Okay, back in the days before we decided "payloads" trump "platforms" somebody saw the need for small, high speed, heavily armed (per their size) ships to fight in the littorals or in island chains.
So, there was: Hydrofoil Development by the United States Navy:
They did look cool.
Now, just suppose we'd decided not to kill these programs? Where would we be? Where could they have been useful? Where could we use them now?
Imagine how a PEGASUS would rule the littorals! It could go around a LCS, come up behind, in the LCSes defenseless zone, and pump 76mm shells into it, until it sank.
ReplyDeleteWith a closing speed of 5 knots, the LCS will have more than enough time to turn and fight back with it's 57 mm, and don't forget that most of the time the LCS will have 30mm cannons and missile launchers to protect their tails.
DeleteAnd even if the PHM would use it's Harpoons, the LCS carry a RAM missile system that should knock Harpoon out as well as other defensive systems.
many years ago i was doing the chemotherapy thing and lo and behold the guy in the adjacent chair had been the coxwin on one of the pegasus's. the british and boeing versions could not "bank" for turns which turned out to be very important as they had to slow down to "tippy toe" around a turn anyway. then one of the pegusas' hit a whale at 70+knots off of san diego and after that they just kind of went away.
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