Shortly after midnight on 19 June 1968, Lieutenant (junior grade) Clyde Lassen launched as aircraft commander with his crew of four in a UH-2A Seasprite helicopter, call sign “Clementine Two,” to rescue Lieutenant Commanders John Holtzclaw and John Burns after their F-4J Phantom was shot down over North Vietnam. The helicopter crew conducted the mission from an alert rescue posture on board the USS Preble (DLG-15), positioned near the North Vietnamese coast for just this sort of emergent tasking.1 The mission was perilous, but ultimately Clementine Two rescued the survivors and returned to the USS Jouett (DLG-29) a few miles off the coast “with fuel for only five minutes of flight remaining.”2 Lassen received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity . . . as pilot and aircraft commander of a search and rescue helicopter,” and his crew’s efforts remain an inspiration for contemporary rotary-wing naval aviators as they prepare to conduct rescue operations.3
Today, long-range weapons make it imprudent to station ships and embarked rescue assets near the enemy’s coast during a conflict, but the moral duty to rescue downed aviators remains.4 The Navy will need to update its rescue operations as well as its platforms’ capabilities to meet this requirement in the next war.
A potential conflict with China would include characteristics that have been foreign to the U.S. Navy since the end of World War II—vast expanses of contested air and waterspace between belligerents and high aircraft loss rates. Downed aircrew will have to parachute into this maritime no-man’s-land and the U.S. joint force will be ill-prepared to rescue them. Fortunately, the Navy is slowly addressing this capability gap and already has many of the resources necessary to conduct this mission. Combat search and rescue (CSAR) operational concepts developing in concert with expeditionary advanced base operations (EABO) show promise for near-term success. However, if the United States were forced to “fight tonight” against China, scores of aviators would be lost in the vast Pacific Ocean, waiting in their life rafts for rescuers who will not be able to reach them.
A New Threat Environment
In conflicts since World War II, the United States has operated in a permissive environment for maritime rescue operations. Local sea control even allowed U.S. forces to rescue aviators within sight of North Vietnamese coastal defenses.5 This enabled a CSAR architecture to remain within a few miles of the enemy’s coast, similar to the late World War II practice of stationing U.S. submarines in the vicinity of enemy targets as lifeguards, one of which famously rescued Lieutenant (junior grade) George H. W. Bush after he was shot down over Chichi Jima in 1944.6 Modern ship- and land-based antiship weapons make it impossible to repeat this rescue posture, and the expected scarcity of available Navy submarines means they will likely be far too busy to idle in lifeguard stations.7 Rescue assets may need to rapidly transit hundreds of miles to reach each survivor, a mission only aircraft can carry out.
Just as this high-threat environment promises to make maritime rescue more dangerous, the volume of downed aviators is expected to skyrocket during a conflict with China. A recent series of unclassified wargames involving a Chinese invasion of Taiwan estimated U.S. aircraft losses to be between 200 and 484. While most of these were planes destroyed on the ground, there were still between 20 and 48 American aircrew awaiting rescue at sea.8 To have any chance at rescuing these men and women, the joint force must evolve its CSAR architecture. Fortunately, the Navy’s distributed maritime operations (DMO) and the Marine Corps’ EABO concepts provide an outstanding framework to grow the Navy’s CSAR force posture and meet this imperative.
Legacy Maritime CSAR Force Posture
According to Navy doctrine, carrier strike group (CSG), expeditionary strike group (ESG), and amphibious ready group (ARG) commanders are required to maintain the capability to provide CSAR support for organic maritime assets. A standard CSG CSAR task force (CSARTF) consists of multiple F/A-18 Super Hornets and E/A-18G Growlers fulfilling a variety of roles (air-to-air defense, air-to-surface escort, suppression of enemy air defense), an E-2 Hawkeye as a communication platform, and a rescue helicopter complement.9 Maritime rescue response falls largely on embarked helicopter units, primarily helicopter sea combat (HSC) squadrons flying the MH-60S Knighthawk. However, because of a reduction in helicopters on the carrier and an evolving threat environment that challenges U.S. air superiority, helicopter crews are training for longer-distance missions and self-supported recoveries without the benefit of a full CSARTF complement.
Recent CSAR Doctrine Development
The Marine Corps EABO concept holds promise to expand rescue capabilities in the Indo-Pacific. According to the Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, core missions include “forward sustainment,” and its key tasks include “forward arming and refueling point (FARP) operations.”10 Helping reconstitute the force by refueling helicopters enroute to downed aviators directly relates to these core EABO roles.
