Here is a tidbit about a navy program looking at ships of Coast Guard size. It appears they are looking to tap into Finish/German expertise on Aluminum hulled ships, and find out a bit more about how they age and how damage resistant they are. As part of the research they are going to do a SINKEX on two Finish Fast Attack Craft (FAC).
Chuck Hill's CG Blog
Chuck Hill's CG Blog 
The Asheville class gunboat I was on back in the ’70s was transferred to the Environmental Protection Agency where it continued to serve until recently. It was over 40 years old when scrapped, and the hull was still sound. Those ships took quite a few hits from small arms and RPGs in Vietnam, but nothing over about 20mm that I know of.
I don’t have any experience with aluminum ships, but the largely aluminum general aviation fleet seems to wear a lot better than the largely steel automobiles we are familiar with. Still good to do some serious research. This is becoming important to the Navy as they buy substantial numbers of “Joint High Speed Vessels” JHSV and contemplate arming some of the later versions as combatants. There is also the near term possibility that they may select an all aluminum Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
The Asheville class gunboat I was on back in the '70s was transferred to the Environmental Protection Agency where it continued to serve until recently. It was over 40 years old when scrapped, and the hull was still sound. Those ships took quite a few hits from small arms and RPGs in Vietnam, but nothing over about 20mm that I know of.
I don't have any experience with aluminum ships, but the largely aluminum general aviation fleet seems to wear a lot better than the largely steel automobiles we are familiar with. Still good to do some serious research. This is becoming important to the Navy as they buy substantial numbers of “Joint High Speed Vessels” JHSV and contemplate arming some of the later versions as combatants. There is also the near term possibility that they may select an all aluminum Littoral Combat Ship (LCS).
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WP, I worked on the EPA Ocean Survey Ship Anderson project while at MSC. She was getting far to expensive to keep in operation especially the shafting. The put her out of sevice about 5 years ago and replaced her with ex-USNS Bold a T-AGOS.
http://www.epa.gov/bold/index.html
Anderson sure did roll alot!~~
When they blasted her AL hull at Atlantic Marine, there were many holes plugged only by accumulated layers of paint.
One can only hope that the new AL ships will hold up well AND be survivable in combat as the PGs were in ‘Nam? Why don’t you go over to Warboats.org and post some on their forum?
WP, I worked on the EPA Ocean Survey Ship Anderson project while at MSC. She was getting far to expensive to keep in operation especially the shafting. The put her out of sevice about 5 years ago and replaced her with ex-USNS Bold a T-AGOS. http://www.epa.gov/bold/index.htmlAnderson sure did roll alot!~~When they blasted her AL hull at Atlantic Marine, there were many holes plugged only by accumulated layers of paint.One can only hope that the new AL ships will hold up well AND be survivable in combat as the PGs were in 'Nam? Why don't you go over to Warboats.org and post some on their forum?
WP, I worked on the EPA Ocean Survey Ship Anderson project while at MSC. She was getting far to expensive to keep in operation especially the shafting. The put her out of sevice about 5 years ago and replaced her with ex-USNS Bold a T-AGOS. http://www.epa.gov/bold/index.htmlAnderson sure did roll alot!~~When they blasted her AL hull at Atlantic Marine, there were many holes plugged only by accumulated layers of paint.One can only hope that the new AL ships will hold up well AND be survivable in combat as the PGs were in 'Nam? Why don't you go over to Warboats.org and post some on their forum?