I was checking out Admiral Greenert's page and found the following pics...
Above you see the first "concept of the AFSB. It appears to have a "add on" flight deck and spaces below contain machinery and I assume workshops. It was a basic design and didn't seem like it would add much complexity and costs. Perhaps more important, it also looks like it could revert back to supporting an amphibious assault without much work.
Now you see the latest "image" of what the AFSB will look like. Quite honestly it seems like the Maersk concept of converting a tanker into a heavy amphibious assault ship is reborn in a smaller package.
Quite honestly this might be the best thing to come out of this "concept". The Mobile Landing Platform has always been a ship in search of a mission. If it leads to converting Oil Tankers to heavy assault ships...each one capable of embarking a complete MEU...with two of them capable of carrying a Marine Expeditionary Brigade, then we might finally be seeing amphibious assault evolve into a heavyweight strike force from the sea, able to take on heavy mechanized forces --- and win ---- upon landing.
Above you see the first "concept of the AFSB. It appears to have a "add on" flight deck and spaces below contain machinery and I assume workshops. It was a basic design and didn't seem like it would add much complexity and costs. Perhaps more important, it also looks like it could revert back to supporting an amphibious assault without much work.
Now you see the latest "image" of what the AFSB will look like. Quite honestly it seems like the Maersk concept of converting a tanker into a heavy amphibious assault ship is reborn in a smaller package.
Quite honestly this might be the best thing to come out of this "concept". The Mobile Landing Platform has always been a ship in search of a mission. If it leads to converting Oil Tankers to heavy assault ships...each one capable of embarking a complete MEU...with two of them capable of carrying a Marine Expeditionary Brigade, then we might finally be seeing amphibious assault evolve into a heavyweight strike force from the sea, able to take on heavy mechanized forces --- and win ---- upon landing.
