NASSCO has proposed major modification concepts to the U.S. Navy's Expeditionary Sea Bases, or ESB, which could see them host F-35Bs and large UUVs.
Instead, the concept stated by a NASSCO brochure involves the embarkation of other Marine aircraft, such as V-22 Ospreys and CH-53K King Stallions, and the facilities to fully support them so that F-35B capable amphibious assault ships can Another modification explored by NASSCO was for ESB to perform At-Sea Precision Lift (ASPL), which would allow ESB to transfer supplies and equipment with other vessels while at sea. It stabilizes the vehicle and keeps it in the upright position as it rotates down into the water. Of these, the two most noteworthy and comprehensive modifications to the ESB are the plans to fit an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) bay and what seems to be the embarkation of Marine Aircraft, including F-35Bs, on the ESB. “We call it the Rotary UUV Launch And Recovery System, the RULARS. Thanks to the ESB’s commercial origins from the Alaska-class oil tanker, the potential of the class has been described as “unlimited” by NASSCO.
Michael Stone runs the Designer Group, which works with big construction firms, but he has never forgotten his inner city roots.
In 2017, he was asked to chair the implementation board for a plan for rejuvenation of the northeast inner city, an area that has been ravaged by crime and urban decay for decades. Among the Irish projects it has worked on are a refit of the Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin and the Technological University Dublin campus at Grangegorman, in Paschal Donohoe’s constituency. He has never lost his connection with his inner-city roots, having grown up in and around Aughrim Street in Dublin 7. The group has installed breweries for Diageo in Kenya, worked on the London Olympics, the high-tech Qantas Lounge at Heathrow and with firms such as Dropbox, HP, Amazon and Microsoft. At 24, he was a skilled technician and electrician in ESB with a solid job for life. Stone took a big decision in 1992 to strike out for himself at that young age.