Late last month, the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force’s 31st Air Group, 71st Air Squadron, at Iwakuni Air Base conducted an emergency airlift of an injured individual from a Chinese oceanographic research vessel off the east coast of Ogasawara, that involved a waterborne landing of a huge ShinMaywa Industries US-2 seaplane.
With a 108-foot wingspan and 109-foot length, the US-2 has a maximum take-off weight of 52 tons. They can take off and land in about 1,100 feet of relatively calm (under 11-foot seas) water. With an operational range of 2,500nm, these birds could be invaluable in the Pacific littoral in future years.
There is a dramatic, if short, video of the big blue bird while waterborne.
Too bad the U.S. Navy decommissioned its last flying boat squadron in 1967 and the USGC put the shorter-legged Grumman HU-16 “Goat” out to pasture in 1983.
Worse, the JMSDF only has eight US-2s.
Taking a page from AUKUS, there should be a program to spin up a squadron or two of commercial off-the-shelf US-2s in NAVAIR service, with future American aircrews training alongside the Japanese while the airframes are crafted. Heck, maybe the funding could even be offset via F-35 spending. Just saying.
It’s certainly more realistic than the daffy amphibious MC-130 fever dream that SOCCOM has been suffering from.