RE: Fighters in space

On Thu, 4 Nov 1999, Binhan Lin wrote:

>	Using a pure wet navy example, many smaller nations have
brown-water
> navies - patrol boats, hydrofoils etc, that are smaller, cheaper and
faster
> and carry similar type weapons as most blue water navy vessels.  Why
doesn't
> the US have a gigantic fleet of hydrofoils/hovercraft armed to the
teeth
> with Harpoon missiles?  Because these vessels are ineffective in
projecting

These small littoral combatants don't have the staying power of a larger

blue water combatant in terms of full weapons fit. Admittedly it depends

on weapon fits and tech level. The fight between Egyptian and Israeli 
small combatants show that. They can offer quite a nasty punch to the 
opponents. Usually the small combatants are single use. Patrol/Strike, 
ASW/Patrol, GunBoat. 

The US used a significant number of brownwater combatants during Vietnam

in the delta and on the coast. All sorts of quick designs popped up. 

Also the USN still has the means to transport such craft to an area. One

tender version is for transproting yard/aux craft to an area of 
operations. It looks like a freighter with a big side cut area that all 
the small craft sit. The Big tender can be partly sunk to offload/load 
the little boats. 

> your power past your coastal waters.	To carry the war to the enemy,
you
> need the big ships with endurance.  Yes, a little skimpy PT armed with
a
> Harpoon can disable or even sink a destroyer, and perhaps a dozen
might
> damage a carrier at and miniscule fraction of the cost [Binhan Lin]  
but
> unless the enemy is willing to sail into your backyard, you are
totally
> impotent.

A couple of PTs that got inside the defensive perimeter of a GVBG could 
create untold havoc in close waters...Usually something on the small
size 
can carry 4-8. The Pegasus Class carried 8 harpoons, a chaff luncher 
suite, sensors and a 5"Dual purpose mount. A 60 Knots they would be a 
force to be fearful of. 

If you enemy plans on landings or protracted operations, he is going to 
try to kill these craft. If he doesn't then he can't continue those ops 
without expecting some losses due to your small combatants. The other 
thing about small combatants is that they are much cheaper than a big 
assed single combatant with multiple uses. thus you may be able to use 
them like popcorn. 

Small combatants, combined with fighters and escorts can create a 
bewildering amount of fire on larger ships. 

Got some big NSL ships to fight, pin them with a few big ships to one 
direction then swarm them with small ships and lay mines in their
frontal 
arcs....Nothing like watching a NSL BDN try to maneuver around mines....

------------------------------------------------------------------
- Ryan Montieth Gill	  NRA / DoD# 0780 (Smug #1) / AMA / SOHC -
- ryan.gill@turner.com	    I speak not for CNN, nor they for me -
- rmgill@mindspring.com 	     www.mindspring.com/~rmgill/ -
- '85 Honda CB700S  -  '72 Honda CB750K  - '76 Chevy MonteCarlo  -
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