PT boats don’t automatically fall to the bottom of the ocean if hostile fire or malfunction takes out the engine.
My thoughts exactly.
True enough. Too many Jesus nuts on a helicopter.
“PT boats don’t automatically fall to the bottom of the ocean if hostile fire or malfunction takes out the engine.”
That was my thought, however, perhaps a specialized support boat could carry just one or two helicopters. It would be stealthy, have computer aided landing and securing for rough seas and be automated for quick fueling and mission loading. As for fire support and defense there are several fast, tough and relatively small boats that are themselves the equivalent of modern PT boat. We never see anything like this in Navy presentations because admirals want big, expensive and prestigious boats. It’s not about the mission. It’s about prestige.
The weakness of this analogy is the range of the weapons carried by the helicopter. If you can’t stand-off from a potential target, then the helo has no real survivability. Any attack on a a surface combatant with a modest air defense becomes a suicide mission. Come to think of it, the PT’s with their light-weight torpedoes faced a similar situation on the occasions where they went up against warships.