thedrifter
09-22-08, 09:46 AM
Navy Retreats from Shoreline Warfare
By David Axe September 22, 2008
Just last week the U.S. Navy accepted the first of its new shallow-water-fighting "Littoral Combat Ships," the late and over-budget Freedom. But that doesn't mean the Navy is truly committed to dominating shallow waters, despite the endless rhetoric that has flowed from the Pentagon in recent years.
Littoral threats -- including missiles, submarines and suicide boats -- perhaps helped kill off the stealthy DDG-1000 destroyer recently. And just last week, at a Navy-themed "town-hall" discussion in North Carolina, General James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, told DANGER ROOM naval analyst Galrahn that the littorals are too dangerous for the very ships that currently are best suited for shallow-water operations. The Navy, Conway said, "has told the Marines that the Navy will not be putting amphibious ships closer than 25 miles to shore to embark Marines due to the threat environment of the littorals," Galrahn reports. That means heavier reliance on helicopters, V-22 Ospreys and the forthcoming(?) Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle for shuttling people from ship to shore.
The Navy's fleet of three dozen large amphibious ships, with their shallow, flat bottoms and large capacity is ideal for getting close to land and launching boats, helicopters, vehicles and drones for patrols or beach assaults. It wasn't for no reason that the Navy's new Latin American 4th Fleet tapped the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge (pictured) for a major medical mission to Nicaragua: Kearsarge could really snuggle up -- just a few miles distant -- to eastern Nicaragua's remote seaside towns. But from now on, anywhere there's an actual enemy, ships like Kearsarge will be out of sight, beyond the horizon. "I get the sense the littorals warfare discussion we have had over the last several years has ended with the Navy in retreat," Galrahn writes.
What this means for the factory fresh LCS-1 Freedom and her planned 54 sister ships, remains to be seen.
Ellie
By David Axe September 22, 2008
Just last week the U.S. Navy accepted the first of its new shallow-water-fighting "Littoral Combat Ships," the late and over-budget Freedom. But that doesn't mean the Navy is truly committed to dominating shallow waters, despite the endless rhetoric that has flowed from the Pentagon in recent years.
Littoral threats -- including missiles, submarines and suicide boats -- perhaps helped kill off the stealthy DDG-1000 destroyer recently. And just last week, at a Navy-themed "town-hall" discussion in North Carolina, General James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, told DANGER ROOM naval analyst Galrahn that the littorals are too dangerous for the very ships that currently are best suited for shallow-water operations. The Navy, Conway said, "has told the Marines that the Navy will not be putting amphibious ships closer than 25 miles to shore to embark Marines due to the threat environment of the littorals," Galrahn reports. That means heavier reliance on helicopters, V-22 Ospreys and the forthcoming(?) Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle for shuttling people from ship to shore.
The Navy's fleet of three dozen large amphibious ships, with their shallow, flat bottoms and large capacity is ideal for getting close to land and launching boats, helicopters, vehicles and drones for patrols or beach assaults. It wasn't for no reason that the Navy's new Latin American 4th Fleet tapped the amphibious assault ship Kearsarge (pictured) for a major medical mission to Nicaragua: Kearsarge could really snuggle up -- just a few miles distant -- to eastern Nicaragua's remote seaside towns. But from now on, anywhere there's an actual enemy, ships like Kearsarge will be out of sight, beyond the horizon. "I get the sense the littorals warfare discussion we have had over the last several years has ended with the Navy in retreat," Galrahn writes.
What this means for the factory fresh LCS-1 Freedom and her planned 54 sister ships, remains to be seen.
Ellie