It is often said that amphibious assaults are the hardest of all military operations to coordinate. High Speed Amphibians enable a transformation of operational maneuvers from the sea to the land like never before. An amphibious operation is a military operation launched from the sea by naval and landing forces embarked in ships or craft involving a landing on a hostile or potentially hostile shore or beachhead. Modern U.S. Navy Amphibious Assault Ships project power and maintain presence by serving as the cornerstone of the Amphibious Readiness Group (ARG) / Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG). The two nations that have made by far the most amphibious assaults during the past century are the United States and the United Kingdom. From the great assaults of World War II to the recent attack on the Al-Faw Peninsula in Iraq, both countries have been at the forefront of developing amphibious assault doctrine and shipping. From small swift reconnaissance missions to truly amphibious expeditionary and support vehicles, High Speed Amphibians have the ability to realize the vision of the future fighting force. The transition from land to sea, and vice-versa, is seamless, eliminating operational pause in ship to objective maneuvers.

History of Amphibious Assault

The history of the specialist amphibious assault vessel really begins during World War II. Prior to World War I, amphibious assaults had taken place using conventional boats. The disastrous Gallipoli landings of 1915 in the Battle of Gallipoli showed that this type of operation was impossible in the face of modern weapons, especially the machine gun. The 1920s and 1930s did not see much progress in most of the world, the exception being the U.S. Marine Corps. The small Corps operations of the period in Central and South America led to the development of amphibious assault doctrine much in advance of the rest of the world. By the late 1930s, concrete plans were beginning to form to build the first true specialized amphibious assault ships.

Today, with over ten years and a million engineering man-hours, Gibbs Technologies has developed and proven a highly refined and infinitely flexible High Speed Amphibian Technology. The consumer production vehicle, the Aquada, has logged hundreds of thousands of hours of road and marine time and proven itself robust and reliable. The Quadski and Humdinga programmes have since pushed the technology into single person crafts, and larger four-wheel-drive applications. In 2006 Gibbs Technologies won a U.S. Department of Defense Foreign Comparative Test contract for evaluation of HSA technology for military purposes.

HSA Technology

High Speed Amphibian (HAS) technology has taken over 7 years to develop and is the result of millions of hours of expertise, award winning engineering and tens of millions of dollars in investment. Today HAS can be applied to vehicles of all sizes from 800 lbs. to 10 tons; offering speeds of 30-60 mph on water. HAS is available for use under license.

New Amphibious Military Contract

Gibbs Technologies is now teaming with Lockheed Martin to develop a new breed of amphibious combat craft to meet the specific operational requirements of the military. Lockheed Martin and Gibbs Technologies have agreed to develop a family of high speed amphibious vehicles designed specifically for military operations.

The militarized High Speed Amphibians (HSAs) will use technology from a fleet of prototype amphibious vehicles developed by Gibbs Technologies for consumer use, including the Gibbs Aquada, a three-person sports car, Gibbs Humdinga, a four-wheel military vehicle, and Gibbs Quadski, an amphibious all terrain vehicle.

Gibbs’ technology enables amphibians to travel at speeds over 45 mph on water and over 100 mph on land — and to transition from water-to-land or land-to-water in five seconds. These features provide a much needed capability for military littoral, riverine and special operations.

“HSAs are high performance craft on the water, and high performance vehicles on the ground and the transition between the two is seamless,” says Alan Gibbs, chairman of Gibbs Technologies. “These are true amphibians, combining the best of both worlds”.

Gibbs and Lockheed Martin are developing three military concept vehicles, representing a scalable capability to meet various missions:

• The Amphibious Combat Craft — Expeditionary (ACC-E) is a 20-foot amphibian capable 45 mph on the water and 80 mph on land;
• The Amphibious Combat Craft — Riverine (ACC-R) is a 35-foot amphibian capable of 40 mph on the water and 65 mph on land; and,
• The Terraquad, capable of over 55 mph on the water and 50 mph on land.

Gibbs and Lockheed Martin will advance the development by integrating expeditionary command and control capability, armor and weapons systems. The military version will have network ability to share and distribute information from onboard and remote sensors. The craft will be able to accommodate a variety of weapons systems, based on specific mission needs.

“Until now, our Navy and Special Forces have taken on great risk with sea- to-shore insertions, largely due to a transition period that can last an hour or more in vulnerable areas,” said Rich Lockwood, Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensor’s vice president for Mission Systems. “HSA minimizes that risk, allowing forces to move safer and faster — and with capabilities that make it a powerful asset in a net-enabled force.”

Alan Gibbs founded Gibbs Technologies in New Zealand in 1996. Initial amphibian concept work was undertaken in 1997 and 1998 in Detroit. In 1999, excited by the technology, Neil Jenkins merged his business to form Gibbs Technologies UK, of which Gibbs Military Amphibian is a licensee.

Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, Lockheed Martin employs more than 140,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

The vehicles currently under development and production illustrate the flexibility of the technology, and other platform variants developed to military specifications will enable highly mobile, widely dispersed operations and long ranges.

Lockheed Martin - Gibbs Military Amphibians Brochure

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