Provisioning an aircraft carrier a sea



    by Bursickle

    31 Comments

    1. Free_PalletLine on

      Commonly called either a RAS or UNREP for replenishment at sea or underway replenishment. Can be broken down into some sub variants like a vertREP as seen here via helicopter, a conREP where pallets and stores are delivered via a connected zipline essentially. Or a bog standard RAS/UNREP where hoses are connected for bulk liquid stores usually fuel, fresh water, lube oil or aviation fuel. Importantly all three can be conducted at the same time if both ships are able to do so.

      You can even have multiple ships connected either side of the supply ship in formation.

      Imagine a jet fighter refueling mid-air, that’s what replenishment tankers do at sea.

      *This is how the RFA/RN do conreps and RAS’ing

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPnD6gL2vTM

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyPT4mRvoKM

    2. blobsfromspace on

      I’ve got a question for anyone in the navy. Is the helicopter from the aircraft carrier or from the supply ship?
      And if it’s from the aircraft carrier how is the relationship between the fighterjet pilots and the helicopter pilots? Somehow I’m thinking there must be a rivalry between heli and jet pilots.

    3. vertreps! It’s funny… the commenters talking about what a waste and there has to be a better way… never been in 20 foot seas where a devil dog is trying to come and and suddenly the ship that was easily 40 feet bellow hits the landing wheels like a freight train

    4. I’ve been a part of plenty of those. Luckily, I worked for the fuel division so I wasn’t humping boxes but it’s a busy time for all.

    5. These great scenes are always ruined by the stupid music. You want to hear the reality in things most people will never do.

    6. The photo below is an H-46 “VERTREP” from around 1977 “somewhere in the Western Pacific” on the USS Constellation. These H-46’s were not from the Connie…but, honestly, I don’t know which ship provided the helos. They were dedicated “VERTREP” pros. They could do this little dance back and forth between ships very quickly.

      https://preview.redd.it/y4c9msp81f7g1.png?width=1043&format=png&auto=webp&s=e000128ad308aeb20fecaea0c818f750bec93fc6

      Refueling/replenishing at sea was a huge operation for a carrier and the related support oilers/supply ships. Not only helo skills, but unreal ship navigation skills. On one dark and drizzly night, the Constellation and (I think) the Wichita “bumped” together and you have never heard so much screeching steel and shuddering. There was an emergency “breakaway”, a hard turn that you don’t think a carrier could do, and general quarters. So fun!

      Just remember to give props to the people doing a lot of hard work on the supply ships.

    7. Question for the military folks, is recording video like this usually allowed or how does it work to release videos of servicemen men on duty to the public. Have always wondered that.

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