Air assault on naval vessels?

May I request that the thread starter suggest the ship that needed to be captured via Aerial Insertion and the place for the actual scenario. Thank you.
 
That's one hell of a lot of things to go wrong. If you're going to have someone on the inside anyway, which your scenario presupposes, why not just suborn a few members of the crew of the target vessel, then land your commandos as part of an 'exercise'? Your inside guys keep the ship from firing on or evading the helos until they can land, then your heliborne commandos complete the takeover.

Even simpler would be to buy off the ship's officers and get them to sail the ship to a destination of your choice ala 'Hunt for Red October'.

I have to admit I was going for movie rights more than credibility
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. Using a fake distress signal and asking permission to land a "heli in distress" would be an easier way to get the first wave in. If there is an oil rig in the area we can use one of the big helis that take workers there, send a bingo fuel signal and request permission to lan on the deck. That's the first wave. The 2nd wave could came in Ospreys for speed. I assume a the chalenge was for a big warship, since sending heliborne marines to capture rogue vessels is something all navies train for.
 
I have my doubts many officers would approve a civilian chopper trying to land on a ship, let alone one in some kind of distress, and that's for safety reasons alone. There might be diplomatic trouble later if the there was a chopper legitimately in trouble that is refused landing permission, but landing on a ship, let alone a military vessel is really not the same as finding a convenient airfield.
 
But

Would they shoot it if they thought it was a genuine emergency? Or send rescue parties to it and maybe the few armed personel on duty, to be shot first...
 
My guess is that most countries WOULD shoot down an aircraft that refuses to ditch alongside and tries to land on deck to be honest.

That said, its also not like its hard to manoeuvre a ship so as to make landing impossible.
 
My guess is that most countries WOULD shoot down an aircraft that refuses to ditch alongside and tries to land on deck to be honest.

No guess required. And if the hypothetical aircraft got within 100 miles of the carrier without being spotted and challenged, someone is getting court-martialed. Come to think of it, the protective radius around a carrier is probably far wider. Anyone know ?
 
there was a novel with this exact scenario, 'Raid on the Truman', about a North Korean attack on a fictional Nimitz class carrier. They carried it out by first hitting the carrier and some of it's escorts with knock-out gas, putting most of the crew to sleep. Due to an AC fault, the lower decks were partially immune to the gas, and a handful of marines and crew put up resistance to the NKs landing on the deck with helicopters. I posted this scenario (from the book) on here a while back, and the general consensus was 'ASB'....
 
Well getting knockout gas onto a military ship is going to be pretty near impossible, especially if it's a pariah-state like NK trying it.
 
Even if you could smuggle Sarin or some other toxic gas (why bother with knocking them out when it's just as easy to kill them?) into the ship it wouldn't affect the entire ship; the ship's ventilation is deliberately compartmentalized to prevent vapors of any kind from spreading throughout the ship. AFAIK this is a standard design feature for all USN vessels larger than five thousand tons or so, and probably for most other navies also.
 
Even if you could smuggle Sarin or some other toxic gas (why bother with knocking them out when it's just as easy to kill them?) into the ship it wouldn't affect the entire ship; the ship's ventilation is deliberately compartmentalized to prevent vapors of any kind from spreading throughout the ship. AFAIK this is a standard design feature for all USN vessels larger than five thousand tons or so, and probably for most other navies also.
Probably so, I think, although probably more to stop the spread of smoke from fires than due to serious concern about gas attacks.
 
Even if you could smuggle Sarin or some other toxic gas (why bother with knocking them out when it's just as easy to kill them?) .

IIRC, the planner behind the attack was some high up NK military guy with an extraordinary grudge against the USA, and he wanted to repeat the Pueblo incident, with captured Americans being paraded on tv, etc...
 
First, detonate a fuel-air bomb above the ship with it opened up as it would be in hot weather.

Next, send in a mess of "Rescue Helicopters" with assault troops perhaps dressed as medical teams.

- Ivan.
 
Hm, how were you planning to get a bomb within 1000 feet of an active warship without their noticing?
 
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