The Air-Maneuver and Transport Concept: Can it Transform the Nature of Rapid Contingency Operations?

Army Magazine, AUSA ^ | Jan 04 | Lt. Gen. H. Thomas Fields Jr., U.S. Army retired

[xzins]

DoD/Military thinking of the future ping

While the eventual form of the AMT is uncertain, there are clearly reasons to pursue the AMT concept. First, the FCS must be capable of being lifted into restricted terrain if it is to be capable of dominating the future operational environment. Second, the Army must reduce dependence on APODs, SPODs and GLOCs to reduce force vulnerability to anti-access strategies. Third, the Army's own analysis and gaming has shown that the difference between a future force with AMT and one without AMT is profound. Finally, the Office of the Secretary of Defense's advanced mobility concepts study technology panel concluded there is high potential that technology can be matured to produce the AMT at an affordable fly-away cost.

[Support Free Republic]

Rank	Location	Receipts	Donors/Avg		Freepers/Avg		Monthlies
41	New Mexico	50.00	1	50.00	96	0.52	50.00	3

Thanks for donating to Free Republic!

Move your locale up the leaderboard!

[Cannoneer No. 4]

ping

[Cannoneer No. 4]

This AMT sounds like some kind of Super Osprey.

No Mention of Airborne.

[xzins]

As I understand the AMT concept, we will not need forward staging areas like Kuwait for GWII and Saudi for GWI.

Instead it will be a ground attack force launched directly from a seaboard carrier into the heart of an enemy nation.

It indicates we need air superiority for it to work.

[Cannoneer No. 4]

So the Marines and Navy fight all the wars. Maybe they will let the Army take back Homeland Defense. What will the Air Force do for a living?

[xzins]

No, not just the marines. The Navy has long been used to carry the army to war.

Airborne would be a big part of it.

[DakotaGator]

There is nothing new in the article's concept. What will be new is when we have it!

[Siegfried]

What will the Air Force do for a living?

Ah, the U.S. Air Force, my boy, will be up there above it all...

;-)

[Cannoneer No. 4]

In the year 2020 a Middle East dictator attacked and occupied an oil-rich neighboring state.

We may have won the War On Terror by 2020. I hope we have. There shouldn't be any aggressive dictators in the Middle East by 2020. Just some benevolent despots in the Gulf.

Oil probably won't be near as valuable then as it is now.

The whole concept of the nation-state is beginning to unravel in much of the world. Most of the boundaries in the Middle East were drawn up in London and Paris. The people on one side of the line are pretty much like the people on the other, until you get to Iran. I would expect by 2020 an Arab Union, much along the lines of the EU, uniting the entire Arabian Peninsula plus Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

[expatpat]

I would expect by 2020 an Arab Union, much along the lines of the EU, uniting the entire Arabian Peninsula plus Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq.

Excuse me while I laugh, pointing out that they have been trying to do this since the 1950's at least. They are too undisciplined and irrational to be able to do it.

[squidly]

So this is a program, or proposed program, to launch large airborne and airmobile units from seagoing platforms? Sounds pretty feasible, since the USMC has been doing it for years.

[Herodotus]

Hmmm...add me to your DOD/Transformation Ping list, pls.

[squidly]

Please add me to the DoD/Transformation ping list as well.

[squidly]

Please add me to the DoD/Transformation ping list as well.

[Criminal Number 18F]

General Fields is talking about an improved Osprey, the Quad Tiltrotor. Army Aviation has already decided that they want the biggest copter on the planet.

A long range, high speed, VTOL convertiplane can probably be done better with winged-rotodyne than with tilt-rotor technology, however. But the military and the contractors are deeply committed to the tilt-rotor: the most expensive, least reliable technology.

Here is info on Bell-Boeing's improved Osprey, the QTR:

• Press Release on DARPA funding

• "Russian Aviation" page's overview (good)

• A good article by the AIAA's Mike Hirschberg (one of the most knowledgable guys on VTOL history and tech) on what's up with Bell/Boeing.

The Rotodyne concept:

• The CarterCopter heliplane transport
• Heliplane Transport (2nd link) - and there are more on the site.
• The Groen Brothers GyroLifter is a conversion of a C-130 into a rotodyne.

This article compares a few of these technologies. I haven't read it, just found it in a search.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Valin]

Air Force! We're the smart ones, we send the officers out to fight! :-)

[Valin]

Have no fear my friend there will be some scumbag somewhere who need a does of reality.

Until the return of the king(the real one) there is always going to be bad guys.
If history teaches us anything, it's that there will always be war, it's what we do.