Sloops, corvettes and now
Lord Jim wrote:armed Tugs
... a race to the bottom (if that is appropriate to say when talking about ships)
That novel mentioned is probably based on the earlier USN experiment there with a full-scale amhib
Lord Jim wrote:a mobile base off the coast of West Africa
- by 2015, the concept had been refined further (we know this Dunford from a different role as of today):
"Shortly after becoming commandant late last year, Gen. Joseph Dunford directed his staff to study putting forward deployed Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force
Crisis Response (SPMAGTF-CR) forces — currently land based — on platforms other than the traditional amphibious warships that comprise the Navy and the Marine Corps Amphibious Ready Group and Marine Expeditionary Units (ARG/MEU).
In comments to USNI News on Feb. 12, Dunford singled out Military Sealift Command’s Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) variants of the Mobile Platform (MLP) as one option
to expand the reach of the SPMAGTF-CR beyond their ground bases Moron, Spain, and Sigonella, Italy.
“They have flight deck capability, command and control capability and about
240 berthing spaces for Marines. This would be a great opportunity for us to be able to use the V-22 and small numbers of Marines,” he said.
“But at the low end of the spectrum…
by no means are they a warship.
They are not a replacement for an amphibious ship but they [can] augment our capabilities to meet our requirements on a day-to-day basis.”
- reach in crisis is not just the distance that can be covered, but the time it takes; obviously, if you are (at least a spearhead force is) closer to the scene that would help
- a much bigger ship for 240 Marines (they will be spending long periods there, so no 'in overload thinking'
- on these pages there was a rush to design them as amphib replacements (of which, let's face it, we don't have enough... not enough money, either. Hence: horses for courses?)
Ever-lasting truths: Multi-year budgets/ planning by necessity have to address the painful questions; more often than not the Either-Or prevails over Both-And.
If everyone is thinking the same, then someone is not thinking (attributed to Patton)
