Suck on that AW!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Mythical Fleet Part 2. Sea Control Ship (Littoral)
The next thing my mythical fleet needs is a mothership/sea control/littoral support ship. My choice? The Mistral class.
Specs from Wikipedia...
General characteristics | |
---|---|
Type: | landing platform helicopter |
Displacement: | 16,500 tonnes (empty) 21,300 tonnes (full load) 32,300 tonnes (with ballasts) |
Length: | 199 m (653 ft) |
Beam: | 32 m (105 ft) |
Draught: | 6.3 m (21 ft) |
Installed power: | 3 Wärtsilä diesels-alternators 16 V32 (6.2 MW) + 1 Wärtsilä Vaasa auxiliary diesel-alternator 18V200 (3 MW) |
Propulsion: | 2 Mermaid azimuth thrusters (2 × 7 MW), 2 5-bladed propellers |
Speed: | 18.8 knots (35 km/h) |
Range: | 10,800 km (5,800 nmi) at 18 knots (33 km/h) 19,800 kilometres (10,700 nmi) at 15 knots (28 km/h) |
Boats and landing craft carried: | 4 CTM (chaland de transport de matériel) alternatively, 2 LCAC (Landing Craft, Air Cushion) |
Capacity: | 59 vehicles (including 13 Leclerc tanks) or a 40-strong Leclerc tank battalion |
Troops: | 900 (short duration) 450 (long durations) 150 (serving as operational headquarters) |
Complement: | 20 officers, 80 petty officers, 60 quarter-masters |
Sensors and processing systems: | DRBN-38A Decca Bridgemaster E250 navigation radar MRR3D-NG air/surface sentry radar 2 optronic fire control systems |
Armament: | 2 x Simbad systems 4 x 12.7 mm M2-HB Browning machine guns |
Aircraft carried: | 16 heavy or 35 light helicopters |
Aviation facilities: | 6 helicopter landing spots |
The vehicle capacity is really over kill, in my vision it'll be used for enhanced aviation and munitions storage. I'd fill this ship with Navy MH-60's armed to the gills and then I'd stuff the back end with Riverines and make this a US Navy Special Ops platform.
SOCOM would get its mothership, Riverines would get its mothership and NAVAIR would get a sea control beast from hell. MH-60's patrolling off the coast of Africa could shut down piracy in a week. In addition you'd have Riverines running patrols and SOCOM conducting raids from its deck.
What ship would be canned in order to bring this true mult-role ship to the fleet?
LCS.
What capability would we lose?
Mine hunting. Every other trick the LCS was expected to perform would be covered by these Landing Platform Helicopter (LPH). Its not much of a stretch either. They displace less than a San Antonio Class LPD so they would be considered relatively small ships. I envision a total of 4 being procured.
Gunfighters at sunset...
NOTE:
Thank You!
Gwetzel and Gbloore's art.
Gwetzel's work...
And now Gbloore's work...
Keep the internet free. Follow the Wikipedia Commons Code!
Sidenote: The British and a few of our other allies have detachments here in the US that rival any forces that we have in there countries. Interesting.
And now Gbloore's work...
Both are great photographers and both have been kind enough to share there work. The only thing I would ask is that if you use their photos then at least be kind enough to credit them. If you don't then we'll see amazing photos like those above plastered with watermarks or sold to the public instead of being shared freely.
Keep the internet free. Follow the Wikipedia Commons Code!
Sidenote: The British and a few of our other allies have detachments here in the US that rival any forces that we have in there countries. Interesting.
Piranha USV Concept
Via Gizmag.
I won't reinvent the wheel. Go to Gizmag to read their article on this waterborne UV. My question is basically this. What purpose will surface UVs fill? Just like the search for ground unmanned vehicles I just don't see these taking off. I could easily be wrong but I just don't see the niche that they're gonna fill. I mean seriously...the Army's been looking at these for over a decade and they're relegated to backpack sized robots. The Navy's been searching too and haven't hit on anything.
But again, I could be wrong. Here's the link to the company website for more info.
Follow up: Lies, Damn Lies and Wheeler Lies!
Wheeler took a post of mine and played with the title to make it fit his latest for Time Magazine. Read it for yourself but its another Sweetman/Horde special.
But even better is the way that Bruce McQuain from Black Five pushes back on the nonsense...
Bruce is too much of a gentleman to state what's actually on his mind. Let me fill in the gaps...
But even better is the way that Bruce McQuain from Black Five pushes back on the nonsense...
Presence Patrol.
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