Amphib ship requirements study could spell bad news for Marines, industry
By Megan Eckstein
Jan 18, 04:04 PM
ARLINGTON, Va. — A study on amphibious warship requirements that will help inform upcoming budgets is looking less likely to yield the results the U.S. Marine Corps wants.
The amphibious portfolio is at the heart of naval integration between the Marine Corps and the Navy. The Corps relies on these ships to carry Marine expeditionary units around the globe, and the service partly plans its force structure around how many amphibious ready groups will be ready to support those units. But it’s Navy sailors who crew the amphibious ready groups’ ships, and the service is tasked with buying and maintaining them.
The Navy already faces a massive bill from the Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine program, coupled with other high-priority acquisition and readiness needs. Lawmakers in fiscal 2021 gave the Navy authority to buy amphibious transport docks and an amphibious assault ship together as part of a multiyear block buy — the gold-standard for ship acquisition and a cost-saving measure the Navy would have leapt at a couple years ago. But the service let that authority expire, saying in a June hearing that it didn’t want to commit to buying four amphibs because it’s unsure how many it wants.
https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2022/01/18/amphib-ship-requirements-study-could-spell-bad-news-for-marines-industry/
