lenaitch
Army.ca Veteran
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Actually you need both.
While you can LAPES a boat/equipment in the water (it has been alleged that certain water craft can even have personnel in them for this - color me not interested in being on one), I think this has more of a retrieval of personnel and equipment aspect, as opposed to insertion or sustainment - and not as a "emergency landing option"
Insertions can be done off subs - but if you have a hot extraction, few subs want to be in shallow water against a pursuit - and a Herc can get in fairly quick and out --- BUT it needs to be able to take off after.
Again - I am not a pilot, but after 'sitting' with the crew chiefs and counting over 400 holes in the Blackhawk we just landed in -- I appreciate getting out of dodge as fast as one can...
Neither a pilot nor a member of the military, but if the goal is quick extraction, one wonders how fast a float-equipped Herc could get off the water. Obviously we don't know but I have my doubts that, as our Turbo Beaver pilot liked to say, it would take off 'like a home sick angel'. Also, I tend to agree with another post that it would probably fly like a brick.