Researchers at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) are working on a vessel that could travel at more than 100 knots, carrying 25 sailors.
Currently the team is developing models and simulations that would aid in the potential development of a Joint UItra High-Speed Vessel (JUHSV).
The US' Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) awarded NPS Department of Operations Research Associate Professor Johannes Royset, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Brown University, a US$2 million grant to develop the mathematical models that will be used in the early design phase of a possible JUHSV.
"Mathematical models are essential for developing a vessel of this type because we simply don't know how a vessel of this type will behave," said Royset. "This is so much beyond existing Navy architectural technology that we really need to simulate all different aspects of this ship, not only to simulate, but to make sure our simulations are correct."
NPS student, John Sabol, has joined Royset, assisting with the modelling and simulation for his NPS degree thesis.
"We're looking at how we can use existing mathematical equations and relationships to try and [limit] uncertainty in the most extreme cases," said Sabol. "It's a way to analyse the data we're collecting and estimate what the worst case could be even though we haven't seen it."
With the Spearhead-class Expeditionary Fast Transport vessels beginning to prove their usefulness, the services are examining the high-speed vessel at the next level, smaller and faster.