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Kathianne
08-17-2019, 09:52 PM
Looks like your old ship, The Boxer, has another new toy.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/08/15/marines-use-armored-vehicle-defend-navy-ship-small-boats-iranian-coast.html




Marines Use Armored Vehicle to Defend Navy Ship from Small Boats off Iranian Coast 15 Aug 2019Military.com | By Gina Harkins

As sailors and Marines are sailing in more contested waters, the blue-green team is getting creative about how to defend amphibious assault ships from enemy small boats and drones.


Members of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit were photographed sailing through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf this week with a Light Armored Vehicle on the flight deck.


The armored vehicle can be seen in the background of photos released by the Marine Corps on Wednesday, showing AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters flying off the amphibious assault ship Boxer. The LAV was first spotted by Phil Ewing, national security editor at NPR.


Sailing through or near the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway that runs between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman, has been contentious in recent months.

...

Maj. Gen. David Coffman, director of expeditionary warfare, said last year that Navy and Marine leaders were coming up with innovative ways to defend ships in contested areas. They've typically relied on aircraft, he said, but now they're getting more creative to combat new threats.


"I can tell you I watched a MEU commander strap an LAV to the front of a flight deck because it had better sensors than the ship did to find small boats," Coffman said during an event hosted by the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., last fall. "... The LAV guys will sit up there."


Marines have put an LAV on an amphib flight deck in another disputed waterway. In September, members of the 31st MEU parked an LAV on the flight deck of the amphibious assault ship Wasp during a training exercise in the South China Sea, Marine Corps Times reported last year. The MEU's weapons company fired the LAV's M242 chain guns and coaxial M240C medium machine guns at simulated targets in the ocean during the exercise, the paper reported, which was meant to prep sailors and Marines for transiting through dangerous waters.


This isn't the first time the 11th MEU has turned to a land vehicles to defend the Boxer.


Marines were able to take down the Iranian drone last month by using a weapon system that fits onto a pair of small MRZR all-terrain vehicles. The system is equipped with high-power sensors and jamming technology, which the Marines used when the drone got too close to the ship.

Elessar
08-17-2019, 10:34 PM
I wish him Luck!

High_Plains_Drifter
08-18-2019, 09:38 AM
I wish him Luck!
No kidding. Weird the electronics on that vehicle are better than the ships.

Gunny
08-18-2019, 02:54 PM
No kidding. Weird the electronics on that vehicle are better than the ships.The electronics in an LAV are not inside the ship. If you park the LAV on the fore end of the flight deck it is clear of everything but the hull.

The ship is designed to fight other ships. Those little speedboats the Iranians tool around in are not worthy to be called ships.

The LAV is designed to transport and protect personnel against enemy personnel and/or ground weapons. It has to be more sensitive. It can also be used as the comm/EW wagon and be jammed with electronics.

So Kathianne, not a "new" toy. Doing what Marines do -- improvise, adapt and overcome with what they have. They just found something new to do with an old toy. I'm just wondering how they got it on the deck :laugh2: (they lifted it with a 53, I'm sure)

icansayit
08-18-2019, 03:22 PM
The electronics in an LAV are not inside the ship. If you park the LAV on the fore end of the flight deck it is clear of everything but the hull.

The ship is designed to fight other ships. Those little speedboats the Iranians tool around in are not worthy to be called ships.

The LAV is designed to transport and protect personnel against enemy personnel and/or ground weapons. It has to be more sensitive. It can also be used as the comm/EW wagon and be jammed with electronics.

So Kathianne, not a "new" toy. Doing what Marines do -- improvise, adapt and overcome with what they have. They just found something new to do with an old toy. I'm just wondering how they got it on the deck :laugh2: (they lifted it with a 53, I'm sure)

Gunny....they probably loaded it from the well deck, after driving it aboard inport, then used the elevator to the flight deck. Been there..., seen it happen with transported ARMY M-1 50 Ton tanks too.

Gunny
08-18-2019, 03:31 PM
Gunny....they probably loaded it from the well deck, after driving it aboard inport, then used the elevator to the flight deck. Been there..., seen it happen with transported ARMY M-1 50 Ton tanks too.I've never seen them do it that way. I kept thinking no way that thing fits on the ramp :laugh: I had completely forgotten the elevator.

High_Plains_Drifter
08-18-2019, 04:31 PM
The electronics in an LAV are not inside the ship. If you park the LAV on the fore end of the flight deck it is clear of everything but the hull.

The ship is designed to fight other ships. Those little speedboats the Iranians tool around in are not worthy to be called ships.

The LAV is designed to transport and protect personnel against enemy personnel and/or ground weapons. It has to be more sensitive. It can also be used as the comm/EW wagon and be jammed with electronics.

So @Kathianne (http://www.debatepolicy.com/member.php?u=8), not a "new" toy. Doing what Marines do -- improvise, adapt and overcome with what they have. They just found something new to do with an old toy. I'm just wondering how they got it on the deck :laugh2: (they lifted it with a 53, I'm sure)
Yep... I knew most all that.

Maybe with this new threat from small boats they should think about upgrading the ships sensors with similar in the LAV. Just a thought.

Gunny
08-19-2019, 08:49 PM
Yep... I knew most all that.

Maybe with this new threat from small boats they should think about upgrading the ships sensors with similar in the LAV. Just a thought.I don't know all the "why - why not's".

Not to sound like a broken record, but the big advantage I see to using the LAV chained to the deck is it can be cleared of everything made of steel except the hull beneath it.
I really don't know for fact that is the case. I'm working on memory. I don't know if the ship can be equipped to do the job or not.

A LOT of modifications came from improvisation. I think it was Robin Olds in Nam that said "screw this" and had a chain gun mounted under the wing of his fighter so he could shoot back. The USAF at the time was in love with air-to-air missiles that sucked. It caught on and they eventually put guns back on fighters.

Puff the Magic Dragon was a C-130 loaded to the gills with guns and ammo. The Huey Supercobra was basically a trimmed up, re-fitted UH-1N Huey basically turned into a VTOL that could carry more payload than a WWII B-17.

This could just be the beginning of one of those kinds of mods. I do have to say, it took some innovation, cooperation and plain old technical knowledge to come up with it. The ship belongs to the COMPHIBRON and the LAV the MEU CO. The MEU CO had to have enough knowledge of the LAV AND the ship to come up with the plan, then sell it to COMPHIBRON. Add to that, there is usually a "quiet" power struggle between the two and all I can say is Ooh-rah to them both. I'm impressed and I don't throw that compliment around a lot.