Northern Coasts 2009

FINAL REPORT HIGH SPEED BOAT OPERATIONS

During exercise NORTHERN COASTS 2009 in October 2009, the Centre Of Excellence for Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters (COE CSW) conducted a High Speed Boat Operations (HSBO) trial in Eckernförde Bight, Germany. The reason for the trial was to test HSBOs in live environment in order to provide guidance to CTG/CTF-level (Commander Task Group/Commander Task Force) on the employment of HSBs.

This trial was also conducted to improve COE CSW's capabilities and analysis processes in such trials. I would like to thank all the participants who made this trial possible, special thanks to the NOCO exercise participants for hosting for the trial and WTD-71 and DSB GmbH & CO KG for their active support.

The developments in naval small craft capabilities such as Sea Tigers in Sri Lanka or regular forces in Iran developing and using vast numbers of high-speed boats are real-life examples. This HSBO trial was executed from the perspective of the users of HSBs. There are two sides of the coin in the trial objective. Once HSBOs in confined and shallow waters are understood, the defensive actions against HSBs can be developed. Nowadays, in military operations, it is not only what you do but more and more the way that you do it.

For this trial 7 different scenarios for two opposing sides (3 x FPB against 3 x HSB) were created with tactical objectives and tasks. The key findings from the trial to support the production of CTG/CTF-level guidance, indicate that:

General

Situational awareness is the key to success
Group coordination is essential

HSB-related

Saturate opponent's maritime picture by manoeuvring
High-speed boat manoeuvring is dependent on the opponent's weaknesses
Increase your probability of success with sufficient logistics
HSBs have a standoff capability advantage against FPBs
Multiple-axis attacks are preferable to one-sided attacks
Decision to attack either single or multiple target is related to the objective
High speed is recommended in the attack phase
Zigzagging is dependent on the opponent's formation and effector's capabilities
The element of surprise should always be exploited

FPB-related

FPBs' intemal response prccesses are time-consuming
Actively use warning procedures and all available (non-lethal) means
The reaction time for FPBs against attacking HSBs is remarkably short
Engagements are at short range, sometimes even against already retreating attackers
HSB engagements resulted in blue-on-blue engagements or mutual interference

The work will continue in further trials. The CTG/CTF-level guidance for HSBO is planned to be published in 2011.

For feedback, remarks or questions to this report, please contact the HSBO project manager at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .