Tending the Tender: Maintenance for USS Frank Cable

AS-40 & SSN-714, Guam
(click to enlarge)

It’s great to have a fleet of submarines, but even nuclear submarines need some level of at-sea support to improve their effectiveness. Submarine tenders can bring a boat food, fuel, weapons, and other supplies, while carrying a full array of maintenance equipment and personnel. The 664 foot, 23,000 ton USS Frank Cable [AS-40] was commissioned back in 1978, and was supposed to have ended her career in 1996. Unfortunately, the USS Holland [AS-32] needed to be retired that year, after 33 years of service, and the US Navy had no ship to replace her in the Western Pacific. USS Frank Cable was refurbished and reactivated for that role, and reached the 33-year mark herself in 2011. The ship was transferred from the US Navy on Feb 1/10, becoming 1 of only 2 Submarine Tenders in US Military Sealift Command’s 26-vessel Special Mission Ships Program. AS-40′s crews have won a number of commendations, but her most high profile incident took place on Dec 1/06 in Guam, when a steam line ruptured during a safety valve check, killing 2 sailors and injuring 7. A Navy investigation cited the sailors’ heroism during the incident, but there were serious questions afterward concerning some of the command decisions.

Swiftships Orders Build Iraqi Navy’s Coastal Patrol Capabilities

PB-301, Umm Qasr

Swiftships’ 35-meter coastal patrol boat (CPB) contracts are part of a larger program that’s also delivering spare parts, guns, ammunition, training, naval simulators and infrastructure to the Umm Qasr Naval Base in southern Iraq. That total program for the Iraqi Navy was the country’s 3rd largest foreign military sale case, according to the Pensacola Council of the Navy League’s Bullhorn newsletter. That’s probably an appropriate priority level, as Iraq seeks to monitor and protect its southern oil export infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the US Army Corps of Engineers is partnering with Iraq by managing a $53 million pier and seawall project. This set of projects in southern Iraq will provide the Iraqi Navy with new port facilities as it continues to expand its military naval capabilities – but in the end, it all comes down to boats on the water, manned by well trained crews. The Swiftships are currently the medium tier of those capabilities.