Marines plan to test a new ship this spring that they see as the answer to fighting in littorals with new formations. The landing ship medium, formerly known as the light amphibious warship, is the service’s first modern stern-landing vessel.
Marines will test out the shore-to-shore connector at the Army’s Project Convergence event in early 2024, Defense News reported. After a series of delays, the landing ship medium program is on track to go under contract in 2025.
Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, deputy commandant for Marine Corps combat development and integration said in September he was confident the ship would go under contract by 2025, Defense News reported. An early prototype project used a leased offshore support vessel from Hornbeck Offshore Services. Designers modified the ship to operate as a stern landing vessel by adding a large ramp, landing legs and protection under the ship’s propellers and rudders, Defense News reported.
The Navy expects to purchase between 18–35 landing ship mediums to support Marine amphibious operations, according to a November 2023 Congressional Research Service report. The Marines stood up two Marine littoral regiments in recent years, one based out of Hawaii the other in Okinawa, Japan. The approach aims to enable the work of the larger naval fleet, which would otherwise be held at a distance due to enemy anti-access, area-denial radar, sensor and missile systems. Under the fiscal year 2024 budget, the Navy sought to purchase the first landing ship medium in fiscal year 2025 at a cost of $187.9 million, with a total of at least six LSMs purchased by fiscal year 2028.
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
