On Sun, 5 Feb 2006 11:28:33 -0500, "Andrew Chaplin"
wrote:

"Ed Rasimus" wrote in message
.. .

NATO called the concept TASMO (Tactical Air Support of Maritime
Operations) and it involved land-based tactical aircraft tasked with
both offensive and defensive mission in support of ships.

Is that what the Germans were up to when they strapped Kormoran onto
Starfighters? The Baltic sounds like a good place to do it, as would
have been North Norway. (I do not remember it being among the tasks
talked about for AMF(A), but it would have made sense given the naval
infantry threat.)

Yep. Since NATO (in the good ol' days) was pretty much Europe
surrounded by water, there were a lot of options for using land-based
aircraft over water.

The most likely scenario was land-based aircraft attacking enemy
shipping or amphibious forces rather than CAP for friendly naval
operations. But, we did it both ways.

It was a primary role for the wing I was in out of Spain and we
exercised regularly in that mission with deployments to Italy, Greece,
Turkey etc. It was always more fun to attack (or at least try to
attack) the CVBG than to try to defend it. The Navy usually wanted us
to drone in flying Soviet missile profiles (Kelt, Kitchen, etc.) so
that they could exercise their radars and command/control.

We wanted to develop tactics and run in with our hair on fire to bomb
the carrier. Usually we got to do a little bit of both.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
www.thunderchief.org
www.thundertales.blogspot.com