Air Force Wants to Move Fast on Boat Plane for Special Operators

[haele]

13. Sounds like they got sold the idea of a disposable pontoon platform attachment.

Not re-usable, but disposable. Supposedly for large lake or beach landings (hmm, ever heard of surf and tides?)
The AF did land bombers on Navy Carriers a couple times in the past, but I don't think they ever launched off a carrier flight deck, maybe a B-1 did, but I don't remember the details.
Navy deploys Marine Spec-Ops via helicopter or MCAC (a hydro-foil landing craft). Follow - on support (like Tanks or vother vehicles) and supplies are then onshored after via small boats or RO-ROs (Supply ships).
And SEALs get the added fun-sized unit insertion process via Submarine Torpedo Tubes.

So, again, why does the Air Force need this? This doesn't seem to have any economic benefit to any DoD service, unless there was a galactic breakthrough in metallurgy or mechanical physics technology that I haven't heard of yet. I can believe DARPA might look into it for shits and giggles, but this sounds more like Raytheon or some other MIC pulling a 4-star's leg for extra Uncle Sugar funding.

Haele