HSV Visits Norfolk

The United States Navy’s High Speed Vessel (HSV) 2 SWIFT will make a port call to Naval Station Norfolk in early February. SWIFT will visit Norfolk to showcase the latest platform being used in support of the Department of Defense’s transformational experimentation. The visit highlights the transformational work being done by the Department of the Navy and the Department of the Army for operations in the littoral environment. Using the non-traditional hull as a surrogate for future vessel development, SWIFT will highlight the value associated with vessels whose high speed, shallow draft and extraordinary manoeuvrability open unprecedented opportunities for littoral operations, and will demonstrate the value of an open architecture design that allows the HSV to be reconfigured for a variety of missions. SWIFT was delivered to the Navy on August 15, 2003, and departed on her maiden deployment eleven days later. Building on lessons learned during the testing of HSV X1 JOINT VENTURE and her wartime deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, HSV 2 SWIFT brings new and transformational capabilities to the Navy-Marine Corps team. SWIFT is currently serving operationally as an interim Mine Warfare Command and Support Ship (MCS) and supports transformational modular mission payload initiatives.