Quote:
I find it surprising that the US Navy has not tasked an aircraft carrier to assist. The avialbility of such vessels would greatly assist by substantially increasing time over the search area conducted by carrier based aircraft.
Not effective application of that asset.
I am not at all surprised that the US has NOT assigned a CV/CVN to this effort. Further that point, with the large degree of uncertainty involved in any localization effort, there is no reason to steam a national asset of that particular capability out into the middle of nowhere.
None.
According to a discussion on the radio while I was driving in this morning, the US had volunteered to assist in the search shortly after the aircraft went missing, but were politely declined since the Malaysians figured they could handle it.
Now that Australia is heading up the search, the US has been requested to provide any and all assistance possible.
Also saw this on Reuters the morning:
The Ocean Shield, an offshore support vessel that will be carrying the ping-detecting device, was supposed leave Perth on Sunday, but its departure was rescheduled for Monday, officials said. The ship will also be carrying an unmanned underwater vehicle.
But the ping detector’s utility, in the absence of more specific information about the location of the wreckage, is questionable. The device will be towed behind the ship at no more than about five knots, or about six miles per hour, and needs to be within about a mile of the black boxes to pick up the signal reliably, making for a slow and painstaking process. The new search area, which was established on Friday, is roughly the size of Poland.
