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Fast Craft and Innovative COTS SolutionsMany variables drive the design decisions for High Speed Craft and RHIBS. Commercial off the Shelf Solutions often tie all of these together. By John Haynes VESSEL DESIGNThe world is changing fast and nowhere is this truer than in the fast boat sector. When selecting a new boat, the questions used to be relatively simple: how long, how many engines, what fuel type and how fast? Military and professional maritime organizations have been driving the evolution of extreme fast craft for over 30 years. Naval architects, engineers and boat builders have risen to the challenge, producing unique boats in alu- minium, Þ berglass and composites engineered to deliver high performance. The next stage has been ensuring that structures, equipment and crews can withstand the result- ing forces. Commercial off the shelf (COTS) equipment is an increasingly important part of the solution, for more than one reason. Changing Requirements, New Platforms Since the millennium, RHIBs and High Speed Craft (HSC) have been at the cutting edge of maritime opera-tions for everything from counter terrorism, homeland security and law enforcement to extreme weather rescue. Looking to the future, navies and coast guards around the world will make Þ nancial, environmental and operational decisions to use fewer ships and more boats to secure their coastlines and waterways. For military and security appli- cations, the next generation of RHIBs and HSC will need to be larger, faster, multi-role craft with the same naviga- tion, communication and information systems that are found on a shipÕs bridge. Many fast craft will include mod- ular design features that allow them to vary their internal June 201428 MNMN June14 Layout 18-31.indd 28MN June14 Layout 18-31.indd 285/20/2014 10:32:11 AM5/20/2014 10:32:11 AM
