New tri-hull Navy Boat LCS 2

[Road King Cole]

Not sure if this is old news to you guys, just saw an email on this. Looks pretty cool in the pictures, I wonder how it performs\rides in normal seas.

Some clips from the email:
There have been rumors about the U.S. Navy's speedy new triple hulled ships, but now they're for real.


The U.S.S Independence was built by General Dynamics. It's called a "littoral combat ship" (LCS), and the tri-maran can move its weapons around faster than any other ship in the Navy. (Ironic that with all that high tech built in, the ship reminds us of the Merrimac ironclad from Civil War days.)
“Littoral” means close to shore, and that's where these very ships will operate. They're tailor-made for launching helicopters and armored vehicles, sweeping mines and firing all manner of torpedoes, missiles and machine guns.


These ships are also relatively inexpensive. This one's a bargain at $208 million, and



the Navy plans to build 55 of them.This tri-maran is the first of a new fire breathing breed, ready to scoot out of dry dock at a rumored 60 knots.. It's like a speedy and heavily armed aircraft carrier for helicopters.

Pirates Beware!!!

She's at 43 knots here running at half+ power. NOTE the absence of a bow wave.




Turns tightly, also; allegedly this also was done at 43 knots...and from the look of the small bow wave, she's still in the turn.


And then we have the massive helo deck big enough for a CH-53. Last time I talked with the SURFPAC guys years ago.THIS was the LCS they liked because of the huge storage capacity under that flight deck and the size of the flight deck.


Note that there is very little spreading wake.In fact, it does not look like a wake at all, just foamy water from the water jets. At 40 knots, you'd think there would be more wake.

More info and pics can be found here:

http://www.gdlcs.com/

rkc