Pentagon Orders USS Ponce, USS Kearsarge, 1200 Marines To Libya (Breaking!)

The U.S. says it wont rule out any steps to ensure Col. Gadhafi exits power.

Gadafi says thousands will die if the U.S. intervenes.

Prospect of an extended war looming over the Middle East?

Tuesday, the U.S. ordered two warships and 1200 Marines to the waters off of Libya, but a top Obama administration official stopped short of saying the forces would intervene in the clashes that have consumed the country following anti-Gadhafi protests here in recent weeks.

At a Pentagon briefing, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced he had ordered to the Mediterranean the USS Ponce and the USS Kearsarge, an amphibious-assault ship thatn typically carries infantrymen and troop-transport helicopters. Those ships currently have 800 marines, in addition to 400 U.S.-based Marines who will be airlifted to meet the ships. He said the ships would be ready to perform evacuations and humanitarian relief.online.wsj.com...

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/83f4351c999c.jpg[/atsimg]

www.cbsnews.com...

In addition to the USS Enterprise Aircraft Carrier in Libya last week.
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/36aa01e3a309.jpg[/atsimg]
Handout photo provided by the U.S. Navy.
voices.washingtonpost.com...

reply to post by burntheships


I believe you predicted this yesterday, and caught a lot of flack for that!!

You know fear mongering............Oh well.

I believe this is something that we will have to watch very closely, thanks for being on top of it.

S&F

Interesting choice of ships... the Ponce last saw action as part of a mine sweeping EOD group.... they also are the ones to deploy those specially trained for warfare Seals and Dolphins (Mammals) that no one likes to talk about....

Now the Kearsarge is a hard core Wasp amphibious assault ship.( What we used to call a "Carrier").. Special built for the Marines... Hela-whoppers and VTOL's... All meant to get a heck of a lot of boots on the ground fast..(Hundreds of bright faced well trained lean mean fighting machine Marines)...not my first choice for air cover if they make it a no fly zone... sounds more like an evac force

reply to post by ParkerCramer


Thanks! I am always catching flak from something.

This is actaully a very interesting article, its quite indepth as to the troops in Libya,
and its arsenals. I was suprised in learning this

.Western analysts put the strength of the security force—before the civil war —at between 10,000 and 12,000 men.

The brigades occupying Tripoli have at their command 54 Russian-made tanks and 24 heavy artillery pieces, according to the retired Western military official. Witnesses in Libya said the tanks have been positioned in recent days in a defensive cordon along the southeastern outskirts of the capital.

Unlike members of the regular conscript army, who earn $450 a month, the troops in the regime-protection brigades are well-paid and equipped with modern weaponry. The units have received training from former British officers and within the last three years Khamis Gadhafi completed a commander's course in Russia, according to the retired Western officialonline.wsj.com...

And this

One senior U.S. official said as the rebellion spreads, an assassination attempt on Col. Gadhafi "seems more plausible." The official added: "The best outcome for those Libyan leaders who are defecting will be [to put] two bullets into the heads of Gadhafi and his son."

reply to post by burntheships


Damned Imperialists. Let Libyans handle their matters themselves. USA don't give **** about human rights - they care only for oil.

reply to post by DaddyBare


The officials said the USS Kearsarge is carrying 42 helicopters...
www.cbsnews.com...

Originally posted by archasama
reply to post by burntheships

 

Damned Imperialists. Let Libyans handle their matters themselves. USA don't give **** about human rights - they care only for oil.

Normally I would agree with you... but...
it was just a couple days ago the Libyan Ambassador to the UN and pleaded to make his country a no fly zone to prevent anymore air strikes and importation of Mercenaries... the USA and NATO were asked and it seems this build up is in preparation for the answer to the honorable Ambassadors request

reply to post by burntheships


Interesting, DaddyBare mentioned something about Seals, and the news flash mentioned assassination???

Just thinking out loud....................Again, keep up the dilligent work!!

Originally posted by burntheships
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

The officials said the USS Kearsarge is carrying 42 helicopters...
www.cbsnews.com...

Well yeah but.... she's got a few more things onboard

USS Kearsarge
Class and type: Wasp-class amphibious assault ship
Displacement: 40,500 long tons (41,100 t) full load
Length: 844 ft (257 m)
Beam: 106 ft (32 m)
Draft: 27 ft (8.2 m)
Propulsion: 2 × geared steam turbines, 70,000 shp (52 MW)
2 × boilers, 600 psi (4.1 MPa)
2 × shafts
Speed: 24 knots (28 mph; 44 km/h)
Boats and landing
craft carried: 3 × LCAC (LCAC)
Troops: 1,893 Marines
Complement: 104 Officers, 1,004 Sailors
Armament: • 2 × Sea Sparrow missile systems
• 2 × Rolling Airframe Missile systems
• 3 × Phalanx CIWS
• 8 × .50 BMG machine guns
Aircraft carried: 42 × CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters
5 × AV-8B Harrier II V/STOL attack jets
6 × SH-60F/HH-60H ASW helicopters

reply to post by DaddyBare


That she does, yes sir!

USS Ponce
en.wikipedia.org...(LPD-15)
www.uscarriers.net...

USS Kearsarge
www.kearsarge.navy.mil...

Originally posted by DaddyBare

Originally posted by archasama
reply to post by burntheships

 

Damned Imperialists. Let Libyans handle their matters themselves. USA don't give **** about human rights - they care only for oil.

Normally I would agree with you... but...
it was just a couple days ago the Libyan Ambassador to the UN and pleaded to make his country a no fly zone to prevent anymore air strikes and importation of Mercenaries... the USA and NATO were asked and it seems this build up is in preparation for the answer to the honorable Ambassadors request

I would really like to believe that your premise is correct, and that the US is going there for the right reasons, human rights, protecting against civil war, but, if history is any indication, we usually seem to put aside the honorable reasons and find the monetary reasons for doing so..........................................

