Hammer wrote:A force consisting of:
- The USS Wasp with a full complement of marines and helicopters.
- The USS Kearsarge (Wasp class) with a full complement of marines and helicopters.
- The USS Enterprise for aircover.
- A large tanker with a load of fule for the aircraft.
- A large cargo ship full of ammo of all types, plus copious supplies of commonly-required replacement parts for aircraft.
Gets sent to Middle Earth for an offensive against Mordor. They are sent by a wormhole/stargate/technobabblething and arrive in the ocean to the west of the continent containing Mordor, Gondor, Shire etc, arriving about 100 miles offshore. They already know where their objective and the kind of opposition they may face.
Short term objective (one month window): Penetrate Mordor, storm and occupy the fortress of Barad-Dur, occupy the area around the black gates and the other entrance into Mordor.
Long term objective (six month window): Take the whole land of Mordor under control.
(Wasp class info:
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/lhd-1.htm )
The short term objective must be completed as a precursor to the long term.
Can they achieve either objective?
Not without difficulty.
First, make sure they at least have their standard complements of 6 Harrier II's. Better yet, go for a modified Sea Control Ship option on 1 of them (20 AV-8B's and 6 CH-53's), for a total of 26 Harriers. The Harriers will have a better chance of taking out the Nazgul's winged mounts from long-range than even attack helicopters, and by staying out of range of the Nazgul's evil auras they'll be able to function.
This, of course, is only a temporary problem for the Nazgul, unless some of the pilots happen to be female, since no male pilot/warrior (unless they're nonhuman) can kill a Nazgul.
Basically, the Marines only have a few things going for them:
-- superior weapons, in terms not only of damage but also range
-- superior protection, in that their M113's, let alone any M2's or M1's, will have superior protection for the troopers than the best mail available to Mordor's forces
-- artillery available to the Marines has much better range and killing capabilities than anything available to Mordor
Unfortunately, they have some problems with their opponents:
-- huge number of enemy troops to kill. It's implied that Mordor has hundreds of thousands of troops throughout all of Mordor. And while quite a few are Men and Orcs in mail, a lot of the troops are other things like Trolls, which will be harder to kill.
-- Don't forget the Nazgul; get them close enough, and the Marines will be just as vulnerable to being panicked and driven off.
-- Marine complement from 2 Wasps is only 3,788. That's about half of the force that Aragorn took from Gondor to "assault" the Black Gates... which means their ability to surround their opponents is going to be extremely poor.
Best bet for the Marines is to focus on harrying missions, where they use their mobility to strike and fade. Throw in a lot of air support missions to blow up bridges, take out the gates (if possible), and attack any open clusters of Mordor troops, and they might be able to whittle down the opposition given some time.
Personal recommendation for the ordnance is a lot of Rockeye cluster bombs and cannon shells, with LGB's and iron bombs for heavier targets. They'll do wonders against open-ground troops.
Even if they manage to kill all the orcs and other troops in Mordor, though, I don't know if they're powerful enough to kill Sauron.
