Souda Bay, Crete, Greece (Apr. 10, 2006) U.S. Navy High-Speed Vessel (HSV-2) SWIFT arrives for a routine port visit. SWIFT, currently manned by its Blue Crew, is assigned as the command ship for Commander Mine Warfare Command (COMINEWARCOM) located in Ingleside, Texas and is operated by two separate, 42-person crews that take turns running the ship. A Gold Crew, based at Little Creek, VA concentrates on expeditionary missions while a Blue Crew from Ingleside, focuses on experimentation and mine warfare. The teaming approach affords a high level operational tempo (OPTEMPO), with an average annual operational availability of 85 to 90 percent. Since the Blue Crew deployed in October 2005 Swift has been involved in a wide variety of missions including taking part in Exercise Green Osprey, a multi-national exercise in the area of West Africa with Italian Marines embarked; an exercise in southern France with embarked U.S. Navy SEALs; and most recently participating in mine warfare operations in the Arctic Circle with an embarked British Royal Navy Mine Counter Measures Squadron that nearly tripled the ships population from its normal crew size of 40 personnel. At 321 feet, Swift has a top speed of almost 50 knots. The catamaran's aluminum hulls draw only about 11 feet of water, making the ship ideal for missions in shallow coastal waters like a littoral combat ship. U.S. Navy photo by Paul Farley