The two decade period 1960–1980 was the crucial period in the US where first, the US Maritime Administration (MARAD) and second, the US Navy sought large ships capable of operating at 100 knots on the high seas for both economic and military advantage. During that two decade period there were two key review milestones when the then current Administration became nervous about the choice of concept and called for a re-evaluation of the MARAD and US Navy choice. The first occurred in 1965 when the US Department of Commerce directed that a re-evaluation be made of the many high speed ship concepts available. This was the Surface Effect Ships for Ocean Commerce (SESOC) Committee. The results of that committee's work are discussed in detail in Chapter 4.

The second “call for a re-evaluation” was in 1975, exactly one decade later, when the Office of the Secretary of Defense called for a major review because after a decade of development, the choice by the US Navy was not performing as advertised. This resulted in the US Navy's Advanced Naval Vehicles Concepts Evaluation (ANVCE) Project (1976–1979). The ANVCE Project wrapped up its work and published its findings just before the US Navy canceled the high speed SES program on 9 January 1980. This chapter outlines the results from the ANVCE Project.

On 30 June 1976, the sidehull Surface Effect Ship SES-100B attained a speed of 91.9 knots in a slight choppy sea off the coast of Panama City, Florida. Despite that achievement many in the technical community and in The Pentagon were becoming concerned that the claims of the “100 knot Navy” advocates simply did not hold water. The technological problems that were surfacing based on analysis and test and operational experience both in the US and in the UK (where hovercraft technology and operation was quite advanced) produced “red flags” about the viability in several key areas of technical maturity in the US Navy choice. At the same time, the issue of the form of the proper Navy mission requirements was also raising questions in the Defense and Congressional community.