Foreign countries are showing increasing interest in buying from the U.S. Navy smaller boats as well as amphibious ships that could be used for humanitarian relief efforts, according to the director of the Navy’s International Programs Office (NIPO).
Additionally, foreign navies are asking about the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), as they look to become more interoperable with the U.S. Navy, Rear Adm. Nevin Carr told sister publication Defense Daily recently in an interview.
International requests are forwarded to NIPO through combatant commanders looking for capabilities to enhance maritime domain awareness and theater security operations, Carr said.
For example, in AFRICOM, the recently established Africa Command, the Navy is focused heavily on maritime domain awareness and putting tools ashore to enable tracking of ships so that the Navy can respond, Carr explained.
“It has more to do with knowing who is out there, tracking ships, sorting the haystack so you can find the needle,” he said. “It’s coastal radar surveillance…AIS (Automatic Identification System), commercially available low-tech stuff, and using the funds we have to get stuff out there.”
Foreign countries can use a State Department effort called the 1206 Program, Carr said. It is a program where funds are authorized but not appropriated in Congress for low-end items that help with things like coastal surveillance, he added.
“The 1206 Program has been useful for maritime domain awareness, around the African coast in particular, but also the Straits of Malacca,” Carr said.
Those funds are used for fighting the war on terrorism, he added.
Former Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Mullen’s call for a 1,000-ship Navy and the emphasis of the recently completed Navy maritime strategy on international cooperation and partnerships has helped increase the interest in buying U.S. ships, Carr said.
“If I could pound a nail, it would be that the 1,000-ship Navy really put the spotlight on interoperability. The new maritime strategy that’s coming out dotes on that, so that is a very important element of where we are going–how we build partner capacity, how we are interoperable with other navies,” he said. “It’s about relationships… the first two ships in the 1,000-ship Navy are partnership and relationship. That’s what we provide at NIPO.”
Carr noted that a number of South American countries are interested in U.S. ships.
“There has been a real interest lately in humanitarian assistance,” he said.
A lot of countries saw the U.S. Navy’s response to the tsunami relief effort, and became interested in that capability, Carr added.
“Now we had a carrier group down there too, but it was the amphibious ships and their ability to embark relief organizations, non governmental organizations, just the volume of the ship and the helicopter capability, is a reason why a lot of guys are interested in LPDs,” he said. “It’s a great ship for that kind of mission. So South American countries are interested in those. India may be interested in another one.”
India this year took ownership of the former USS Trenton (LPD-14). Carr said the transfer of the Trenton was a real success story for NIPO and the Navy team involved in getting the ship ready.
Making sure a ship is ready to be turned over to foreign nations is a challenge, he added.
“[Making] sure we understand the material condition of the ship so that we can advise the countries on what it is going to cost to extend its life [is a challenge]. It costs money to do a material assessment, so that is a balancing act we work with, too, making sure we get good material assessment of the ship,” Carr said. “NAVSEA (Naval Sea Systems Command) is very helpful. In fact, the whole Jalashva [effort], a lot of people came together–the regional maintenance center, NAVSEA, PEO (Program Executive Office) Ships–a lot of folks really helped out to make that [happen].”
The Navy is looking to transfer some frigates to Turkey and many smaller countries are interested in the capability of mine sweepers, Carr said. But, he added, the Navy is making sure it retains the capability to perform the mine sweeping mission.
A lot of countries are also interested in newer technologies, LCS, for example.
“Now we are not there yet with LCS, but they know it’s coming. They know we are going to build something and a lot of countries are interested in [it]. They want to have what we have. They want to be interoperable with the Navy, and so they are watching to see where we go with that. We expect some future business there,” Carr said. “It’s a very capable ship, whichever flavor we build, and there is room on it to add some capability. If a country doesn’t want to go with a modular concept like what we are doing, they can use the space and volume to put on radars and launchers and other things.”