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| A roll-on/roll-off discharge facility, or RRDF, serves as an area for
loading and off-loading cargo at sea. The RRDF, assembled off Saipan in
preparation for Freedom Banner/Cobra Gold 2011, includes nine connected
modules, which are powered by two warping tugs and a power module. U.S. Navy photos by Ensign Justin Bennett |
The Roll On- Roll Off Discharge Facility is perhaps the most under reported part of the sea base....but its also arguably one of the most important.
I never realized it and the Marine Corps website doesn't play it up, but the sea base as envisioned isn't revolutionary at all...its actually evolutionary. From the actions off the coast of Normandy to the work done in the Pacific even the work done by the Riverine Forces in Vietnam with their floating motherships which serviced not only watercraft but also aircraft are all building blocks upon which the modern sea base is being built.
When looked at in that light this is a common sense solution to historical problems.
Just FWI the ROKN operates a big floating naval base in the Yellow Sea to support their patrol boat operations. The thing is even armed.
ReplyDeletegood to know but like i said in the post...floating bases are nothing new...even armed ones.
ReplyDeletei mean think about it...i forgot the name of the operation in the Persian Gulf but if you take over oil platforms and arm them then you in essence have a floating base...so that isn't a new concept...having it mobile and able to assemble and disassemble it is whats new.
well remember in WWII we had the mulberry harbors that were used very well, one got destroyed in a storm but they were critical in our invasion of europe.
ReplyDeleteThe ones in the NAG was called Operation Prime Chance.
ReplyDeleteThe Mulberries at Normandy were transported and assembled at their targets, they just were not disassembled and moved someplace else (which might have been smart later on).
Heck there was a time when the Soviets were building a sub base floating in the Atlantic called Priliv-1 and in the Indian Ocean called Priliv-2. They were both dismal failures. This was back in '68-'69.
i didnt realize the soviet sub bases but it makes sense to do that, the german had sub tenders out in the atlantic during the war. your right the mulberrys would have been smart to move but as our forces moved south and not west (market garden was a horrible failure), we may not have had many places to move them. although maybe the allies should have had more ready to be built but i think the allies had hoped on taking cherbourg intact and Antwerp more quickly than we did.
ReplyDelete