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One high-speed ship for three services?

The Army could be transporting soldiers and equipment across the ocean in the first of eight high-speed ships as early as next year.

Representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps and shipbuilding industry met last week to map out plans for the Joint High Speed Vessel program, a new type of fast logistic-support ship that will ultimately be acquired by all three services, according to an Army press release.

The Army embarked on the multiservice venture in November 2001.

The goal is a vessel that can quickly transport several hundred troops and all their equipment and vehicles across open sea, said Kyle Marolf, the Army’s representative in the JHSV program office, according to the release.

So far the design calls for a 450-foot, oceangoing vessel capable of carrying 600 tons of cargo up to 1,200 nautical miles at a speed of 35 knots, the release said. It must also have seats for at least 312 passengers and provide long-term berthing and galley facilities for at least 104 of those passengers, in addition to the vessel’s 41 crewmembers.

The current JHSV program is based on lessons the services learned from operating four leased, commercial high-speed vessels over the past five years. The Army tested two of the ships extensively in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as supporting other Army operations in the Pacific, Atlantic and Mediterranean.

The Army plans to buy the first of these new ships in fiscal 2008, officials said.