Lack of amphibs is a training issue, says Marine Corps assistant commandant
The assistant commandant also sought to tamp down on the narrative that funding amphibious shipbuilding was a fight between the Navy and Marine Corps.
By JUSTIN KATZ
on February 16, 2023 at 11:04 AM
The amphibious transport dock ships USS San Antonio and USS New York underway together in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Virginia. (U.S. Navy photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Edwin F. Bryan)
WEST 2023 — Ahead of the Biden administration’s defense budget roll out next month, the Marine Corps’ second most senior officer is publicly making a new argument for the service’s amphibious shipbuilding request: The force needs them today because it can’t properly train for combat tomorrow without them.
“You don’t want the first time you go out the door to war … as a fight tonight force — that should not be the first time that young first lieutenant has landed a CH-53K or an Osprey on the deck of a pitching, rolling amphib,” Gen. Eric Smith, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, said Tuesday during the West 2023 symposium here in San Diego.
“A young lance corporal moving their [Amphibious Combat Vehicle] into a wet well, pitching rolling deck, two- or three- footer [waves]. They shouldn’t be doing that at night on the way to a war. They should be doing it today over and over and over again until it’s just rote,” he continued.
https://breakingdefense.com/2023/02/lack-of-amphibs-is-a-training-issue-says-marine-corps-assistant-commandant/
