So the Savage solution to pirates in Somalia… Send in 5000 paratroopers from planes launched from aircraft carriers.
Let’s build a list of questions using Mr Socrates
What is the largest airplane that can launch from an aircraft carrier?
How many trained paratroopers does the United States military have and what branch are they part of?
What # of casualties would result from 5000 paratroopers jumping into unfamiliar territory even if there was no resistance?
How are you going to supply those troops after they land?
[He just raised it to 10,000]
How much will this operation cost?
What is the closest airfield to Somalia where the Air Force could get authorization from the host country to launch an attack? What is the range of the transport planes without refueling?
It just get worse – now he demands the Navy send in its paratroopers.
You would think Savage learned about the military at Berkley and lives in Marin County or something
So responding to my own list of questions….
The purpose of an aircraft carrier is to project force using attack aircraft protected by fighters and support aircraft. Aircraft carriers are not troop carriers and are not designed to launch cargo aircraft. The largest cargo plane designed to work with an aircraft carrier is the C2A – it is primarily to deliver mail and special cargoes (Like George W Bush to the Mission Accomplished rally). The navy has 39 C2As in the entire world. Only 2 of them have the updates required to keep them airworthy – they were built in the 1980s and are wearing out. They can be used to ferry a few special ops troops, but they are not configured for launching paratroopers out a door in flight.
Who has paratroopers? The U.S. Army. The XVIII Airborne corps includes the more well known 82nd Airborne Division. The 82nd has been involved in both Iraq and Iran. It’s a bit difficult to figure out how many soldiers they could put together on short notice.
The mission Savage is describing is more appropriate using Amphibious Assault ships of the Rapid Deployment Force. You may remember this was the force we used as a decoy in Iraq to distract the Iraqi military into thinking they were the attack force as we were attacking by land from Kuwait.
The Amphibious assault ships are operated by the US Navy. They are used to project force using helicopters and amphibious landing vehicles. The US Navy has 10 of these ships. The ships are designed for assault by the U.S. Marines, which are part of the U.S. Navy.
Somalia is the country that faces the Indian ocean below Ethiopia. There are several different groups – one is located in Kismayo, close to the border with Kenya. Another is in is in Marka, a little further North.
To give a sense of distance, the straight line distance to Marka from possible launch sites: (not necessarily plausible ones)
Nairobi, Kenya – 584 miles
Addis Abeba, Ethiopia – 660 miles
Riyad Saudi Arabia – 1,580 miles
Bahrain – 1,680 miles
Kuwait City, Kuwait – 1,900 miles
Cairo, Egypt – 2,100 miles
Baghdad, Iraq – 2,150 miles
Israel – 2,200 miles
Cyprus – 2,400 miles (we’re approaching the width of the United States)
Malta – 3,080 miles
Berlin, Germany 3,920 miles
London, England 4,300 miles
The casualty rate for serious injuries for paratroopers during TRAINING is 0.22 per 100 – meaning that if 10,000 people jump from the plane, 22 of them will be injured, and probably one will die from his injuries. That’s under controlled conditions with no enemies firing guns at you as you’re landing.
Last year, we conducted the “largest training exercise of paratroopers in decades“. It consisted of 1,700 paratroopers. It consisted of 30 aircraft – a combination of C130s and C17 Globemaster III cargo planes.
A C130 can carry 64 paratroopers. The range is around 2,000 miles, which means you can project your force out 1,000 miles from the airstrip (they can take off and land from very primitive facilities – even a paved road). To go beyond that, you need in-air refueling or prepositioned fuel supplies on the ground.
The much more modern C17 Globemaster III can carry 102 paratroopers. In 1997, 8 C17s were flown 7,780 miles non-stop to drop 500 paratroopers into “Central Asia” (Kazakhstan). The flight took 20 hours and used in-flight refueling. The Air Force has somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 C17s in the world.
So what are we waiting for? Let’s go! Fox News reporters need some new pictures.
Now for your entertainment pleasure – what it’s like to parachute out from a C17 – the C17 has doors on either side and is designed to empty the plane in 55 seconds
The stall speed of a C17 is somewhere around 120 MPH – so even emptying in 55 seconds, the 102 people dropped will be spread over an area of about 2 miles, although they can steer the parachutes towards a central point as long as they don’t tangle chutes with someone else.
You’ll notice the time in the air was just a bit under 1 minute.
This training is under ideal conditions:
– the drop zone is well known to the jumpmaster that he can spot it by sight
– It’s daytime and no weather
– The winds are only 5 knots
– All of the trees within miles of the LZ have been cut down and the terrain is flat
– the troops don’t seem to be carrying much gear from the brief glimpes
– nobody is shooting up at them as they are in the air for 50 seconds
– they have the element of surprise on the scrub brush
– there is no anti-aircraft fire to dodge
– the flight probably lasted a few minutes, not 20 hours
– it’s not 110 degrees in the desert with no water
Savage blows hard, as usual, which is part of his “charm,” I suppose. But the so-called “mother ships” these Muslim cavemen use to launch attacks on shipping are known, and I damned sure would start sinking them. That would take a four-ship strike sortie about 10 minutes and could be chalked up to training. The modern-day Barbary pirates make tens of millions of dollars doing what they do, and until we come up modern-day Presley O’bannons (and resolute presidents like Thomas Jefferson) and make the pain far worse than the gain for these troglodytes, it will continue unabated.
I thought it was particularly funny when one caller asked him what he would due in that particular incident. He started in on his grand invasion plans again, and when done, the caller said “No, what would you have done to save the 4 people?”
And he was silent for a couple of beats (VERY uncommon for the Mikester).
He couldn’t say “kill every last one of them.” A woman even called in later and said she couldn’t believe that not one conservative man calling in (or even hosting the show?) would kill the pirates. She implied he couldn’t say it, and he missed her slam.
Priceless.
My point is: all 4 of the hostages were killed – none survived. Wouldn’t we as Americans expect to hear that every pirate was killed as the Navy boarded the ship?
Why do we have prisoners? So we can lock them up with life sentences, costing the taxpayers 50K per year?
And why was this any different from the last episode where Barry Osama ordered the snipers to kill the pirates? Did Soros tell him to stop killing the pirates? Was it the unions? His Marxists professors? Who told the Socialist in Chief to stop killing these guys? Was it because Rahm wasn’t there to tell him?
That’s the real story here. Who’s pulling the strings?
And contrary to what Doc Savage will claim in 6 months, you didn’t hear it on his show.
What a tool.
The answer is – they had “rules of engagement” established by military lawyers. If they have a weapon pointed at you or at a hostage, you can shoot to kill. If they don’t, you can’t. They probably were approved by the Commander in Chief, but he probably has very little choice himself, given the corner he has backed himself into by attacking Bush’s handling of situations using the military.