SsgtC
Banned
That metal box also has all the fuel, spare parts, ammunition, food and berthing for the hundreds of personnel assigned to those two squadrons. The Faroes have none of that. And the Tomcat doesn't operate in a vacuum. Where are you putting the Hawkeyes to provide airborne radar coverage to locate outbound shipping strikes and provide raid warning of incoming attacks? What about the helos for SAR and ASW to protect inbound merchants delivering supplies and to pick up downed flight crew? What about refueling aircraft to extend the range of your fighters when the Soviets invariably change their operating procedures to cut down on attrition? It's not nearly as simple as you're trying to make it out to be.Well . . . I presuming the US Navy's professional crews can easily deploy then operate a mere two Sqns (24) F-14's from the 5,700 ft runway at Valgar Airport considering they've trained to operate these aircraft off a cramped 1,000 ft metal box in the middle of the ocean!
The forces transferred to the Atlantic are escort ships like frigates and ASW destroyers and amphibious ships to land an entire Marine division at once. None of the battle forces needed to deter China or N Korea were sent to the Atlantic.Ignoring your obvious sarcasm . . . . I was actually referring to the part in the novel where the US close the Panama Canal to traffic allowing their US Pacific Navy forces entrance to bolster the Atlantic convoy protection. If the US forces moved out of the Pacific it would encourage China against Taiwan, North Korea against South Korea. It would make better sense to leave them where they are as a deterrent and also attack Soviet forces in the Pacific Coast forcing the tie up of Soviet forces. Hell . . . you could even encourage Japan to help by getting them to try and retake the Kuril Islands