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WASHINGTON - The Navy's SEAL (Sea Air Land Commandos) Insertion, Observation and Neutralization (SEALION) II craft visited the Washington Navy Yard July 16-17. The purpose of the visit was to allow Navy officials and interested member of Congress and their staffs to see the craft and learn more about its design and technology. 

SEALION is a technology demonstrator project under the direction of NAVSEA's Future Concepts and Surface Ship Design Group (SEA 05D1), and SEALION II is currently operationally controlled by Naval Special Warfare Group (NSWG) 4 at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va. The craft was designed by Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC), Carderock's Combatant Craft Division and was constructed by Oregon Iron Works, Inc. Azimuth Inc. of Morgantown, WV is the electronics systems integrator.

"This is a great team effort between NAVSEA, NSWC Carderock, NSWG 4 and industry to build a demonstration craft to explore the use of technology that may have future application in the Global War on Terrorism," said Capt. Evin H. Thompson, Commander NSWG 4. "This craft has caused us to think where we are going in the future with low observability/low radar cross section technology and what LEAN manufacturing processes can provide to us in a combatant craft."

The SEALION II is intended to demonstrate advanced capabilities for future combatant craft in a medium-range maritime platform for enhanced knowledge of seakeeping performance, functional modularity, integrated command and control, crew readiness, human system integration, construction techniques, maintenance and affordability.

The craft is being operated by NSWG 4 as a clandestine insertion and extraction platform for special forces. SEALION II is a high-speed, low observable/low radar signature craft that can operate in the littorals. It can carry an unspecified number of SEALs and a modular mission payload. It has a state-of-the-art electronics suite.

According to Thompson, NSWG 4 will also look at SEALION II as a potential platform for weapons systems and intelligence collection. SEALION was initially proposed as an Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD) project in the spring of 2000. ACTDs exploit mature and maturing technologies to solve important military problems. ACTD projects emphasize technology assessment and integration rather than technology development. The goal is to provide a prototype capability to the warfighter and to support the evaluation of that capability.  SEALION was also a collaborative effort between government ship design
experts, naval special forces end-users and industry partners.

"SEALION represents technology advancements in both the design and construction process," said Gordon Hatchell, of NSWC Carderock's Combatant Craft Division. "The approach we took was to provide a government design group that worked with the military end user to apply technologies that were readily available. We then worked with an industry partner to ensure what we designed could be built at a reasonable cost. We also applied LEAN principles into the manufacturing process for efficiency."

Funding for the SEALION program has come from the Office of Naval Research, Special Operations Command and NAVSEA.

For more news from Naval Special Warfare Group 4, visit www.navy.mil/local/nswg4/ .
 

 

10-18-07 This is a Navy NewsStand story. You can view the original story at http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=32491

SWCCs Respond to Mayday Call at Sea

By Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Robyn B. Gerstenslager, Naval Special Warfare Group 4 Public Affairs TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (NNS)

-- Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) assigned to Special Boat Team (SBT) 20 in Little Creek, Va. responded to a mayday call Sept. 28 as they returned from Key West, Fla. The SWCCs were operating small boats off the coast of Key West on a training mission.

At approximately 1 p.m., 35 miles east of St. Catherine's Sound, Ga., Chief Special Boat Operator Michael Mackeown, the officer in charge aboard the small craft they had been training on, the SEALION II (SEAL Insertion Observation Neutralization), heard repeated calls from a civilian boat attempting to contact the U.S. Coast Guard on marine-band radio.

When the civilian caller made contact with the Coast Guard he put in a mayday call. Mackeown immediately contacted the civilian crew himself and notified them that he was within two miles of their location and asked if he could offer any assistance. Within 10 minutes, the crew reached the distressed boaters and launched a Zodiac, a 14-foot inflatable boat, with two SWCC emergency medical technicians (EMT) on board.

Once they boarded the boat, which had been chartered for a day of fishing, the EMTs found a man lying face down in the back of the boat.

"He was not seizing," said Mackeown, "but he was still unconscious."

A family friend informed the EMTs that the man had a history of seizures.

Special Boat Operator 1st Class Anthony Williamson, the chief engineer and an EMT, reverted back to his CPR training once he reached the scene.

"I was ready to do CPR if he was down," said Williamson. "You don't panic; be calm, you follow your procedures."

The EMTs brought the man onto the Navy vessel to recover and to transport him to the nearest Coast Guard station on Tybee Island, he regained consciousness as he was being moved.

Williamson and the crew gave the man water and a cool place to rest as they asked him basic questions to make sure his neurological system was functioning normally.

Upon nearing the station, a Coast Guard patrol boat took the man to shore where the local emergency response team's ambulance was waiting.

Mackeown was pleased with how smoothly his crew handled the situation; within a little more than an hour of the first mayday call the man was on shore and on his way to a local hospital.

"[The crew] performed outstandingly," said Mackeown. "Everyone worked together and did the job; everyone stayed calm and did what was needed."

The man was taken to Memorial Health University Center in Savannah, Ga. where he was treated and released.

For more news from Naval Special Warfare Group 4, visit www.navy.mil/local/nswg4/ .