But again, I hope I'm wrong and you are right.

Originally posted by ParkerCramer
reply to post by burntheships

 

Interesting, DaddyBare mentioned something about Seals, and the news flash mentioned assassination???

Just thinking out loud....................Again, keep up the dilligent work!!

Just want to point out when I said Seals I was talking about the Animals not the Special forces team....

these very intelligent Mammals were trained to seek out and find underwater threats like mines and enemy divers... the Navy Department doesn't like to talk about using innocent critters that way but they do...

This is different than Iraq or Afghanistan, the majority of the Libyan people are fighting to remove Gadhafi, and it's those forces that will form a new government. We took out Saddam and it left a huge vacuum which is what led to the civil war there, in Afghanistan we were fighting rustic tribal people and calling them "al-qaeda" and hoping it stuck. Both those invasions were badly planned and grossly underestimated.

With Libya, senior members of their military and Gadhafi's government have defected, they will be the ones to keep the country stable after the removal of Gadhafi, until a new government can be formed or elections held.

I think the US has learned it's lesson this time around, at least it's keeping it's mouth shut and planning things better, we see there is a coalition of forces building, with Italy, the UK, and Germany massing ships and planes off Libya. The Libyan opposition has asked the US to stay out, and we should, until they ask for direct military aid, and we should be ready, along with the coalition forces, to give it.

This is a marked contrast to what the previous US administration would have done, back then we would have stormed in there and shot up everyone, Gadhafi's forces and the opposition forces, then occupied the country against everyone's will imposing our mandates on them.

edit to add: UK and Germany have been flying helo missions into Libya to rescue oil field workers, I'm guessing the US is supporting those missions with our ships.

reply to post by DaddyBare


My mistake, thanks for the clarification............

2nd

Originally posted by archasama
reply to post by burntheships

 

Damned Imperialists. Let Libyans handle their matters themselves. USA don't give **** about human rights - they care only for oil.

Lets try to get past the oil bit shall we hypocrites. It gets really old after a while. Unless every other country on earth is only operating electric cars the whole world has a hard on for oil, and is totally dependent. Or do you have these vehicles and its just my darn MSM thats tellin me those lies.Especially when the oil in question is 95 percent consumed by Europe. Thats the real kicker.

Actually, when they say "The Kearsarge" they are talking up to ten ships, not one. the Kearsarge is the lead ship in an Amphibious Ready Group. It also includes a Dock Landing Ship ('___'), an Amphibious Transport Dock (LPD), Cruisers, destroyers and attack submarines. So we're not talking a mere two ships here; we're talking about ten or so. It varies sometimes daily.

The other factor here is that the Kearsarge has been in the Arabian Gulf since last summer. They left in late August, so they are nearing the end of their 'deployable time' there. Also, they lent half their Marines, about 1500 out of about 3000, to Afghanistan. That's why you're hearing that 400 additional Marines will be put aboard. That still leaves them over a thousand short of their normal contingent.

The Enterprise Strike Group, which just arrived in the area, is also composed of about ten ships. In addition to the Enterprise there is a Fast Combat support ship, a cruiser, several destroyers, and at least one fast attack submarine. There are usually a couple of frigates in a Strike Group as well. All those destroyers have hundreds of cruise missiles on board.

This sounds like a formidable amount of firepower and it is, but you need to look at what they actually can do. The ships that deploy with a CVN carrier are there for one reason only, and that is to protect the carrier. The Aegis defense system, which is on every cruiser and destroyer, forms a bubble around the carrier and is supposed to prevent anything, such as an Exocet missile, from getting to the carrier. The carrier has a few squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets which can enforce a no-fly zone.

The Kerasarge is an amphibious invasion force, but it is a very small one that is short staffed. They could probably establish a beachhead, but that's not enough firepower to invade Libya. I agree with the poster above that it could act as evacuation support. They could also probably protect an oil field. They have a few Abrams tanks on board, but remember that Marines are light infantry, not an armored Division. They are appropriate for the proverbial 'surgical strike.'

People have said on this and other threads, "well, we've got 50,000 troops in Europe and B-52s in England and all these F-15s in Germany, therefore we could....."

On the surface that's true, but look at a map. Europe is a long ways away. Italy is nearly 1,000 miles long all by itself. The logistics of supporting a no-fly zone from Europe are immense. Jets can carry just about enough fuel to get to Libya, wave hello, and fly back. This means a long series of tankers has to be implemented to re-fuel fighter enroute. And, yeah, we've got all these troops in Germany, but they are not all combat ready and few of the are airborne units, so you have to get them onto the ground in Libya if that's what you want to do. Are you just going to land some C-130s at Libya International Airport? And as for the B-52s, are you planning to carpet bomb Tripoli?

It's one thing to brag about troop strength and aircraft in Europe and quite another to turn that strength, such that it is and is not, into a practical advantage in this situation. The arrival of the US Navy in the area is an important development, but it must be seen in context. They are not planning another D-Day here, unless they are utter fools, of course.

Look for the USS Reagan to deploy toward the meditteranean within days.

Video tweeted here :

acarvin This might be the most amazing footage to reportedly come out of Libya. Feels like a desert war film at times. on.fb.me...

You dont have to be logged in to see this 9 minutes of footage, Libya right now.

www.facebook.com...

reply to post by burntheships


uh oh.... I would be getting the hell out of that place if I was there, thanks for the information! S&F

I pray that the children and innocent people are safe.

reply to post by mileslong54


Did you watch that video?
That was just tweeted!

reply to post by ParkerCramer


i think he was refering to like seal seals not navy seals as i think they are trained to work with the militarized dolphins and he put it we dont like to talk about....