Wait, What? US Deploying Amphibious Assault Ships to Libya?
Update: Obama Issuing Statement Now; Says No Ground Troops in Libya

An amphibious assault ship? Like a ship designed to support a beach landing by Marines?

What the hell? Who the hell is talking about that? And why would they be talking about that?

There is a reason for some such ships, if you're going to launch airstrikes -- pilots may (likely: will) get shot down, and you're going to need, probably, some special forces and armored helicopters to recover them.

I don't like this, though. This isn't what I had in mind at all. There is national interest and there is national interest so great it justifies an invasion. Libya is the former but it is not the latter.

I guess I assume these are here for worst-case evacuation purpose. I assume that no one's planning a new Shores of Tripoli mission. Still, I also have a queasy feeling, all that stuff people kept saying about not getting involved at all because our government doesn't know when to say when.

United States will deploy additional amphibious ships to the Mediterranean, the military said on Friday, as part of the Obama administration's plans for responding to ongoing violence in Libya.

The USS Bataan Amphibious Ready Group will deploy on March 23 "ahead of its original schedule in order to relieve units from the USS Kearsarge (Amphibious Ready Group) currently positioned in the Mediterranean Sea," it said in a statement.

These ships carry choppers (and some Harriers) which I assume have ground-strike capabilities but Iraq has taught us -- I hope -- that helicopters are extremely vulnerable to all sorts of ground-fire, including fairly primitive types of ground-fire, and there is just no good reason to send a helicopter if a higher-flying plane is capable of doing the job (which it usually is... except for picking people up and dropping them off).

Update: Obama says no ground troops.

posted by Ace at 02:24 PM

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