The U.S. Navy has tested a small hydrofoil boat based on the VT Halter Marine Mk Mod 2 High Speed Assault Craft, a predecessor to the service”s stealthy Combatant Craft Assault special operations watercraft, or CCA. The revelation comes more than 25 years after the service retired its six Pegasus-class missile boats, the last of its operational hydrofoils.
The existence of the hydrofoil design first emerged in a video that the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, or NSWC Carderock, posted on YouTube on March 12, 2019. A clip showing the small boat moving at high speed is part of a larger montage of clips of the center’s work attached to the Navy’s “Forged by the Sea” recruitment commercial.
There is no narration to the Carderock clips or other descriptions of the systems shown, but the craft in question is clearly based on the VT Halter Marine design, if not a direct hydrofoil conversion of one of these high-speed special operations craft. The standard Mk Mod 2 High Speed Assault Craft is just under 40 feet long, with a hull primarily made of Kevlar and a pair of high-performance engines.