Art Anderson Associates has participated in multiple phases of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program that investigates an approach to joining together sealift vessels in a "train" to improve performance. During the course of the project, numerous analyses were conducted to evaluate the resistance of multiple hulls connected in tandem. These analyses concluded that improvements in performance for a given class of vessels can be realized by connecting them together as a train, particularly if flow disturbances between the hulls are minimized by using a fairing.

The Navy's primary interest in the project is to improve its high-speed sealift capability. Large sealift ships are expensive to build, and can only be constructed at a limited number of US shipyards. The SeaTrain concept enables smaller vessels to fulfill the missions intended for these large ships, enabling significant cost savings because the smaller size allows more commercially-competitive construction at second-tier shipyards. The train concept also enables individual vessels to disconnect and operate independently, providing improved survivability and flexibility in deployment of assets and maintaining the austere port accessibility that is unavailable to larger vessels.

During the Phase I and Phase I Option periods of the research program, Art Anderson Associates analyzed the effects of a SeaTrain-like assembly of LCU-1600 craft, reviewed the connector systems developed during the Mobile Offshore Base (MOB) Program and studied the available post-tensioning systems that could be applied to the sealift ship SeaTrain concept. The Phase II effort, which is currently underway, is intended to empirically verify the potential benefits and challenges of the concept. Objectives in this pahse include verifying the SeaTrain's hydrodynamic properties, developing a hull connection system, conducting a cost-benefit analysis and assessing the potential hydrodynamic efficiency gains of a hull air cavity system.