House panel sides with Marine Corps in protecting amphibious fleet size
By Megan Eckstein
Jun 7, 02:02 PM
WASHINGTON — A House panel wants to protect the amphibious fleet from cuts the Navy planned to make and bolster the sealift fleet in its proposal for the fiscal 2023 defense authorization bill.
The House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee would recommend saving four aging amphibious dock landing ships from retirement, continuing the production line of the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock despite Navy plans to end the line after FY23, mandating a minimum of 31 amphibious warships in the fleet, and authorizing a block buy of 25 amphibious connectors, a committee aide told reporters ahead of a June 8 subcommittee markup of the language.
A rift between the Navy and Marine Corps over the size of the amphibious ship fleet got the attention of lawmakers. Throughout 2021, HASC and Senate Armed Services Committee members questioned Navy officials on why they hadn’t executed a multi-ship buy across two classes of amphibious ships, which the committees had laid the groundwork for in the FY21 National Defense Authorization Act. The Navy said at the time it didn’t want to commit to buying four new amphibs until it completed another look at its requirements for amphibious warships.
https://www.militarytimes.com/naval/2022/06/07/house-panel-sides-with-marine-corps-in-protecting-amphibious-fleet-size/
