Wasp/San Antonio/Whidby Island

[kevinkins]

Nice summary of the San Antonio class:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthomp ... a462b8525c

[SeaQueen]

One of the more fun scenarios I can imagine would be using small special operations craft based on an independent LPD with maybe an MH-60S or R aboard to hunt pirate boats.

[kevinkins]

Nice idea. Maybe around the Philippines cooperating with their military to make the scenario a bit larger.

[SeaQueen]

I was thinking more along the lines of the Gulf of Aden, but Philippines... sure.

[lumiere]

Without doubt this thread is for me who suddenly interested in the amphibious operations from yesterday. Thanks!

[magi]

[quote]ORIGINAL: SeaQueen

Here's My Intro to the Gator Navy:

The Wasp, San Antonio and Whidbey Island class ships are used to transport Marines for the purpose of conducting amphibious assault. They are America's first responders, appearing to evacuate embassies and assist in natural disasters all around the world. The centerpiece of the trio is the Wasp class, or one of its follow-on classes, The Makin Island and America classes. In the late 90s its place might be taken by an LPH or LHA. It is among the most complex warships to operate in the world. By most nation's standards it is an aircraft carrier, but it also has the well-deck function for it to conduct surface assault as well. It has almost all of the C3 functionality of a carrier, and in some ways more because it also contains command and control spaces for the embarked Marines to control a ground battle as well. Together, a formation of 3 ships, a Wasp-class, a Whidbey Island class, and a San Antonia Class would form an amphibious ready group (ARG). At all times, the United States keeps 3 ARGs at sea, one in the Atlantic, one in the Pacific, and one in the Persian Gulf, to act as part of our forward deployed naval forces (FDNF).

You'd only operate F-35Bs or Harriers off of a Wasp class. The others can't really do it in real life even if it works in the database.

You're right, a 3 ship ARG (LHD/LHA/LPH, LSD + LPD) depends heavily on its escorts, and the aviation combat element (ACE) from the embarked Marine Air Ground Task Force (MAGTF). Typically, together they transport a reinforced battlion sized formation of Marines called a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). They might also individually carry a smaller Special Purpose MAGTF (SPMAGTF) or if you put enough 3 ship ARGs together, you could transport the assault echelon of a Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB).

When you combine an ARG with a couple CRUDES and maybe a submarine or MPA, you get an expeditionary strike group (ESG). An ESG is the real combat formation because it combines the amphibious warfare functions of the ARG with offensive and defensive capabilities of a surface warship, most critically is the naval gun fire support (NGFS) necessary to support Marines ashore. Theoretically, this was the original planned purpose for the DDG-1000 class.

ESG/ARGs are not necessarily attached to a carrier. A carrier strike group (CSG) is a separate formation of warships. None the less, one of the preconditions for amphibious assault is local air dominance. Therefore in combat, it would be unlikely for an ESG/ARG to venture out from underneath the range of either carrier or land based air power in order to deliver its load of Marines. While the ESG/ARG formation has its own air power in the form of F-35B/Harrier, MH-60S, AH/UH-1, MV-22/CH-46, and CH-53 aircraft, it's relatively limited compared to a carrier air wing or land based air power.

While during the late 90s and early 2000s the Navy experimented with ESGs as fixed formations of warships that always deployed together in the same way that CSGs do, that concept has mostly fallen by the wayside, in part because ship count has declined a bit, and also because many of the "bread and butter" missions of an ARG don't typically require a surface combatant (e.g. humanitarian assistance/disaster relief). Now a days escorts are assigned to them on an ad hoc basis. They might be pulled from a CSG or they might be assigned from an independent destroyer squadron (DESRON) based on need.

Any questions?


you did good......

[ExNusquam]

ORIGINAL: SeaQueen

I was thinking more along the lines of the Gulf of Aden, but Philippines... sure.

I once built a counter-piracy scenario focusing on MDA in the GoA. In order to make it worth playing I needed game-crawling levels of neutral vessels and a bunch of random interesting events over a full day. Eventually it got lost in a HDD swap and I just let it die.

I'd certainly be interested to see your take on it.