By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robyn B. Gerstenslager

Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewmen (SWCC) from Special Boat Team (SBT) 12, stationed at Naval Base Coronado, Calif., conducted a Maritime External Air Transportation System (MEATS) training evolution, Dec. 12, with the help of a Marine Corps CH-53 helicopter. Typically MEATS is a way to move an 11-meter rigid inflatable boat (RIB) or a special operations craft-riverine (SOC-R) from a point on land or in the water to somewhere else in the water. SWCCs rig the boat to the helicopter as it hovers 10 to 15 feet above their heads and then climb a rope ladder to board the helicopter before transiting to the drop zone, where they will rappel down a line to the boat and prepare to get underway.

This evolution was different: a CH 53 was used with a new different type of sling. Members of SBT-22, which operates out of Stennis Space Center, Miss., trained a RIB detachment from SBT-12 on how to use the new sling. SBT-22 has experience using this sling during numerous MEATS evolutions, using Army air assets and the SOC-R. "For the first time using a new sling and new aircraft, the evolution was very successful," said Special Boat Operator 1st Class Chris Favata, a MEATS trainer from SBT-22. "We'll be developing new ways to use this capability now that we've proved this can be done." Having operators qualified on MEATS will add a valuable capability to special boat team detachments supporting the Global War on Terror, because it allows special operations craft to be picked up at a forward operating base and dropped in the water closer to where it needs to operate, and the craft doesn't burn fuel getting there.