In the trenchesDARPA wants to use ISO containers for operational flexibility, self-building floating bases
The likely tasks for navies today include humanitarian assistance and disaster relief or “maritime domain awareness and interdiction operations” — that is, detecting and stopping such activities as piracy and smuggling of weapons, drugs, sanctions-busting cargoes; traditional naval methods call for large numbers of scarce, expensive, specialized warships which may not always be much use for such missions; DARPA looks into using ISO containers and intermodal transport system to deliver flexible operational capability from unmodified commercial containerships
The ever-creative, intellectually restless Pentagon’s research arm DARPA is at it again. The agency has unveiled plans for floating modules which could be tipped off cargo ships out at sea and then drive about and snap themselves together to form floating offshore bases.
The new DARPA plan is called Tactical Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP). According to the agency:
The TEMP program will investigate and develop modular technologies and macroscopic modular systems that leverage ubiquitous International Organization for Standardization (ISO) containers and the intermodal transport system to deliver flexible operational capability from unmodified commercial containerships.
Lewis Page writes that intermodal transport system of ships, railways, lorries, and so on, which whisks ISO containers about the world with speed and economy, has many advantages over the more traditional naval methods of dominating the seas. These more traditional methods call for large numbers of scarce, expensive, specialized warships which may not always be much use for the likeliest missions.
The more likely tasks for navies today include such things as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HA/DR) or “maritime domain awareness and interdiction operations” — that is, detecting and stopping such activities as piracy and smuggling of weapons, drugs, sanctions-busting cargoes, and more.
“Normal warships are ill-suited for such jobs, being designed for high-intensity warfare against high tech enemies. They can make a useful effort at disaster relief, and a less useful one against pirates or blockade-runners, but they are so expensive and thus so scarce it’s difficult to get much done with them,” Page notes.
TEMP, on the other hand, seeks to deliver effective sea power using humble container vessels rather than multibillion-dollar purpose-built warships.
Firstly, there will be a relatively normal effort to create a snap-together instant ISO-box kit which would turn the host ship into a useful platform.
The right mix of ISO-sized modules would then allow a conventional containership to be temporarily acquired and staffed for a useful military function which relieves the burden on conventional force structure. A certain set of modules would be required for any TEMP mission, such as military communications, command and control, expanded habitability functions, expanded power generation, damage control, and self-defense / force protection. Another set of modules would be mission specific, allowing the ship to be converted to a platform capable of accomplishing a specific mission, such as HA/DR or maritime domain awareness and interdiction operations.
Page notes that this much has more or less already happened. The British fleet, at
