Navy Dedicated SAR Squadrons

[sevenhelmet]

Then again, delivering a raft isn't effecting a rescue. We've been very lucky since Vietnam in terms of the kinds of CSAR environment we've faced, and a relatively small number of people needing rescue. MCO with China would probably mean lots of downed personnel with very little support, or just fending for themselves. I hope our brightest minds are working on that, but it is a tough nut to crack, for sure.

Tough enough that I wonder if it’s better to expend our skull-sweat on ways to avoid that kind of conflict (e.g. focusing on other weapon types & domains), rather than expending what seems to be ever-thinner resources on a multi-thousand mile CSAR chain.

I think a war with China, properly executed, just looks different- perhaps less kinetic and less manned- than any prior war. Otherwise we may be expending a lot of hard-to-replace equipment and people for ??? gain.

 

[Brett327]

Tough enough that I wonder if it’s better to expend our skull-sweat on ways to avoid that kind of conflict (e.g. focusing on other weapon types & domains), rather than expending what seems to be ever-thinner resources on a multi-thousand mile CSAR chain.

I think a war with China, properly executed, just looks different- perhaps less kinetic and less manned- than any prior war. Otherwise we may be expending a lot of hard-to-replace equipment and people for ??? gain.

I think an actual conflict over Taiwan is very unlikely, even though that’s what we’re directing our efforts at.