Joint ACCESS: A High Speed Assault Connector

Executive Summary:

The current notion of seabasing requires that three Battalion Landing Teams (BLT) of a 2025 Joint Expeditionary Brigade (JEB) need to be able to transit from the Sea Base to the objective within a 10 hour period. Of the three BLTs, two of them must be transported by surface craft a distance of no more than 200nm in sea state 4 or less. The two surface bound BLTs need to be loaded onto the transporting craft and delivered to shore, whether it is a port facility or austere beachhead. There is no current or future system of connectors to meet all the time-distance, sea state, and interface flexibility requirements for this aspect of seabasing. To meet these requirements a High Speed Assault Connector (HSAC) is needed which either augments current or replaces existing connector platforms to deliver and support the required forces ashore. The Joint ACCESS is a HSAC that brings the necessary speed, payload capacity, interface capability, and mission flexibility needed to fill the Sea Base to shore transportation gap. With a maximum speed of 43kts and payload capacity of 800LT, 12 Joint ACCESS trimaran can transit 200nm and fully offload in 7 hours. Its beachable design uses a floating bow ramp to reach out to austere beaches, while its combat system suite provides self defense in addition to robust offensive capabilities.

More Information

The following documents are available for download.

• Final Report
  The final student report (PDF file, 9 MB).
• Project Presentation:
• Right-click here to download the synchronized audio/video/slides. This file is 112 MB. After downloading, double click to extract the files. Then navigate to the root of the extracted folders and double click on TSSE2004.htm to launch.
• Download Presentation (PPT file, 9 MB).
• Project Summary (PPT file).
• Streaming video of the student brief (real media - subject to server availability).
• Animations (windows media):
  • Habitability spaces.
  • Conceptual deployment.
• Right-click to download Rhino-3D drawings:
• Ship Model (72.5 MB).
• Hull file - special ops version (44 MB).
• Hull file - container cargo load out (55 MB).
• Habitability - CO.
• Habitability - Officer.
• Habitability - Enlisted.
• Habitability - Petty Officer.
• Pictures extracted from the above drawings:
• [Bow door concept]
  [Deployed ramp transition]
  [Deployed ramp]
  [Detailed cargo loadout]
  [First ramp stage]
  [M1A1 on ramp]
  [One brigade on six ships]
  [Ramp stage]
  [Stowed ramp]
  [Bow door concept]
  [Detailed cargo loadout]
  [EFVs entering water #1]
  [Vehicles on ramp]
  [Vehicles to beach from front]
  [Vehicles to beach]
  [EFVs entering water #2]
  [EFVs entering water #3]
  [Humanitarian]
  [Spec ops]
  [Front slide picture]
  [Improved stern gate loading]
  [Stern Gate loading #1]
  [Stern gate loading #2]
  [Cargo cutaway]
  [Elevator and Hangar]
  [Stern gate close up]
  [Operational side view]
• CD Image Files - These are the final files from the yearly project CD and contain information in addition to what is available in these web pages.
  • CD Image
    ISO file, 650 MB. Right-click to download to your hard drive and then use your CD burning software to burn a copy of the entire CD.
  • CD cover
    PPT file.
  • CD disc cover
    DOC file.