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The concept came about studying 1966
SEAL TEAM TWO use of Helo Lifting a STAB
(SEAL TEAM ATTACK BOAT) and inserting
and extracting the SEALs and Boat. The
concept was dropped literally when the
STAB spun violently and broke its slings
and fell in Base parking lot destroying
a car.
As Vietnam's Riverine warfare
progressed in 1968 the mission concepts
had merit and MST-2 was ordered to test
the concept again. The First attempt
lifting a LSSC by a CH-47 army helo was
successful and the procedure was
refined. A Second Helo Lift test using a
LSSC was held and again was successful.
By now this had the
attention of COMNAVFORV Admiral Zumwalt,
who was calling the concept STRIKE
ASSAULT ops.
There was a third and
long range test. At high altitude and
high speed the LSSC slings broke and
fell several thousand feet into the
Delta. Again the concept was dropped
Literally!
The mission concept remains sound but it
was the technical/mechanical failures
that doomed HELO /Boat Lift operations.
20yrs later SBUs began looking at the
concept again, with SBU-26 taking the
lead. Again the single point lift
concept caused spinning, but they didn't
drop any boats. The problem was solved
in the late 1990s by using a two point
lift. Today The modern SWCC has overcome
the technical and mechanical problems
and perfected the mission concept and it
is used in the Riverine Special Boat
Team.
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Sidebar
As I understand it,
there was an idea to put
a fully armed LSSC
behind enemy lines to
shoot up bad guys where
they would never expect
the Americans.
(Precursor to STAB Ron
20.) Problem: getting
Army helo lift;
stability in air. Two
lifts OK. Third resulted
in oscillation and
jettison of LSSC. TacAir
called in to bomb
remains. LSSC landed
flat in rice paddy;
engines kept on going to
China. - Bob Stoner |
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All I heard was Tom's
end of the conversation,
plus later anecdotal
accounts. Apparently the
load- master used
insufficient chafing
gear on the sling, and
the boat's motion in
flight chafed through.
The boat slipped out and
fell from about 2,000
feet, landing upright in
a paddy in the Rung Sat.
Photo recon appeared to
indicate that the
engines had gone out
through the bottom so
they decided it wasn't
worth salvage. An air
strike was called in to
complete the job, and
after placing two
750-pound HE somewhere
in the same province,
the pilots reported the
boat as destroyed. -
Steve Thomas |
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In Vietnam a CH-47 helo
hovers over a LSSC. The MST-2 crew hooks it
up to the lifting points. then crawls up the
jacobs ladder into the helo with the SEALs
already inside. |
In Vietnam a CH-47 helo Lifts
a LSSC to a new op area. This was a
experimental tactic designed to Strike the
VC with surprise by being in a area the VC
did not expect SEALs and Boats. |
SBU-26 PBL helo lift in
Panama using two pint lift, method which
solved the spinning problem |
A SBT-22 SOCR(CCM) prepares a
helo lift from a CH-47. The Mission concept
conceived in Vietnam by NSWs MST-2 |
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