After [looks at homeblog history] writing about the Navy’s race to recreate riverine forces for the last 14 years, it is good to see where we have re-embraced with some verve what we threw away in the 1990s and have matured a riverine force in place with increasing capability.
Though not equipped with some of the diverse toys the Colombians and Finns have – and we had in Vietnam – it is much better than what we had after the 2003 invasion of Iraq – which was Army guys in confiscated fishing boats floating around inland and a few of our vestigial harbor security/Special Ops support units where the water started getting salty.
In the budget battles to come, I hope we will do a better job protecting the riverine capabilities we have spent a decade re-creating.
In the yet unknown war to come, we will need this capability again. Let’s make sure it is ready and robust on day-1.
Via our omnipresent friend David Larter;
The Mark VI patrol boat bristles with heavy automatic weapons, and that’s the way its crews like it.
“I tell the crews that you want to look like a porcupine,” said U.S. Navy Senior Chief Derrick Cox, who trains the sailors that man the Mark VI as part of Coastal Riverine Squadron 2’s training evaluation unit. “You don’t want to kick a porcupine because you know there will be consequences.”
…
The boat shown to Defense News this month packed two stabilized, remote-operated, optically guided MK 50, .50-caliber Gun Weapon Systems; two MK 38 Mod 2 (25mm) Gun Weapon Systems (also remotely operated with an advanced optics system); and two crew-served .50-caliber machine guns.“We’ve demonstrated that we can sustain a firefight for 45 minutes in the Mark VI,” Cox said.
As a final note, if when “riverine” comes up you think of the Farsi Island incident of which we shall speak little of – read the whole article. It covers that topic well.