Through unit-level and integrated training events, the Navy continues to build on this concept for both its MH-60S and MH-60R helicopter communities. The capstone development effort is an EAB during Air Wing Fallon, a carrier air wing training exercise in Fallon, Nevada. In a recent iteration, elements of MH-60S and MH-60R squadrons detached to Amadee Army Airfield in California to support CSAR and surface warfare training exercises from a remote location. At Amadee, Navy helicopter units received fueling support from Marine Wing Support Squadron 372 and communication support from the Air Force’s 52nd Combat Communications Squadron. While much work remains to mature the concept, the integration within EABO enables wider maritime CSAR coverage with the goal of reconstituting combat aircrew.
Recent geopolitical developments have the potential to further develop the EABO concept. In February 2023, the Philippines expanded basing access for U.S. forces under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) from five sites to nine.11 Access to more bases in the Pacific enables power projection through the Marine littoral regiments (MLRs) developed to establish EABs in accordance with Marine Corps Force Design 2030.12 Further benefits of EDCA expansion include increased training opportunities in potential conflict zones, facilities for U.S. logistics hubs, and rapid deployment launch points should conflict arise.13 Peacetime rescue (vice strike) exercises could use the EDCA bases while at the same time addressing any potential Philippine reluctance to appear unnecessarily provocative toward China.
The Air Force is also developing tactics and supporting functions to enable CSAR in the Pacific. In last year’s Distant Horizon exercise, airmen from the 920th Rescue Wing established a temporary contingency location at Patrick Space Force Base in Florida, as well as two geographically separate contingency locations. The exercise validated the ability to sustain a personnel recovery task force across multiple locations in the Pacific.14 However, the Air Force recently announced it is cutting initial procurement numbers for the HH-60W Jolly Green II personnel recovery helicopter from 113 to 75. This will leave the service 24 helicopters short of its current contingent of aging HH-60G Pave Hawks and throws into question the Air Force’s prioritization of the CSAR mission.15
The Navy’s rotary-wing community also has refocused internal training on rescue operations. Though always a “core” mission, search and rescue tended to be overlooked during the war on terror as other missions gained prominence. Exercise Tarpon Springs 22 best demonstrated renewed attention on rescue and medical evacuation missions, with participation from the 12 MH-60S and MH-53E squadrons in Norfolk, Naval Special Warfare units, local fire departments, and Coast Guard units.16 These efforts must continue, with more resources spent on practicing overwater rescue and in-flight patient care and less dedicated to legacy missions such as fast inshore assault-craft defense, close-air support, and assault support.
Near-Term Potential
There is still time before the “Davidson Window” closes in 2027 to make significant improvements to the Navy’s CSAR capabilities with the tools already at hand. Continued integration with Marine Corps EABO efforts will increase rescue assets’ access to the battlespace, but more can be done. Navy helicopters can also stage on board virtually any ship with an adequately sized flight deck. The Freedom- and Independence-variant littoral combat ships (LCSs), much derided for their failed mission packages and still in search of a role in high-end conflict (see “Get On with the LCS Upgrades,” pp. 12–13), would make outstanding staging bases for MH-60S helicopters in an alert CSAR posture. These ships could operate in the littorals and hide among local traffic and island clutter at the edge of Chinese antiship weapon engagement zones. MH-60S aviation detachments have deployed consistently on board LCSs since 2010 and are already familiar with the ship’s capabilities and limitations.17
Minor investments in MH-60S capabilities also could improve the aircraft’s fuel capacity and combat radius. The MH-60S already can carry two internal 200-gallon auxiliary fuel tanks, providing 300 additional nautical miles of range. However, the initial purchase of the platforms included only one tank for each aircraft. Buying more gas tanks and associated plumbing would yield more mission capability.18
Room for Growth
Japan has a unique asset tailored for maritime search and rescue—modern seaplanes. The United States should purchase the Japanese ShinMaywa US-2 to serve a similar purpose. Such a capability would extend the range at which it could recover downed U.S. and coalition service members and return them to service.19 The Marine Corps already has already made significant progress in developing MLRs to operate in the “contact and blunt layers” between friendly and hostile forces.20 Including a CSAR support function with U.S. and Japanese seaplanes would add to the MLR’s growing list of mission capabilities. While the Air Force has explored building its own amphibious seaplane, the MC-130J, the United States should consider buying the US-2 to meet the requirement by 2027.21
The Navy is currently considering alternatives for beginning to replace the fleet of MH-60R/S manned helicopters by 2040 under its Future of Vertical Lift–Maritime Strike (FVL-MS) program. The platforms that emerge will likely be a mix of manned and unmanned aircraft that can operate from ships with single-spot flight decks.22 With maritime rescue as a core mission for these platforms, the FVL-MS program promises to increase the range and speed of the Navy’s primary rescue assets.23 In addition, as the carrier air wing moves to a 60/40 split between unmanned and manned aircraft, there should be significantly fewer pilots flying in harm’s way.24
Hope Is Not a Plan
If the joint force expects aviators to penetrate hundreds of miles into contested battlespace during a future conflict, there must be a rescue architecture to activate when some of those brave souls eject because of enemy fire or aircraft malfunction. The environment during a potential conflict with China would be inherently maritime and the Navy will need to shoulder much of the CSAR mission. Fortunately, there is already a heroic CSAR tradition in the Navy. Much more can be done with minor investments to existing platforms and continued mission development during joint exercises. Perhaps unmanned systems will eventually remove all survivors from the battlefield, but until that day the Navy must improve its current capabilities to live up to the Navy rescue swimmer motto, “So others may live.”25
1. RADM Samuel J. Cox, USN (Ret.), “H-019-2: Medal of Honor for LTJG Clyde Lassen,” Naval History and Heritage Command online, June 2018.
