By Kris Osborn, President, Warrior
US Navy helicopters are known for a wide range of missions, to include submarine hunting, forward reconnaissance, troop transport, countermine missions and on the move command and control. They may be expanding their operational purview even more in the Pacific as the service prepares for a growing number of sea-air-land combat contingencies in the region.
Certainly US Navy concepts of operation for its ship-launched MH-60R and MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters have included transporting Marines into land-areas for ground operations, weapons attack against enemy surface drones, ships at sea and land missions, yet an ability to both attack on land and at sea in a coastal kind of “island hopping” contingency seems to be receiving new levels of emphasis. This would make sense given the intensifying threat scenarios along the Philippine coastal areas, Southern island chains and its surrounding ocean areas close to the South China Sea. This threat equation seems to be informing current land-maritime combat preparation drills in the Pacific in recent exercises wherein US Navy Sea Hawk helicopters are launching from the Navy’s USS Abraham Lincoln carrier.
The service’s Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group recently launched MH-60R and MH-60S helicopters for what a Navy essay described as “routine operations.” Sea Hawk helicopters are regularly launched from destroyers, amphibs and other surface warships, yet they operate on carriers as well. While the helicopters are certain to be practicing sub-hunting with sonobuoys and countermine operations, these regular mission sets are probably expanded to include carrier-protection and land-attack in support of coastal and amphibious operations. The Navy and Marines have always emphasized air-sea-land integration, yet the proximity, geographical configuration and speed of these kinds of operations change in closer-in island and coastal areas where rapid sea-land-air maritime combat transitions would be necessary. These threat circumstances are why the Marines have established new “littoral” combat units prepared to engage in shallow-water island and coastal areas where rapid transition from sea-to-shore becomes increasingly necessary.
With this in mind, US Navy Sea Hawk helicopters are likely focusing less on “open” or “blue” water operations and instead preparing for closer in shallow-water and ground-attack missions. This fills a critical maritime combat tactical need, because air-transport platforms such as the Osprey helicopter can transport Marines and weapons at high speeds over great distances, they are not heavily armed and in a position to quickly insert Marines into land areas for ground attack or attack enemy ground and shallow-water targets from the air. Sea Hawk helicopters, however, can directly attack enemy targets in support of advancing Marine units traveling inland from ships at sea in position to attack with missiles such as the HELLFIRE or Hydra 70 laser-guided rockets.
There is yet another critical tactical advantage which carrier-launched Sea Hawk helicopters can bring related to carrier protection. In the event that an aircraft carrier wants to operate closer to shore in support of deeper inland strikes and more dwell time enabled by shorter flight times to target, it will be more vulnerable to small-boat attacks and short-range rocket and missile attacks from land. With this in mind, Sea Hawk helicopters could provide mobile, forward command and control nodes in position to conduct reconnaissance, threat detection missions and manned-unmanned networking. with air, surface and undersea sensor-drones patrolling high-threat areas. This could prove critical as closer-in carriers are more susceptible to small boat and drone swarm attacks from enemy forces on land or operating in coastal areas in closer proximity. The helicopters can also function as air “sensors” or gateways connecting forward sensing systems to surface ships such as carriers from beyond the visible horizon. With this information, fighter jets taking off from carriers could receive nearly instant, real-time threat specifics as they begin their attack mission at sea.
Kris Osborn is the President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization and Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics& Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
