Concern over the developing dispute between the US Navy and US Marine Corps over the creation of amphibious warships has reached a crucial point. While the Navy intends to halt production and institute a “strategic shipbuilding pause” to evaluate potential amphibious vessels, Marine Corps generals, led by Commandant David Berger, vehemently advocate for the construction of more ships at the Navy League Sea Air Space Conference in Maryland, as reported by Servicio.
Rival sea powers
This contrasts sharply with US Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan, whose agency is engaged in a battle with the Navy over the construction of icebreakers, and Merchant Marine Commandant Ann Phillips, who needs Admiral Mike Gilday’s support for the Tanker Security Program. Both have largely remained silent on shipbuilding-related issues.
As tensions increase with two rival sea powers—Russia and China—the silence of two commandants and the widening gap with the third might have disastrous repercussions for our national security and military readiness.
US Marine Corps Needs More Ships
Defense News reports that as part of its list of unfunded priorities for fiscal 2024, the Marine Corps has sought $1.71 billion to finish construction on the LPD-33, the following ship in the San Antonio class. To support and carry US Marine Corps personnel, vehicles, and supplies during amphibious missions is the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock. For military or humanitarian missions, transferring personnel from ship to land is a common part of these missions. For the US Navy and Marine Corps to project force and respond to international crises, San Antonio-class ships are essential.
The Marine Corps is now operating with fewer than the minimum number of 31 amphibious ships required by law as a result of the strategic pause and the announcement to decommission more amphibious ships.
General Berger has stated numerous times that “the amphibious fleet is precisely the correct tool to deter our competitors.”
The Navy Mission Has Changed
Because the Navy works with the US Coast Guard (USCG) on icebreakers, the Marine Corps on amphibious ships, and the US Merchant Marine on sealift tankers, as well as because Congress changed the Navy’s legal mission last year, all three services depend on naval support. The emphasis moved from fighting wars to include assisting missions in times of peace. The functions of icebreakers and tankers in peacetime are obvious, but it is also important to emphasise the critical role that Marine Corps ships play in humanitarian operations, such as hurricane relief efforts.
National Defense Magazine writes the 2023 NDAA “changed the mission of the Navy,” FerryBridge Group managing director Bryan McGrath said during a panel discussion at the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space exposition. “It made the peacetime security and prosperity and the protection thereof co-equal to combat operations at sea.”
“31 amphibs are not enough,” McGrath said. “The mission change made peacetime security and prosperity and the protection they’re co-equal to combat operations and see if you think the 31 Amphib decision was done with that mission in mind you are wrong.”
Retired Navy Captain and naval scholar Jerry Hendrix, who recently authored the widely shared article titled The Age of American Naval Dominance Is Over, for the Atlantic concurred and said “Clearly there’s a debate going on between Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) with the Navy and Marine Corps on both sides. A number of other large and midsize advocates LVDS and OHS always seem to think that we need a lot less.”
https://twitter.com/JerryHendrixII/status/1635337405296439297?s=20
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Source: Servicio