2. Katie Lange, “Medal of Honor Monday: Navy Cmdr. Clyde Everett Lassen,” DOD News, 20 June 2022.
3. Congressional Medal of Honor Society, “Stories of Sacrifice: Clyde Everett Lassen.”
4. MajGen Timothy C. Hanifen, USMC (Ret.), “Revitalize Fleet Search, Rescue, and Recovery Operations,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 147, no. 2 (February 2021).
5. Paul X. Ruiz, “Crusader Down: In 1966 a U.S. Navy Helicopter Crew Plucked a Downed Aviator from North Vietnam’s Busiest Harbor in One of the War’s Most Daring Rescues,” HISTORYNET online, 5 October 2018.
6. Nathaniel S. Patch, “Mission: Lifeguard, American Submarines in the Pacific Recovered Downed Pilots,” National Archives Prologue Magazine 46, no. 3 (Fall 2014): 13–21.
7. Mike Sweeney, “Submarines Will Reign in a War with China,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 149, no. 3 (March 2023).
8. Mark F. Cancian, Matthew Cancian, and Eric Heginbotham, “The First Battle of the Next War: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, 9 January 2023.
9. Multiservice Tactics, Techniques and Procedures for Personnel Recovery, Air Land Sea Space Application Center, October 2022, www.alsa.mil/PR/.
10. U.S. Marine Corps, Tentative Manual for Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, May 2023).
11. Aaron-Matthew Lariosa, “New Philippine Basing Access Strengthens U.S. Marine, Navy Plans,” Naval News, 9 February 2023.
12. U.S. Marine Corps, Force Design 2030 Annual Update (Washington, DC: Headquarters U.S. Marine Corps, May 2022).
13. Renato Cruz de Castro, “The Philippines’ Evolving View on Taiwan: From Passivity to Active Involvement,” Brookings, 9 May 2023.
14. Ian Phillips, “Exercise Distant Horizon Validates Indo-Pacific Sustainment Functions,” U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, 17 August 2022.
15. Valerie Insinna, “Air Force Ending Procurement of HH-60W Combat Rescue Helicopter in FY23,” Breaking Defense, 28 March 2022.
16. MCPO Todd Coulard, USN, “Own What You Control,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 148, no. 10 (October 2022).
17. John D. Gresham, “USS Freedom (LCS-1) Deploys,” Defense Media Network online, 19 February 2010.
18. Robertson Fuel Systems, Guardian™ Extended Range Fuel System (ERFS) fact sheet.
19. Capt Walker D. Mills, USMC, and LCDR Dylan Pillips-Devine, USN, “Give Amphibians a Second Look,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 146, no. 12 (December 2020).
20. U.S. Marine Corps, “Marine Littoral Regiment (MLR),” courtesy story, Headquarters Marine Corps, 11 January 2023.
21. Thomas Newdick, “U.S. Air Force Trains with Japan’s US-2 Flying Boat as It Looks Forward to Its Own Amphibious Plane,” The War Zone, 23 February 2022.
22. Mallory Shelbourne “Admiral: Next Navy Helos Will Be Mix of Manned, Unmanned,” USNI News, 1 April 2021.
23. CAPTs Mike “Dream” Weaver and Chris “Jean-Luc” Richard, USN, “Navy Helicopters Are Changing Course,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 146, no. 9 (September 2020).
24. Brian Everstine, “U.S. Navy Wants Its Carrier Air Wing 60% Uncrewed,” Aviation Week, 19 September 2022.
25. U.S. Navy Recruiting Command, “Aviation Rescue Swimmer.”
