The Marine Corps’ new Expeditionary Force 21 capstone concept calls for alternative platforms to supplement amphibious ships in both seabasing as well as responding to crises, and the solution to that may include a new mission module for the Littoral Combat Ship, command and control upgrades to the Joint High Speed Vessel or even additional Mobile Landing Platforms.
According to the report, finalized last month and released earlier this month, the U.S. Pacific Command and Central Command will “continue to be the priority for the allocation” of traditional amphibious ships “because they require the full range of capabilities inherent in these types of forces.” But there are typically only 22 amphibs available for operations at any given time, Marine Lt. Gen. Kenneth Glueck, deputy commandant for combat development and integrations and a lead author of Expeditionary Force 21, said during an April 9 panel at the Navy League’s annual Sea Air Space conference. It would take more than 50 to satisfy combatant commander needs, he added. So, “we need to modify traditional employment methods and augment amphibious warships by adapting other vessels for sea-based littoral operations,” the report says.
Ultimately, any platform would do, regardless of who owns or operates it, as long as it has “command and control capability; the ability to launch and recover aircraft; the ability to launch and recover surface vehicles or craft; medical capability; and billeting, messing, and sanitation capacity,” according to the report. “Other considerations include: modification costs; additional manning requirements; impact on missions for which the vessel is primarily designed; operating range, endurance, and survivability.”
In some ways, the Marine Corps is already working with the Navy’s Military Sealift Command to implement this section of Expeditionary Force 21. MSC Commander Rear Adm. Thomas Shannon said during the panel presentation that “Military Sealift Command has a host of platforms that can be used in new and creative ways in support of Expeditionary Force 21.” He said MSC already owns and operates six of the nine ships included in the current seabasing construct and believes the organization can find ways to contribute even more to amphibious operations.
Primarily, Shannon talked about his ships as a relief for the amphibs: when they need to refuel, or step away from operations for minor maintenance work, the MSC ships could sustain operations until the amphibs return. Or, he said, his ships could take over smaller duties to allow other ships more time to focus on their primary missions or go to port for repairs.
“There are so many day-to-day taskings we can take on with these adaptable platforms short of all-out conflict,” he said. “Think of the image of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with 250 sailors onboard sitting off the coast of Somalia, serving as a platform to fly unmanned aerial vehicles and keep an eye on that important region. Replace it with an adaptable platform, put a UAV [detachment] on there and do it with 30 or 40 paychecks instead of 250. Free that destroyer up to get back to its multi-warfare fighting role, or its carrier strike group.”
To aid in that, Shannon said the Navy already has plans to buy two traditional MLPs and two MLPs with an Afloat Forward Staging Base configuration, and “we’re working hard to see if we can’t get a fifth hull funded.”
But the Expeditionary Force 21 notes the military ought to look at even bigger roles for MSC or even commercial ships. In addition to exploring and experimenting with using surface combatants and MSC ships as is, and it goes on to suggest a habitability mission module for the LCS, JHSV with “sufficient sea state and [command, control, communications and computers] capacity,” and high-speed transports.
The Navy has already begun work on JHSV ramps that are better suited for higher sea states to allow operations in more environments, and as the Marine Corps works through how to implement Expeditionary Force 21, it could find other upgrades to invest in.
As the Marines work to find a solution to their amphibious lift shortfall, the mere fact that MSC was included in Expeditionary Force 21 is a sign of progress, Glueck said.
“Five years ago, we probably wouldn’t even talk about [Maritime Prepositioning Force] ships and amphibious ships in the same sentence because we had drawn a line and said you can’t because of resourcing purposes,” Glueck said. “But now you can see the great benefits that are coming out of these two classes of ships and the capabilities we’re putting on them.”