committed for a single hull.

ASuW hull hours go up also - CG hull averages rise as the force size drops. DDG hull hours rise as the force size increases, indicating both higher workload and transfer of tasking from the remnants of the DD force, 3 hulls which go offline in the 2006 timeframe and aren't captured here. FFG workload goes up for an unchanging force size.

Amphib hulls are in high demand on both oceans, looking at 2008. Mine Countermeasures are relatively flat, which is interesting given that the entire modern MHC class was stricken and disposed of in 2006-2007 (12 hulls) which indicates that either they weren't being tasked at all near their end of life, or that demands for mine countermeasure time are not being driven by external conditions but by fleet training and testing needs.

We can be fairly sure, looking at even these rudimentary numbers, that shipbuilding plans which emphasize fewer and more capable hulls will swiftly run up against combatant commanders' demands for additional hulls to perform tasking. The fact that the more versatile DDGs see their underway hours increasing as they replace less-versatile DD hulls is an indication that versatility is not a good measure for ship utility - something the LCS proponents will need to keep in mind. As the FFG-7s begin leaving the fleet in large numbers, what will take their place? If the LCS is seen to be capable of doing some or all of their job with the proper mission modules in place, that's fine, but then what will do the other jobs those hulls were meant to do?

Remember, there are only 8760 hours in the year total. Ships showing underway times of 3-4 Khours are running a duty cycle of nearly 1:1 or 0.4-0.5, depending on how you count it. Include in those hours transit times to get on station, which is (for one example) roughly a 14-17 day underway time (336-408 hours) from Norfolk to the Persian Gulf, so 772-816 hours round trip, and we're left with just over 8000 hours available in the year for everything else assuming one round-trip deployment transit. These totals, just like last time, are for hours spent actually underway. Time spent stationary but running generators for hotel load is not included.