D-Day history reminds us that fast motor torpedo boats were the best defense for our invasion fleet. The article reviews extremely fast ocean racing craft now available that could counter Chinese and other inshore threats

1. For Littoral Combat, Think About Cheap Civilian Speedboats At Many
Times The Speed Of Military “Fast” Craft
By William A. Price, Attorney at Law, wprice@growthlaw.com
“If you want an extremely fast speed boat, here’s a fact that will either thrill
or terrify you, depending on your perspective: If you have the money—as in
a little more than $1 million—you can buy one that breaks 200-mph. They
do exist. If you have a little less money, say in the $750,000 range, you can
buy a 160- to 180-mph pleasure boat, not quite a member of the 200-mph
club but still plenty fast in anyone’s book. And there are all kinds not-
exactly-slow, 150-mph boats available in the $300,000 to $750,000 range.”
-- Matt Trulio, Boats.com, 6 September 2012
Fast Attack Craft And The NormandyInvasion
The recent 70th anniversary of D-Day should remind us that the biggest danger the
invasion fleet faced was not German aircraft (few in number), or tanks. It was high
speed “E-Boats”, some of which were based at Le Havre, only 150 km (93 miles,
or 80 knots) away. On April 28, 1944, nine such boats, which were capable of 34-
36 knot top speeds, attacked a landing exercise convoy and sank or damaged three
Landing Ships, Tank, resulting in 198 Navy and 441 Army dead and missing. i On
and before D-Day, Canadian Motor Torpedo Boats under officers like C. Anthony
Law, the war artist, saw violent action outside Le Havre, taking casualties, but
keeping the E-boats inside that harbor. Without the Allied patrols, the Normandy
landings could have had a very different result. ii

2. LargeNumbersOf Attackers Or Defenders And NavalStrategy
The advantages of large numbers of high speed attack boats are significant, in
terms of speed, cost, and distribution of threats. Captain (Ret.) Wayne P. Hughes
Jr. has an article in the June, 2014 Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute that
notes the huge costand vulnerability to attack of US multipurpose ships, like
guided missile destroyers and aircraft carriers. He suggests that “The precision
tracking, targeting, and homing capabilities of modern projectiles have enhanced
the value of small combatants becausethey can distribute offensive power more
widely.” He uses “salvo equations” to calculate that “if you have three times as
many ships as I do, then for parity in fractional losses each of my ships must have
three times the offensive power, three times the defensive power, and three times
the staying power of your ships. Operationally speaking, if you put one of my ships
out of action, I simultaneously lose its offensive power, its defensive power, and
also its staying power value, since my crippled ship is no longer a threat to draw
your fire. Thus, the number of ships in your battle force is the single most
important combat property you can have.”iii

3. The Littoral CombatShip:Expensive, Slow, And Not As NumerousAs WhatIt Is
Supposed To Replace
The US Navy’s primary responseto the threat of swarms of fast attack boats has
been the Littoral Combat Ship. The $400-500 million each projected costof these
has turned out to be comparable to high end naval frigates. Only 20 are on order,
with more orders unlikely. The class was intended to replace 56 vessels: 30 FFG-7
Oliver Hazard Perry Class external link frigates, 14 MCM Avenger Class external
link mine countermeasures vessels, and 12 MHC-51 Osprey Class external link
coastal mine hunters. iv Water jets may push LCS speeds to over 40 knots.v
Commercially Available Speedboats
Such speeds are, as the Boats.comquote that introduces this article indicates, less
than a quarter of those routinely available in civilian speedboats.Two significant
sources have produced the evolution of 150-200 knot or better speeds in boats that
can cover significant ocean distances – the offshore power boat Formula One and
other racing circuits,vi and the international drug trade.
Matt Truilo explained in his Boats.comarticle the cost/speed equation for racing
boats as follows:
“Forexample, a quad-overhead-cam, turbocharged Mercury Racing 1350 engine—
that means 1,350 hp and 1,350 foot-pounds of torque—with its standard M8 drive,
retails for more than $200,000. All of the world’s fastest pleasure boats have twin
engines, so in a power alone you’re looking at $400,000. In case you’re having
trouble doing the math, that’s more than half the price of a $750,000 pleasure boat.
And, how do you make a $750,000 pleasure boat into a $1- to $1.5-million
pleasure boat? Simple. Swap out those twin piston engines for a pair of T-53

4. turbine engines rated at 3,000 hp each. As it happens, that’s also quickest way to
ensure your boat gets in the 200-mph club.” vii
This is the first 50-foot Mystic cat to be powered with Mercury Racing 1350 engines. Photo by
Jay Nichols.
Fast Smuggling Boats
Speedboats have been used for smuggling since the Prohibition era, with more
recent versions a constant in the Caribbean drug trade. They are very hard to detect
with radar unless running across extremely calm seas. viii The English Channel,
another traditional smuggling venue, saw a recent capture of an “eRumor”
inflatable with eight 250 hp. Engines, capable of more than 60 knots, faster than
UK patrol craft.

