New USSOCOM Naval Combat Craft Assault

An UNCLASSIFIED November 23, 2020 public domain photo showing the United States Special Forces Command (USSOCOM)’s Combat Craft Assault (CCA), built by United States Marine, Inc.’s (USMI) next to the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams (ESB-4) has revealed some interesting features. The Combat Craft Assault is a cheaper version of the Combat Craft Medium (CCM). The CCA’s benefit is that it is light enough to be loaded into U.S. Air Force MC-130s and C-17s and Low-Velocity Airdropped into the sea, thus allowing U.S. naval special forces rapid insertion from anywhere in the world’s oceans.

Naval News reached out to USSOCOM and SOCOM declined any comment, only saying that all 32 CCA boats have been delivered. Nonetheless, through Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) obtained from public online UNCLASSIFIED military and industry web sources, Naval News can extrapolate and explain some of the key features of the USSOCOM Combat Craft Assault Insertion and Exfiltration speedboat.

What makes this DVIDS photo unique is the top-down perspective of the CCA, showing the CCA’s two-tone digital gray camouflage block pattern paintjob, and also the craft’s instrument panel and controls are visible since there is no roof. According to USMI, the “Deep Vee” 41-foot monohull SOCOM CCA is constructed of High-Tech composites (hence no rust streaks) and has a speed in excess of 40+ Knots. Range is unknown; however, a similar-sized boat, the 43-foot High Speed Interceptor Craft (HSIC) on USMI’s website has a range of 350 Nautical Miles.

The DVIDS photo shows the CCA’s engine is running as it is parked next to the USS Hershel “Woody” Williams Expeditionary Sea Base Four (ESB-4). The CCA’s engines power a Surface Drive System of Surface Piercing Propellers (SDS SPP). SPPs require a planning hull and according to the SDS industry, the SDS SPP has high reliability, endurance, speed, and the ability to enter shallow water. The Surface Piercing Propellers’ shapes and sizes can vary.

The non-digital uniform personnel with the Ops-Core ballistic helmets should be the U.S. Navy Sea Air Land (SEAL) Special Warfare Combatant-Craft Crewmen (SWCC) Teams since they are usually the ones to operate Combat Crafts that are unique and specific to USSOCOM.

The CCA’s fold-up/fold-down composite walls are lowered to allow for boarding and off-boarding of the crew and also to prevent lateral movement of the passengers in addition to keeping away sea spray. They could be ballistically armored, although that is unconfirmed.

USNI lists some of the navigation features on the newer HSIC boat as: “Radar, GPS, Depth Finder, Magnetic Compass Flux Gate Compass, Speed Log, Autopilot, and Wind Speed (features’ models dependent on Customer Requirements)” although the HSIC’s sensors don’t mean that the older 2010-designed model CCA has all of these navigational features.

According to the U.S. Navy, VBSS Teams consist of six sailors and two alternates in each team. Typical VBSS Team armament would include a variety of carbines, handguns, shotguns, and possibly sniper rifles, lightweight to medium machine guns, and tube-launched grenade launchers for more serious threats.

The radar mast is said to have been redesigned to accommodate the new Closed Circuit Forward Looking Infrared Version 2 (CCFLIR2) turret and the maritime search radar’s saucer-shaped dish on top. It is unclear what CCFLIR version the CCA but it appears to be the two-lens gyro-stabilized CCFLIR2 ball dated to 2015 that has a Daytime color camera and an Infrared camera and a much smaller hole for a laser rangefinder/pointer. Also unclear is if USSOCOM will redesign the CCA’s mast again to accommodate the flatter CCFLIR2 turret for the Combat Craft Medium (CCM) and Combat Craft Heavy (CCH) consisting of four instead of the two lenses.

The CCA’s two Multi-function Display (MFD) terminals shows blue, green, red, and orange color outputs because “Forward Looking Infra-Red (FLIR) is essentially a thermal imager sensor that measures the ambient temperatures of objects and landscapes and creates a digital image video, enhanced with black, white, and a rainbow of colors for day/night navigation, target identification, heat source measurements, ranging, and tracking.”

The NSW’s CCA can possibly accommodate remote weapons and precision engagement missiles under the SOCOM Combat Craft Mission Equipment (CCME) program although such weapons, according to the virtual Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) 2020, are slated for the CCM and Combat Craft Heavy (CCH). Weapons can be placed in the forward hatch below the hull (such as the MK50 with .50cal heavy machine gun) or JQLs with JAGMs placed in the forward hatch or on the deck around the radar mast.

Article from Naval News