C-130 on Floats

[Terry Carraway]

What are the AF people in the Pentagon smoking?????

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/09/17/the-us-air-force-is-adding-floats-to-its-c-130s-they-could-be-useful-in-a-war-with-china/?sh=3baf776f7288

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-mc-130j-float-water-landing/

They MC-130s normally work in concert with the MH-60s. And the MH-60 does need much space to operate to drop off and pick up.

[Stephanie Belser]

I have to wonder about the weight and speed penalty of adding those floats and whether or not adding the floats results in sacrificing the ability to handle rougher fields. Then will come the question of how high a sea state those airplanes will be able to handle.

[Terry Carraway]

ne article mentions that they will be removable.

How? Not easily.

And where do they have some way of lifting the aircraft on or off those floats.

And docking will be fun. But at least you have beta, so you can stop or back up.

[B.Butler]

"a simulator called the Digital Proving Ground, which is just as good as the real thing up to a certain point"

[Tom Charlton]

What are the AF people in the Pentagon smoking?????

Hi Terry,
Nope. Just don’t see it happening. Cost / benefit ratio, both initially and operationally, nope. Might’a been somewhat useful several wars ago.

Regards,
Tom Charlton (We need to get rid of those clunky ole A-10s first <GD&R>)

[Dave Siciliano]

The latest issues of Proceedings have pointed out a new strategy of spreading forces out in reaction to anti-ship missiles. A lot of new systems will be designed to shuttle fuel, ammo, etc. to smaller forces in unimproved areas.

[Ray Tackett]

What are the AF people in the Pentagon smoking?????

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2021/09/17/the-us-air-force-is-adding-floats-to-its-c-130s-they-could-be-useful-in-a-war-with-china/?sh=3baf776f7288

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/air-force-mc-130j-float-water-landing/

They MC-130s normally work in concert with the MH-60s. And the MH-60 does need much space to operate to drop off and pick up.

Looks about as useful as an early 20th century British pistol bayonet.

[Russell Holton]

I think the articles make some good points. We haven't been at war in the sea for some time. A war with China will be much different that what we're used it.

Playing with it in a digital simulator is a good/cheaper starting point.

[B.Butler]

Playing with it in a digital simulator is a good/cheaper starting point.

A simulator can never be the starting point. It can only tell you what you tell it to tell you.

[Terry Carraway]

The latest issues of Proceedings have pointed out a new strategy of spreading forces out in reaction to anti-ship missiles. A lot of new systems will be designed to shuttle fuel, ammo, etc. to smaller forces in unimproved areas.

Hmm, how about HELICOPTERS or even the Osprey.

Or, AIR DROP. You only need to land to pick things up.

And how tempting a target will this be bobbing around in a lake.

[Russell Holton]

A simulator can never be the starting point. It can only tell you what you tell it to tell you.

True. But a sufficiently advanced simulator will give you an idea if you're headed in the right direction. Perhaps even run some simulated missions.

[Terry Carraway]

Also, if the simulator is developed from computational fluid dynamic models of the proposed aircraft, it can be pretty close to real life.

[Dave Siciliano]

What is being proposed is diverse unit Ops with little or no electronic signature for closer in Ops. Stashing supplies in the forward area these units can access. Flying boats have been discussed for long range drop off or prepositioning. Keep the large assets farther away from hostile folks and not concentrate forces where they can be targeted.

[Stephanie Belser]

A simulator can never be the starting point. It can only tell you what you tell it to tell you.

And if you don't like what it tells you, rewrite the code/rules.

Back in the day, the Navy ran a RED on BLUE wargame. If my memory is accurate Team BLUE was a bunch of senior officers from the Seventh Fleet or CINCPAC, Team RED was a bunch of junior officers, mostly intel types. The game commenced and RED quickly sank four of BLUE's carriers.

So they rewrote the rules.

[Russell Holton]

A simulator can never be the starting point. It can only tell you what you tell it to tell you.

Let me ask: what would be the starting point? I'd hope they'd do that before full-sized prototypes.