Unusual U.S. navy vessel helps train Belizeans
It looks like something out of the next Batman movie, but the mysterious vessel in the harbour is no work of fantasy. This morning News Five’s Kendra Griffith was welcomed aboard.
Kendra Griffith, Reporting
Anchored about two and a half miles off Belize City is the aptly named High Speed Vessel-2, Swift.
Capt. Douglas Wied, Task Force Commander
“It’s a unique ship and it’s quite fast, about forty-five knots, which is about eighty-three kilometres per hour. … It’s got a very shallow draft, about three metres, which means it can enter into a lot of ports that normal ships can’t. It’s very manoeuvrable, so it can go in and tie up at a pier without the assistance of a tug, we don’t need a pilot to get us in, and that also helps us to go a lot of places most ships can’t.”
But before it became HSV-2 Swift, the aluminium-hulled wave-piercing catamaran was actually a commercial car ferry. In 2003, the United States leased the vessel from its Australian manufacturer and retrofitted it for Navy use.
Capt. Douglas Wied
“It really is a very generic ship and that really is the value of this ship, it’s generic, but very versatile. As we enter down into the mission bay area when you got on the ship that was just a big open space; it gives us the ability to take on a lot of cargo or equipment.”
That ability makes the ship ideal for humanitarian efforts, which is why the Swift provided assistance after the tsunami in Indonesia, hurricane Katrina, and during the Lebanon evacuations.
According to Commander Charles Rock, while the ship has a rotating forty member crew, it actually takes only three persons to operate.
Commander Charles Rock, HSV-2 Swift
“One of them is our engineer, who controls, operates, monitors our engineering plant and systems from here. The centre position is where our officer of the deck or officer of the watch sits. He’s the ones that are actually driving the ship. We usually drive in the ship in an automatic pilot function and that means hands off, you sit back and you let the ship do all the work.”
“Over in the corner here is where our navigator sits. We don’t operate with paper charts like most ships, we have only electronic navigation and our position is updated every three seconds to within three meters of accuracy by a global positioning satellite system.”
The ship arrived in our waters on Saturday and will be in the country for two weeks, not showing off its assets, but conducting training with members of Belize’s Coast Guard, Defence Force, and Police.
Capt. Douglas Wied
“Port security, small boat operators, coxswain, learning how to drive the boats, and also professional leadership development.”
“The training courses we’re giving are based on requests from your government. These are the areas that your Defence Force and your Coast Guard and your police wanted to learn and that’s why we brought some instructors to work on that.”
And it’s not only Belizeans being trained. Since the end of April, the Swift and its crew have been travelling to other countries in Central America and the Caribbean as part of a project entitled Global Fleet Station. According to Task Group Commander Captain Douglas Wied, the idea is to enhance regional security.
Capt. Douglas Wied
“This is a new concept for the Navy where we are coming up with maintaining a persistent presence with our partners, conducting training, developing skills, and in the long run we see this as a continuous station that goes from country to country, working with our partners. We will then fly in training crews as needed to conduct training missions, to conduct exercises, so that together we as a team—our partners and our personnel—develop the skills necessary for us to help improve maritime security.”
Next on the list of stops for the Swift is the Dominican Republic and Jamaica. In August the ship will return to Belize for another round of training. Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.
Other countries in which the Global Fleet Station concept is being implemented include Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama.
