Ship to Shore Logistics

UK amphibious doctrine has for some time seen a heavily opposed landing as a last resort and the assumption is that because of the proliferation of anti ship and anti tank guided weapons any such approach would be suicidal without the strongest level of battle space preparation. The true value of an amphibious capability is being able to appear in an area that is only lightly defended, secure an area inland using heliborne troops and establish a beach head before johny foreigner realises what has happened. Amphibious operations encompass a wide range of activity but the amount of vehicles, stores and personnel even a light role unit requires means that logistics are key.

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FDR – Littoral #3

In the previous post on littoral concepts I looked at the higher speed options, raiding craft and hovercraft. In this post I am going to look at complimentary equipment.

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Haiti Update

RFA Largs Bay has recently arrived in Haiti with its cargo of Land Rovers and wriggly tin.

Operation PANLAKE involves various teams and resources and RFA Largs Bay will stay in the area supporting the UN.

Continuing our obsession with Mexeflotes some pictures from the Royal Navy

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What is a Mexeflote (Part 2)

In what is an uncanny coincidence the Mexeflote system is in the blog news this week, although not exactly the UK Mexeflote and not with the RLC/RN but with the US Navy.

The US Navy use a similar system to the Mexeflote called the Improved Navy Lighterage System (INLS) that uses a combination of floating modules to form powered rafts, causeways and floating piers.

In response to the Haiti earthquake the US Navy will no doubt be taking part in relief and logistics operations, not everything can go by air and if one wants to transport anything in bulk, sea transportation is the only way to do it.

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What is a Mexeflote

Whilst we are on the subject of the Royal Navy and about to embark on the amphibious, logistics and submarine element some information on how, in an amphibious context, we get from ship to shore.

The preferred option is of course via a port, just dock and drive off but there might not be port facilities available, they might be damaged or one might simply not want to come ashore in an obvious place for tactical reasons.

Apart from helicopters and small boats like the rigid raider, offshore raiding craft, inflatables, combat support boat or small hovercraft the familiar ‘Saving Private Ryan’ style landing craft are the most widely used means of ship to shore transport for men, stores and vehicles.

The UK uses 2 types of landing craft and a floating pontoon called a Mexeflote (a number of older types remain in service but I have not included them here)

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