Possibility small STOVL carrier USN/USMC

[spazsinbad]

The two Oz LHDs together on the bounding main Jervis Bay (NAS Nowra nearby) 10 Feb 2016 waiting for cross decking....

[hurricaneditka]

The two Oz LHDs together on the bounding main Jervis Bay (NAS Nowra nearby) 10 Feb 2016 waiting for cross decking....

Pardon my ignorance, but cross decking what?

[SpudmanWP]

helos

[spazsinbad]

Tah 'SWP' been out and about today....

[spazsinbad]

Oh - that awful possibility mentioned again.... "fighter jets"! Oh NOES...... NOW ON YOUTUBE....

"HMAS Adelaide: Fully operational in May"

VIDEO: https://www.facebook.com/7newssydney/vi ... 870934744/

[neptune]

.."HMAS Adelaide: Fully operational in May"..

Nice!

..one step at a time...

[spazsinbad]

LOTS of hints in this and other threads about THERMION on USN LHAs, including USS America, so THERM ME ON busta - I'm expensive. HUH? Oh well....

Underway on USS America
17 Aug 2016 Megan Eckstein

"...USS America
The first-in-class America was designed with many improvements over its fellow big decks, Baze said. Primarily, it was built for the MEU of the future.

The ship has undergone modifications to support the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, including flight deck strengthening to support vertical landings. Portions of the flight deck were paved with a special non-skid material designed to withstand the heat and wind of the MV-22’s nacelle that points down during takeoffs and landings – the non-skid is too expensive to use on the whole deck, but its use on America expands the number of spots on the flight deck the Osprey can use.

And its maintenance area was designed specifically for larger aircraft.

“The future Marine Air-Ground Task Force, the future MEU, is going to be designed around the Joint Strike Fighter, which has incredible capabilities but also takes up more space in the ship than the AV-8Bs; the MV-22s, which bring phenomenal capability but also take up more space in the ship than the frogs that they replaced,” Lt. Col. Eric Purcell, commanding officer of Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 463 Reinforced and Aviation Combat Element commander for RIMPAC, told USNI News from the ship.

The hangar is 42 percent larger than a Wasp-class LHD’s hangar, the sealed-in well deck space was reconfigured as a much larger aircraft intermediate maintenance department work area, and the ship carries about four times more jet fuel than other big decks.

In addition to the aviation enhancements, the ship also has increased command and control capabilities compared to older LHAs and LHDs. America has large open architecture command and control spaces, at the request of the Marine Corps, and the new propulsion plant leaves plenty of open space in the engineering rooms that could host new systems in the future....

...Duhe argued America has several key features that lend itself to being the flagship of a MEB. The command and control rooms are spacious and modular, with the ability to bring new systems in and plug into the open architecture set-up to communicate with other ships in the Navy, with forces already on the ground, and with international partners as needed. The hangar is large enough to allow for flexibility in the size and composition of the ACE – or to accommodate other ships’ aircraft as they ferry in leadership as needed for planning. And the ship can stay on station much longer than its counterparts before having to meet a supply ship for refueling at sea – it holds 1.3 million gallons of jet fuel compared to 300 or 400 million gallons on other amphibs, and the ship’s gas turbine engines for primary power and diesel engines for sailing at lower speeds mean the ship may consume as little as half the fuel other big decks would use.

“Ultimately this ship is a wonderful ship to support MEB operations, especially from a command and control perspective,” Duhe said. “I don’t personally believe this will remain in a traditional MEU role, nor do I believe that’s really what she was built for and really designed for, so there’s a future for the ship that’s still coming about. … It still has a story to be told.”...

...Descheneaux continued. “But at the end of the day, when America was built there were a lot of people scratching their heads. … Now, by every account I get from America, there’s incredible goodness. And I think once we start populating that platform with the F-35 it will only grow exponentially. And then to have (LHA) 6 and 7 with that capability when we need to have power projection down the road will be just again another more specific tool in our arsenal, a tool in the chest to meet our nation’s intent.”"

PHOTO: https://i1.wp.com/news.usni.org/wp-cont ... deck-1.jpg "When the flight deck of USS America was redone to support F-35B operations, patches of advanced non-skid material were added to allow the MV-22 Osprey to land in more spots on the deck without causing damage with its extreme heat and wind while landing vertically. USNI News photo."

Source: https://news.usni.org/2016/08/17/21198_ ... ss_america

[bojack_horseman]

It was interesting (or at least, I thought it was) that the air strikes on Sirte in Libya a couple of weeks ago was from a lone, unaccompanied LHD.

With pressure on the Nimitz/Ford classes over reliance on a big carrier group may be a thing of the past.

I know its been said before, but an America class with 'B's on board will (trope alert!) be a real game changer.
One working with a destroyer and/or submarine, or even alone will be able to save the larger carrier strike groups a lot of effort & money, while still dishing out far more punishment than most nations can in their entirety.

[sferrin]

It was interesting (or at least, I thought it was) that the air strikes on Sirte in Libya a couple of weeks ago was from a lone, unaccompanied LHD.

