I might have posted this before, but everytime I see it I have a serious moment of...WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY THINKING!
An automatic 8 inch gun? Ready to go? Available YEARS ago!
Its enough to make a Marine bleary eyed. Instead what do we have to look forward to? A Marine Personnel Carrier Program on hold...An Amphibious Combat Vehicle Program that can't get going...A reinvention of the wheel with a mini SPMAGTF in Africa that's based off transport by MV-22's (I'm seriously worried that they're going to fly into trouble ... maybe a terrorist ambush ...they read papers/press releases too. I can see it now. An embassy reinforcement turns into a shit sandwich from hell.) and last on this list (but definitely not the last on THE list) a Mobile Landing Platform that will probably end up being used by SOCOM for a Afloat Staging Base.
Go here to read Salamanders take on the gun.
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You know I thought I recognized that ship. My father was stationed on the Hull before we moved to Germany. Nice seeing the old gal.
ReplyDeleteshe must have been sturdy as hell to handle a 8in gun right in front of the bridge!
DeleteCould be interesting. As you infer: USMC fire support. A bigger round like that could give it an interesting capability as a precision-guided (GPS/INS) round as already used by the 155mm ground forces. As an aside, I want to see HIMARS on ships for USMC fire-support.
ReplyDeleteThat's pretty easy, MLP + HIMARS or MLRS. People are bad mouthing the MLP right and left, but it has a lot of potential as a platform for a variety of missions. Its a pretty large chunk of flat real estate than can be positioned just about anywhere we want.
DeleteNeed NGFS, load up an MLP with arty and rockets. Need rapid supply, it can do that. Its pretty flexible. Would it be nicer if it had defense, sure, but realistically it can actually do a lot of different things, the navy and marines just need to think.
Ahh gents you seem to be reading the dumb Navy prerels about MLP? That ship will need major mods to become an AFSB which is NOT intended to be a SOCOM platform. There are OTHER ships in the works for that mission besides the MLP. The MLP is slow behemoth and one cannot fire non-stablised weapons from a ship however big and seemingly stable.
ReplyDeleteThe big gun on the Hull concept came and WENT since the damn thing practically shook the ship's bow off.
Go to http://books.google.com/books?id=ZiQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA107&dq=popular+science+1949+%22earth+satellite+vehicle%22&hl=en&ei=xCTiTIKFAcWnnQesoInVDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true
ReplyDeleteScroll to page 121. This system from the late 40s is what was repackaged on the Hull. How would you like to reload THAT brass?