Your fictional sub/ship/aircraft discussion

[Betonov]

Originally Posted by Growler

that's essentially what carriers do when the US sends one to disaster areas. Demilitarizing that operation as you propose here could be interesting, though I would worry a bit about the security of the vessel(s) in places like Haiti.

I was more thinkg in line with commercial transport. Minning equipment for hard to reach mines, suplies for backwater research outposts. Or supplying a field of drilling platforms. One ship could drop anchor and 3 choppers would resuply a number of platforms in a lot faster time than if the ship would sail from one platform or another.
In disaster relief the ship would be used if it would be closer to the area than a carrier and later could augment the effort