The Briefing Room
General Category => Military/Defense News => Topic started by: rangerrebew on December 05, 2018, 02:29:31 pm
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Here’s why the Marine Corps is strapping LAVs to the flight deck
By: Shawn Snow and Todd South  
The Corps already has fired its rocket artillery from a Navy ship. Now the Corps is experimenting with strapping light armored vehicles, or LAVs, to the flight deck to counter small boat and other threats.
In September, Marines with the 31st Marine Expeditionary, or MEU, embarked aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp parked LAVs on the flight deck for a ship defense drill in the South China Sea that was designed to mimic the MEU’s voyage through dangerous waters.
While the use of the Corps’ LAVs aboard the amphib ship was innovative, it opens a slew of questions about the security and capabilities of large U.S. Navy and transport ships operating in dangerous waters across the globe that may have to rely on aging Marine assets to counter some surface threats.
https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/03/lavs-on-the-flight-deck-the-corps-is-testing-ways-to-boost-ship-security/ (https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2018/12/03/lavs-on-the-flight-deck-the-corps-is-testing-ways-to-boost-ship-security/)
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That's pretty slick, actually. Improvise and overcome.
But one would think (especially after the USS Cole) that the Navy would upgrade or augment organic systems on board to cope with the threat of first jihadi small craft bombs and the coming (predictable) drone vessels/bombs they will inevitably confront.