Navy salvage and diving teams essential to 'sea base' concept.

• Author: Tiron, Roxana

U.S. Navy and Marine Corps plans to deploy floating bases are predicated on the notion that ships and aircraft will be able quickly to ferry or fly troops and their supplies to the fight.

But the services will remain highly dependent on access to ports and beaches until sea bases become operational. And that is where the Navy's salvage and diving teams would play a significant role, said Navy Capt. Jim Wilkins, director of ocean engineering and the supervisor of the service's salvage and diving teams.

Dependence on ports and beaches can make the force vulnerable, because a determined enemy could impede or deny access to channels, harbors and berths, said Wilkins. That reinforces the importance of salvage and diving teams.

It is going to take years and considerable investments to make sea basing fully operational.

The current technology cannot support a sea base as the only means to launch an operation, said Wilkins. Until the Navy can deploy advanced "connectors," such as heavy-lift fast helicopters and high-speed logistics vessels, any operation launched from the water still is going to depend on ports and beaches, Wilkins told a recent conference in Panama City, Fla., hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association.

Traditionally, the Navy has had the responsibility for salvaging U.S. government owned ships and, when it is in the best interests of the United States, privately owned vessels as well. Rescue and salvage ships save battle-damaged combat ships from further harm and tow them to safety.

Even though they would be instrumental in clearing ports and beaches, salvage units are not addressed adequately in doctrine, war gaming and operational plans, and are bit-players in major fleet exercises, Wilkins charged.

"It is a problem," he added. "Not only are salvage forces not included in the sea basing doctrine, and admittedly there may not be an awful lot of sea basing doctrine, but there is not an awful lot of discussion and dialog" about the salvage forces.

He said the Navy needs to "dramatically" improve its approach to the salvage and diving teams, because in the next 15 years, the service will not be able to rely on connectors that do not exist, he said.

"Until we can divorce ourselves entirely from having to take ships and small craft to the beach and the ports ... we are going to need salvage forces," Willdns told National Defense during the conference.

As a result, he explained, operational fleet forces need to be aware of...