5. According to the photo source, “This thing belts across the English channel 3 times
per week and was just a blur on the radar of the British Coast Guard.”ix
The Coast Guard Response: Cutters, Fast Boats, And Helicopters
The US CoastGuard has deployed its own fast rigid-hulled inflatable boats (RHIB)
against the drug runners, along with helicopters based on slower CoastGuard
cutters.x The Sentinel class of cutters, which are now in service or under
construction, is designed with a launch ramp for RHIB interceptors.xi Willard
Marine, one of the CoastGuard’s suppliers, offers an RHIB with over 60 knots
high speed.xii The H-65 “Dolphin”, the U.S. CoastGuard’s primary in-service
helicopter, has a top speed of 175 knots, and a range of 290 nautical miles.xiii

6. Sufficiently fast hostile speedboats might therefore be able to outrun patrol
helicopters, even if they could be detected on radar.
Routinely available civilian models are, as we have seen, capable of double or
triple the speed of CoastGuard RHIB’s, and four times that of the US Navy’s
Littoral Combatships. The M-80 and other “high speed”Navy patrol craft now
being tested may get up to 60 knots, but this is still very slow compared to
commercial racing models.xiv
The primary weapon of today’s naval fast attack boats is a guided missile, not a
torpedo. The 83 Houbei class (Type 022) boats now in Chinese navy service carry
a C-803 missile with a 300 km (162 nautical miles, or knots) range.xv If a
speedboatarmed with equivalent missiles can get targeting information sufficient
to put the missile’s homing systems within range of a target, it can “fire and
forget”, and probably escaperetaliation by stealth or by high speed. Helicopters
from a Littoral CombatShip or other units of the fleet, P-3 Orion and other patrol
aircraft, carrier air assets, satellites, and many other sensor sources could provide
such targeting information, in addition to whatever sensors the very small boats
would carry. If different gun and missile packages were wanted for particular
combat areas, different types of speedboats could be built, as was done with motor
torpedo and gunboats in the second World War.xvi
At $1 million per boat, plus $1 million more to cover the costof the missile launch
tube or other weapons installation and a military radar and other sensors suite, you
could buy a lot of 200 mph (180 knot) speedboats forthe $500 million costof a
littoral combat ship. The 20 LCS still on order,xvii or the Joint High Speed vessel
now being tested for special operations use,xviii could serve as a launch base and
tender/repair ship for such US flag speedboats, just like the Sentinel class and other
CoastGuard cutters do for their RHIB’s.

7. At the cost of only two or three littoral combat ships, or a similar number of new
frigates, the Navy could add 500 new $2 million speedboats with a missile
launcher or two to the fleet, and spend the third $500 million equipping whatever
littoral combat ships get built to hoist these fast attack craft on and offboard, store
extra missiles, and keep their 200 knot speedboatsquadrons in good repair.
i . http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq20-1.htm, visited June 6, 2014.
ii . http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo6/no3/images/Jessup-4.jpg, visited June 6, 2014.
iii Hughes, W. “Single-Purpose Warships for the Littorals”, Proceedings Magazine June 2014
Vol. 140/6/1,336, see http://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2014-06/single-purpose-
warships-littorals, visited June 6, 2014.
iv http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/the-usas-new-littoral-combat-ships-updated-01343/,
visited June 6, 2014.
v http://www.gizmag.com/lcs-water-jets/26114/, visited June 6, 2014.
vi http://www.f1h2o.com/, visited June 6, 2014.

8. vii http://features.boats.com/boat-content/2012/09/fast-speed-boats-from-mystic-mti-skater-and-
outerlimits/, visited June 6, 2014.
viii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-fast_boat, visited June 6, 2014.
ix http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/d/drug-boat.htm#.U5KInHJdWgx, visited June 6, 2014.
x Ibid.
xi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentinel_class_cutter, visited June 6, 2014.
xii http://www.willardmarine.com/boats/rigid-inflatable-boats.html, visited June 6, 2014.
xiii http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg7/cg711/h65s.asp, visited June 6, 2014.
xiv http://www.naval-technology.com/projects/m80-stiletto/, visited June 6, 2014.
xv http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-803, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Type_022_missile_boat,
visited June 6, 2014.
xvi
C.A. Law, “White Plumes Astern”, Nimbus Publishing Co. 1986, ISBN-10:0921054270
xvii For the large rear deck available for possible speedboat storage as well as helicopter operations
on Austal type LCS, see
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/US_Navy_100329-N-1481K-
293_USS_Independence_(LCS_2)_arrives_at_Mole_Pier_at_Naval_Air_Station_Key_West.jpg,
visited June 6, 2014.
xviii http://gcaptain.com/u-s-navys-first-first-jhsv-spearhead-departs-on-maiden-voyage/, visited
June 6, 2014.