If you've ever wondered why the Amphibious Vehicle Test Branch can be so demanding take a look at the above vid. Imagine the ride in back. Consider a vehicle stuffed with 95th percentile Marines loaded down with full gear...
Now consider even rougher seas than you see here. Its been done, might be occurring right now and its not pleasant.
The holy grail of our next vehicle have to be ergonomics, reasonable (that doesn't mean perfect) protection, sea keeping, ground mobility, the ability to provide fire support and GROWTH POTENTIAL (this is a very important yet poorly understood requirement)
The AAV was never expected to serve this long. We have to plan having a vehicle with a comparable service life with the procurement of our next ride.
Sol any idea which ship this is? Ramp looks similar to Newport class but uses chain vice wire. Angle of climb over the hump is quite a bit higher than Newport.
ReplyDelete