Quote Originally Posted by Entropy View Post
How are you going to carry out those amphibious operations without any air defense? Something has got to protect the helos and landing craft and then something has to provide fire support and interdiction once the force is on land. Something else to consider is that we haven't seen a lot of amphib ops over the past several decades. Why should we increase a capability that doesn't get used much?
1-I thought the Marines had their own F-18 Air Defense Aircraft that deployed with them? The Navy should be supplying the Fire Support.

2-Offshore Raiding and Rescues is a mission the Marines do well. With the budget cutbacks Offshore basing and amphibious attacks/operations are likely to be in demand in a lot of places and not just one at a time but maybe several at once.