The above picture was taken aboard the United States Ship Mesa Verde,another author gives his opinions on it on the informationdissemination blog.
Two CH53 Super Stallions,two AH1 Sea Cobras and two UH1 Hueys can be seen parked on deck in addition to the V22 Osprey landing on.
Note that while the Osprey is landing,none of the other aircraft can operate,infact there is not even enough space for them to spread their rotors.
This lack of space has a negative impact on air assault operations.
It takes time to move a helicopter onto the landing spot,open it's rotors,load and launch it.
That aircraft can then conduct an air assault on it's own,delivering a small force which will be vulnerable until reinforcements arrive.
Alternatively it can orbit the ship burning fuel whilst waiting for the other aircraft to be launched and thus limiting the range at which the assault may be conducted.
Both of these options are inefficient and tactically highly undesirable.
Flightdeck space is very cheap,aircraft are very expensive.
The lack of low cost flightdeck space on the San Antonio class precludes the efficient use of high cost,high value aviation assets.
This flightdeck bottleneck makes the San Antonio class poor ships from which to launch an air assault.
