THE ARMY’S LITTLE-KNOWN BOAT FLEET IS GETTING A BIG UPGRADE
Hope Seck | November 7, 2022
While the Navy’s struggle to build out new ship classes for future conflicts makes headlines, the Army is quietly revamping its own little-known fleet – one that has at times had more vessels than the Navy’s, albeit smaller ones.
In October, the Army launched the first prototype of the new Maneuver Support Vessel (Light), or MSV(L), a cargo watercraft that’s set to become the service’s newest boat class. The 117-foot MSV(L), made by Vigor Industrial, has been in development since 2017 when the Army inked a $980 million, 10-year contract with the company. It’s set to replace the Army’s less-capable Vietnam-era Landing Craft Mechanized-8 (LCM-8), which is nearing the end of its service life. And it’s getting ready to enter service as the Army anticipates needing its boats more than ever before.
General Charles Flynn, commanding general of U.S. Army Pacific, told an audience at the Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting in October that the service is working to activate more vessels in the region to support Pacific-based Army Prepositioned Stocks, or warfighting gear stockpiles that stand ready for combat. He added that the Army likely needed more boat companies to meet the logistics challenges of supporting allies in the Pacific and establishing a presence through its Pacific Pathways initiative, which promotes exercises with regional allies.
“There are some sustainment capabilities that we’re going to need … so that we can create conditions for operational endurance of the joint force,” General Flynn said. “We need more composite watercraft companies. So that’s why we’re wargaming … to find out where those gaps are, so that we can go back to the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense and say, ‘Hey, here are the gaps.’”
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