Some concepts for new kinds of military systems:
* Supersonic transports that are military versions of the soon to be introduced Boom company supersonic long range commercial airliners for trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic flights. Smaller, somewhat faster, versions of these could be developed to use for med-evac, especially in the Pacific theater where there are vast distances between trauma center class hospitals.
* Very small missile boats that are fast, don't have naval guns or torpedos, and house crews who are not on shift, provisions, and fuel on "mother ships" (either submarines or surface ships) further from the immediate theater of expected conflict. They would each have just one battery of anti-ship/anti-surface missiles each, plus air defense/anti-missile resources. Numerous missile boats would be procured, but they would be under 800 tons each, similar to China's 220 ton, 43 meter, Type 22 missile boats or Finland's 250 ton, 51 meter, Hamina class missile boats. When defending the littorals of allies, the "mother ship" wouldn't be needed.
By comparison, the smallest surface combatants in the U.S. Navy are the littoral combat ships (LCS) at about 3000 tons each, which often don't have anti-ship missiles sufficient to take down opposing surface combatants at all. Actually, the LCS could be easily repurposed to be a decent "mother ship".
In some ways, the concept would be similar to an "arsenal ship" but without putting all of the Navy's eggs in one basket, thus requiring more anti-ship resources to wipe out.
No comments:
Post a Comment