ONE NATION IS AN ISLAND:

The Navy's Changing Tide: Service floats ''sea base'' concept (DALE EISMAN, 3/08/05, The Virginian-Pilot)

A war averted more than a decade ago may be pointing the way toward 21st-century warfare for the U.S. Navy.

In September 1994, a U.S. flotilla positioned itself off the coast of Haiti to help restore a democratically elected president to power. The flagship, the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower, was stripped of its fighter planes and turned into a landing hub for Army helicopters and barracks for 2,000 soldiers.

Operation Uphold Democracy, as it was called, ended in a few weeks and the Norfolk-based Eisenhower headed to the Mediterranean for a more conventional deployment. But Navy leaders say the successful use of the Ike as a floating base, duplicated in 2001 when Marines operated from the carrier Kitty Hawk in the early stages of America’s invasion of Afghanistan, foreshadows a new naval era.

They contend that the “sea base” – a network of ships providing offshore artillery fire, air support, food, ammunition and even a place to sleep for ground troops – is about to replace the carrier as the centerpiece of the fleet.

The Navy always has been part of the supply chain for U.S. ground troops fighting overseas. Most of the tanks and heavy equipment used in Operation Iraqi Freedom were delivered by sea, for example.

But the sea base concept makes ships the end of the supply line. Soldiers and Marines accustomed to building and defending bases inland operate from the sea, going ashore only to fight.

“This is a revolution,” said Adm. Vern Clark, the outgoing chief of naval operations.

The Empire diverges ever farther from history as it no longer even needs foreign bases for troop deployment purposes.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 8, 2005 8:02 PM