Auxiliary Ships.

Backing up and supporting the Navy.

Warships, aircraft carriers and submarines may be the front line of many of the worlds great navies, but it is the auxiliary fleet that is the key to keep them going. Even with nuclear powered vessels, we still need some support at sea!

The Internet and skype may have replaced the post, but in hostile conditions even carriers need to change equipment, aircraft and helicopters. Re-armament is another role and the evacuation of the injured, many vessels need to be refuelled at sea and the change over of crew.

Over the years with N.A.T.O. deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq and possible soon Syria, much needed armour, artillery, tanks and missile systems were brought in by transport ships. 

Another role for the auxiliary fleet is training from sail ships to tenders to combat simulations and actual war games action.

Landing Craft.

LVTP 1-7. (Landing Vehicle Tracked).

The United States took great advantage of developing the amphibious vehicle during the second world war (1939-45), both for the European front and the Pacific campaign. It was the DUWK or 'Duck which was mostly seen in Europe, being a road truck, that slowely waved through water.

This was slow but it did the job, in the Pacific it was the LVTP-1  tracked landing craft, that since successfull use agains the Japanese over the years has been developed into the modern -7 type.

Both the LVTP-5/7 comprise a massive ammount of troop carrying capacity. The -5, a crew of 3/4 and 34 troops, while the -7 is more flexable with a crew of 2/3 and up to 25 troops. Russia and Czechoslovakia developed their own mass types, the BTR-50 (2+20) and  OT-62/64, 2+15/20+).

But i think that the U.S, has had the better over all in this field, as proved with the two Iraqi wars.