A key vessel Marines need to move around in a potential island shootout with China is two years behind schedule, could cost nearly triple its original estimate and the short-term fix isn’t cheap. The Navy’s landing ship medium program expects to award its design and construction contract in fiscal year 2025, two years later than originally planned. The concept, formerly called the light amphibious warship, was launched in 2020 to procure 35 such stern landing vessels. The ship would hew closely to commercial designs to lower its signature and provide the recently formed Marine littoral regiments with options for maneuvering in areas close to shore and within island chains, especially in the Pacific. The current ship being used for testing is the stern landing vessel, a modified commercial watercraft that allows users to offload and onload directly from the beach.
Original design features for the landing ship medium concept include: A length of 200 to 400 feet, a draft of 12 feet, a crew of about 70 sailors, a capacity for carrying 50 Marines and 648 short tons of equipment, 8,000 square feet of deck cargo space, transit speed of 14 knots, cruising range of 3,500 nautical miles, roll-on/roll-off beaching capability for beaches with a 1:40 grade, a helicopter landing pad, two 30 mm guns, six .50-caliber guns for self-defense, a 20-year service life.
The first of three planned regiments became operational in 2023 and the Navy is developing a bridging strategy. Ongoing experimentation with commercial vessels modified to meet the landing needs. Congress could consider adapting the existing fleet of Army logistics support vessels for Marines’ requirements. The Army has more than 100 such vessels in its fleet that have similar capabilities to landing ships Corps is seeking. Navy expects to award construction contract for the ships in March 2025, with first ship delivered by January 2029.
The Congressional Budget Office estimated the initial 18-ship program could cost between $6.2 billion and $7.8 billion, translating to $340 million to $430 million per hull. That’s three times more than the original estimate of $2.6 billion for the program. If Navy gets the green light to buy full fleet of 35 landing ships, program will cost between $11.9 billion and $15 billion. Todd South has written about crime, courts, government, and the military since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist.
