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SeaQueen -> RE: Pebble Island Raid (3/20/2018 10:59:05 PM)
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I'm glad the cargo and connector capability is finally starting to get some attention. I think the more people use it the more it'll be improved as it'll become more of a priority. It's true that Command is focused on air and naval operations. The thing is, amphibious assault IS an air and naval operation! Marines are transported from ships with aircraft and landing craft to the beach. Nothing about that is a land operation. Furthermore, the success of amphibious assault depends on achieving air local air superiority or even air dominance in a region. That means that you have all the missions that go with other air operations around it, like SEAD and fighter sweeps. It also depends on achieving localized maritime dominance as well. That means you've got to clear mine lanes, find and destroy shore-based CDCMs and artillery pieces, gather intelligence on the opposing forces, sink threatening warships in the region, and clear the area of submarines. All that is a naval and air problem as well, to be accomplished with aircraft, surface ships and submarines.
Once you've built up the "iron mountain" on the beach and it's time to push out, then it is more about ground warfare. Even then there's an air portion, though in the form of CAS and logistical support. More modern concepts like the USMC's Ship-To-Objective Maneuver Concept depend heavily on sea-based logistics and air transport, so they fall under the umbrella of "air and naval operations" as well. An expeditionary strike group setting out with a bunch of helicopters into enemy territory to build up a forward area refueling point (FARP) and then setting out even further inland from there is performing a sea based air operation. The ground portion is actually the least resource consuming portion of the whole operation, which might depend on many sea based and land based aircraft to support even a small number of Marines.
I like the idea of having cargo capability on aircraft carriers. It gets used more often than people realize. I think the largest example was when in the US invasion of Afghanistan, when the USS Enterprise was used as essentially a mega-LHD/LHA/LPH to insert a huge number of Marines into Afghanistan by air.
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