Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew H.
This is an interesting thought experiment.
If you haven't yet, it might be informative to read this "Aircraft Carriers in Space" article from Foreign Policy - it's short and pretty interesting: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/article...pace?page=full
Here's an excerpt:
Another thing to keep in mind is that divisions between military branches aren't tightly drawn. The Coast Guard actually predates the US Navy for example, and has had different, but complementary roles for most if its existence. (Actually, that might be an interesting model to look at for an orbital force, depending on what they do).
And although the Air Force is generally thought of as the branch with the planes, the Army, Navy, and Marines all have their own planes and pilots within their own branches. (Although this is perhaps not a given; in some countries, the Navy operates the aircraft carriers, but the airforce flies the planes on it.) So it's quite possible that while the Orbital Corps is the main space-based force, the Army, Navy, and Marines may have their own ships for their own purposes.
(And of course the Marines are interwoven with the Navy of course - the "corpsmen" who serve as medics for the Marines are actually Navy enlisted men (even in places like Afghanistan)). |
The highlighted is the only thing I disagree with. The navy has its own air wings on each carrier. The USAF does not fly off of navy carriers. Navy aircraft carriers are in general manned by all navy personnel, air crews and support personal.
Now other navies in the world may do things a bit differently.