IN HOC SIGNO said:
Funny...
FSTO you are right there is other stuff we could do with a ship that big...I suppose it could be a Command and Control platform too right?
It would have that capability, but I still believe the main C4 ships are the 280's (and their eventual replacements).
The real eye opener for me regarding Canada's inability to operate in the Littoral was OP TOUCAN 99-00.
The problems:
- While on our 10 day ramp up to move we loaded the kit that the R22 were going to use in Timor. It came all the way from a storage depot in Montreal and consisted of: the usual tents and other grunt gear plus winter gear and iltis parts (the jeeps themselves never left Canada)
- Upon arrival in Darwin we unload said gear, never to see it again until we reloaded for the trip home
- Not once being in radio contact with the Van Doos while in theatre
- Trying to launch the LCVP in calm seas and the swell smashing them against the ship side
- The LCVP being very underpowered and once beached the ramp's design was so poor that you still had to jump down about 3 ft to hit the beach
- Watching the Italians with their San Giorgio Class Amphib (with a flat deck that carried 3 Sea Kings and a couple of Hueys) launch, load and recover their landing craft effortlessly from their well deck
- Watching the French and Americans do the same thing
- Watching the Aussies mover our folks and their own troops with their own landing craft.
In fact we did a pile of watching and delivering fuel. By that I mean we rode our anchor in Dili harbor while Aussie landing craft came alongside with a couple of fuel trucks embarked to transfer fuel ashore. We could have done much more if we had the equipment that our allies had.
And if...if the Global Warming Crystal ball watchers are right and the worlds shorelines are flooded and the arctic has melted then having the capability to operate and support from the sea operations ashore will be very important.