Vertrep !

Great videos..."Oh thank heaven for HC-11!"

Vertreping is something that few navies have mastered. The USN conducts vertreps & conreps now knows as RAS = Replenishment at Sea routinely. I've never seen the PLAN VERTREP. Does anyone have any photos of the PLAN doing a VERTREP??

When deployed on the USS Hancock in 1975 I was the hook up man on the flight deck with the tether....more than once..At that time HC-3 did most of the helo support for the west coast. On the belly of their aircraft was painted "Slipping the Meat to the Fleet"..Now that was the real Navy...

Can your Navy do this? See those shipmates under the helo? That's what I did on the Fightin' Hanna back in the day!


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ATLANTIC OCEAN (Feb. 17, 2011) Sailors assigned to G-1 division of the weapons department of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) attach pole(tether) pendants to an MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 9 during a vertical replenishment with the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75). George H.W. Bush is underway in the Atlantic Ocean conducting joint task force exercise. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Dustin Good/Released)

Originally Posted by bd popeye

I've never seen the PLAN VERTREP. Does anyone have any photos of the PLAN doing a VERTREP??

Bingo!





I think the two Fuchi class replenishment ships and the Qinghaihu all have Vertrep capability and the older Fuqing has limited capability, though doesn't have hangar.

Thanks Blitzo! Any idea how often the PLAN does VERTREPs?

Originally Posted by bd popeye

Thanks Blitzo! Any idea how often the PLAN does VERTREPs?

I don't have a clue -- though I think it might be more than most people think. I remember analysts saying the PLAN would face challenges in their deployment to Somalia due to lack of experience of underway refuelling, but we've seen quite a few pictures of frigates and destroyers lining up against the rep ship, connected by lines and refuelling pipes(?) without much trouble.
They must've trained quite a bit to reach that level of confidence -- the more modern vessels must have, at least.

Thanks for the photos and info. I did know about there RAS ablity...I'd like to see the PLAN doing an unrep with another navy..The US does this frequently..

Originally Posted by Bltizo

I don't have a clue -- though I think it might be more than most people think. I remember analysts saying the PLAN would face challenges in their deployment to Somalia due to lack of experience of underway refuelling, but we've seen quite a few pictures of frigates and destroyers lining up against the rep ship, connected by lines and refuelling pipes(?) without much trouble.
They must've trained quite a bit to reach that level of confidence -- the more modern vessels must have, at least.

The PLAN has been conducting UNREP exercises for the last several years and has gotten proficient at it:



...as has been shown, as you say, in their Somalia anti-piracy mission.

I have a little KA-32 time in my logbook. It is probably the next best VERTREP machine after the H-46. Maybe not as tolerant of sidewinds as tandem rotors, you won't sideflare a Kamov the way you sideflare a Boeing-Vertol machine, but the co-axial rotor is about as efficient as tandem, and both beat the heck out of tail rotor helos.
Btw, the sideflare maneuver, coming up to the stern of the ship flying sideways as you saw in the videos, allows you to keep a lot more airspeed on approach than a conventional approach. The CH-46 flies at 70 kts sideways, and you can keep that airspeed right to the edge of the flight deck. To stop you roll the helo a little in the direction opposite of the direction of flight ( say you are flying sideways to starboard, the pilot rolls the fuselage to port), pull a little collective and the rotors act like a giant air brake. The helo stops almost immediately, you roll level over the spot and set the load down or pick the new load up. When the hook is released you can drop the nose and accelerate away. Using the sideflare allowed us to be fast and productive. Deck to deck in 30 seconds was our battle cry, meaning execute the pick up, fly to the adjacent ship and deliver the load. With two helos doing this you get that daisy chain I spoke of. To upload or download a carriers ammon required both helos working as fast as possible and three CONREP stations on the AE or AOE working 12 to 14 hours non-stop. With only a single helo you loose an awful lot of production because the helos are much faster than a STREAM rig.

Seeing men manhandling packages that were just delivered by helicopter reminded me of an anecdote in one of Nicolas Monserrat's books about his time in corvettes in the early '40's. The ship's ammunition was replenished by a sailing barge and he said the sailing barge's cargo handling equipment was more modern than the corvette's.

Originally Posted by delft

Seeing men manhandling packages that were just delivered by helicopter reminded me of an anecdote in one of Nicolas Monserrat's books about his time in corvettes in the early '40's. The ship's ammunition was replenished by a sailing barge and he said the sailing barge's cargo handling equipment was more modern than the corvette's.

Do you know what a "knee knocker" is on a ship? Pallet jacks are good from the flight deck into the hanger (if the ship isn't rolling too much!), but not any further. Stowing freight requires strong backs. Modern US warships have a couple of wide companionways and wide, gently sloping ladders on the normal replenishment route from deck to the storage lockers to make unrep go faster, but you can't run the whole pallet through the ship. Most passageways are barely wide enough for two sailors to pass each other in.
The exception of course are the replenishment ships which have big elevators and wide decks for fork lifts to move freight all the way from the hold to the STREAM rig or flight deck. You would love watching forklifts struggling for traction when the ship rolls. It's nothing like a stationary warehouse.

I can imaging. I was only once on board a warship, for several hours on the Dutch aircraft carrier Karel Doorman, in the port of Rotterdam about 45 years ago. I have read that passage ways have become a little wider on newer ships. The ship was sold to Argentina in 1969 and became the 25 de Mayo.

My previous reply was somewhat abrupt, I'm sorry. But I do feel that one should think of mechanizing the handling of vertrep loads on board the combat ships, perhaps allowing vertrep at higher sea states and wind speeds and especially on smaller ships.