Remember this the next time some idiot says the F-35B is a waste because, "if there is a land target worth attacking we'll have CVNs in the area that can do the job". This is not the first time LHDs have been the only guys in town. There were some Libya strikes a year or two ago where the same thing occurred.

[popcorn]

Not to forget one downed Strike Eagle crew who were fortunate to have a Big Deck Gator and it's complement of Harriers able to respond in such a timely manner.

[tincansailor]

It was interesting (or at least, I thought it was) that the air strikes on Sirte in Libya a couple of weeks ago was from a lone, unaccompanied LHD.

Remember this the next time some idiot says the F-35B is a waste because, "if there is a land target worth attacking we'll have CVNs in the area that can do the job". This is not the first time LHDs have been the only guys in town. There were some Libya strikes a year or two ago where the same thing occurred.

The conflict in Libya was fought with land based aircraft. Sure if a war is small enough that 6-20 F-35Bs can fight the whole war in two weeks fine. Bigger then that, or if there's an opposing navy then you need a CVN Battle Group. If we ever had a Guadalcanal kind of operation again LHD's might have to do what carriers did in that operation, fly in reinforcing aircraft to the Island Base, and then leave the danger area.

We haven't had a campaign since WWII where our naval forces didn't have uncontested access to a combat area. In a conflict with China our carriers might have to shuttle aircraft to land based refuelers or bases in the Philippines, or Taiwan rather then bring the carriers into the range of Chinese tactical aircraft. Big amphibious ships could do the same thing, shuttling in troops, and aircraft to the combat zone, while minimizing danger to the ship. How you use your big deck ships obviously depends on the scale and intensity of the conflict.

[jetnerd]

It was interesting (or at least, I thought it was) that the air strikes on Sirte in Libya a couple of weeks ago was from a lone, unaccompanied LHD.

Remember this the next time some idiot says the F-35B is a waste because, "if there is a land target worth attacking we'll have CVNs in the area that can do the job". This is not the first time LHDs have been the only guys in town. There were some Libya strikes a year or two ago where the same thing occurred.

The conflict in Libya was fought with land based aircraft. Sure if a war is small enough that 6-20 F-35Bs can fight the whole war in two weeks fine. Bigger then that, or if there's an opposing navy then you need a CVN Battle Group. If we ever had a Guadalcanal kind of operation again LHD's might have to do what carriers did in that operation, fly in reinforcing aircraft to the Island Base, and then leave the danger area.

We haven't had a campaign since WWII where our naval forces didn't have uncontested access to a combat area. In a conflict with China our carriers might have to shuttle aircraft to land based refuelers or bases in the Philippines, or Taiwan rather then bring the carriers into the range of Chinese tactical aircraft. Big amphibious ships could do the same thing, shuttling in troops, and aircraft to the combat zone, while minimizing danger to the ship. How you use your big deck ships obviously depends on the scale and intensity of the conflict.

Since today we have tanker aircraft and c-5's / c/-17's I'd imagine that aircraft would ferry to their destination that way with the initial support equipment and staff by air as well.

[tincansailor]

Since today we have tanker aircraft and c-5's / c/-17's I'd imagine that aircraft would ferry to their destination that way with the initial support equipment and staff by air as well.[/quote]

Yes your right USAF would forward deploy that way. I was just thinking that USN Carriers might have to shuttle through land bases in the initial stages of a conflict with China. It's been done before. In Desert Storm many carrier strikes shuttled into and out of bases in SA because we didn't want to risk putting carriers into the PG. It's a long haul from the Red Sea to Baghdad. Our Carriers could stay 1,000 nm east of Taiwan and still strike the Chinese Coast using shuttle bombing.

Since the naval aircraft wouldn't be based at the land base, just refueling they wouldn't add much to issues of congestion, or maintenance at the land base. The Carrier would still be doing the arming, and maintenance of it's aircraft. The navy would just have to keep it's own fleet logistics going.

[Siesta]

"In Desert Storm many carrier strikes shuttled into and out of bases in SA because we didn't want to risk putting carriers into the PG. It's a long haul from the Red Sea to Baghdad. Our Carriers could stay 1,000 nm east of Taiwan and still strike the Chinese Coast using shuttle bombing.

Since the naval aircraft wouldn't be based at the land base, just refueling they wouldn't add much to issues of congestion, or maintenance at the land base. The Carrier would still be doing the arming, and maintenance of it's aircraft. The navy would just have to keep it's own fleet logistics going."

I don't know where you got the idea that Navy Strike Packages went into and out of SA during the intial strikes of Desert Storm but they only used them for divert bases. Saratoga, JFK, America, and Roosevelt directly flew strikes into Iraq from the Red Sea. Midway and Ranger and then followed by Roosevelt were in the Persian Gulf. We had tankers based out of western Saudi Arabia specifically to help the Air Wings for the Red Sea group.

[sferrin]

"In Desert Storm many carrier strikes shuttled into and out of bases in SA because we didn't want to risk putting carriers into the PG.

Uhm, wut? We had six carriers in theater almost the entire war. Several in the PG.