The US Navy wants to turn abandoned platforms into anti-aircraft bases
The US Navy will convert excess American oil platforms in the Pacific into active mobile military bases to counter China's growing influence in the region.
The initiative was presented bycontractor Gibbs & Cox during the recently concluded Sea Air Space Expo in Washington DC.
Under the so-called Mobile Defense/Depot Platform (MODEP) concept , oil platforms will serve as mobile missile defense and refueling bases to respond to growing missile threats in the region.
Offshore platforms in the Pacific off Los Angeles near the coast of California. Those no longer operational that could become launch bases for the anti-missile system are blank.
Oil platforms off Oregon
They will be positioned at an optimal distance from the coast and will operate independently for over 12 months.
Additionally, the large floating island bases will be capable of holding 512 vertical launch system cells or 100 large missile launchers, five times the capacity of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer. Practically the islands will become large anti-missile positions to defend the North American continent, all without occupying land and in advance of the coastal cities.
Strategic importance
US Navy officer Heruningtyas Desi Purnamasari said the mobile bases have strategic importance as China continues to assert its power in the Indo-Pacific.
In addition to serving as missile bases, the converted platforms could be used to support the service's surface combatants and nuclear submarines.
The cost of the mobile bases is estimated at 10 percent of a US Navy ballistic missile defense system, which will be built completely from scratch.
“The platforms could conceivably lead to a substantial reduction in risks and costs associated with land-based defense systems,” Purnamasari emphasized.
Subject of debate
The idea of converting oil platforms into mobile military bases has been the subject of debate over the years.
In 2018, two military experts highlighted the political and security challenges of floating military fortresses, saying they will become vulnerable to missile attacks.
Some observers were also concerned about the “high costs” of building and operating offshore bases.
A “Maunsell fort”
At the same time, the idea of creating marine anti-aircraft platforms is not new. In World War II, platforms called “Maunsell Fort” were built in the North Sea to serve as the first anti-aircraft defense against German bombers, and were then abandoned, but not destroyed, in the 1950s. One is now illegitimately occupied by the “Principality of Sealand”
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The article The US Navy wants to transform abandoned platforms into anti-aircraft bases comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-marina-usa-vuole-trasformare-le-piattaforme-abbandonate-in-basi-antiaeree/ on Wed, 24 Apr 2024 09:00:31 +0000.