"The littorals" as the Navy uses the term constitute a much larger area than just 25nm from shore, and amphibs don't need to go closer than that in order to accomplish their mission. Bare in mind, the HMM squadron equipped with MV-22s on an LHD can deliver a company sized air assault element 200nm from the ship. Additionally there will be fixed wing aircraft and attack helicopters, all of which have operating ranges greater than 25nm. Just because there's not a ship there doesn't mean you're conceding the space. A capital ship like an amphibious ship controls a significant space around it with it's aircraft. Additionally, it's escorts equipped with AEGIS, guns, more helos, tomahawks and harpoons add to the firepower. In the future there might also be LCS, with more missiles, helos and guns.
Additionally, the surface assault element doesn't need to be right up against the shore either. LCACS and EFVs will be able to quickly tranverse that distance.
Finally, they don't do amphibious landings without air superiority, so there's probably going to be all kinds of carrier and land based fixed wing aircraft to patrol that space.
Now... there ARE a lot of issues and contraditions with the USMC's Ship-To-Objective-Maneuver (STOM) doctrine, which probably need to be rethought. The 25nm policy isn't really one of them, though.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Molon Labe
Just wanted to run this by some of our resident experts.
I've been reading on Information Dissemination that the Navy has decided it will not allow amphibs within 25nm of the shore; in essence, conceding the littorals.... even though our latest efforts (SSN 774, LCS) are specifically designed for the littorals. (The short version of the link is essentially that the USMC needs faster, bigger landing craft to be able to accomplish their mission because of this concession--but like everything on that site, it's worth reading from beginning to end.)
Is anyone here familiar with who articulated this policy/strategy statement, with a more precise formulation of the policy than ID could provide, and most importantly, why we feel we can't win in that environment? |