Navy Getting Divorced
Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The Navy was just served with divorce papers from its longtime partner, reality. We can’t say it’s a surprise, can we? We’ve seen that reality and the Navy have been drifting apart for some time. Still, it’s always sad to see a marriage torn apart. I wonder who will get custody of their child, the fleet? I’m betting the Navy will and the fleet will only see reality a couple of times a year, if that.
Apparently, the event that finally triggered the divorce was the Navy’s latest desire to turn the amphibious ships into destroyers. From a USNI News article,
Maj. Gen. David Coffman said his directorate will spend 2019 working out the finer details of an Amphibious Warship Evolution Plan, which will … put the smaller amphibious transport San Antonio-class (LPD-17) docks more on par with cruisers and destroyers as “prominent middle-weight fighters” in a future naval battle. (1)
Here’s a little bit more detail.
Coffman said that wargames and tabletop exercises have shown the LPD is just the right size to be highly effective in the Navy’s distributed lethality and distributed maritime operations concepts, if they were upgraded to include more lethal systems. …
“Making a bet on increased lethality … is absolutely essential” and worth the cost, he argued. He declined to say what weapon systems he was looking at putting on these amphibs, but he said the upgrades would allow the amphibs to join the rest of the black shoe navy in the fight for sea control once they put their MAGTF ashore.
“Why aren’t you contributing to air and missile defense? Why aren’t you contributing to anti-surface? Instead of having to be protected, why don’t you put something on offer to be part of the killers?” Coffman said of the possibilities of an upgraded LPD. “The bulk of that will be Navy systems integrated into Navy weapons architecture.”
The general described a scenario of multiple LPDs fighting alongside cruisers and destroyers, and not only would the amphibs have a complement of sensors and weapons to contribute to the sea and air control fight, but they would also have a surprise mix of aircraft and surface connectors hidden in their well decks and flight decks to surprise an adversary closer in to shore. (1)
Well, that was heavy on fantasy and stupidity and light on reality! Let’s look at the concept in a bit more detail – detail that the Marines/Navy apparently did not.
Sensors. The ships will, apparently, have a new “complement of sensors and weapons to contribute to the sea and air control fight”. Is every ship going to get Aegis/AMDR/EASR? That should drive the already multi-billion dollar cost up quite a bit!
Weapons. This seems to be more than just welding a few Harpoon launchers onto an open space on the deck. The vague description seems to imply extensive vertical launch systems, SeaRAM, ESSM, Standard (?), and, likely, the coming (?) vertical launch anti-ship missile (VL-LRASM), among others. This is no minor upgrade! No ship has large amounts of unused space. Every compartment on a ship has a function and few (none!) are unnecessary. Every weapon added has to be balanced by the loss of some existing function to free up space. Where are VLS cells going to go? Where is there room for additional magazines?
Risk. We only have around 30 amphibious ships to begin with. Are we really going to risk our only amphibious ships in an air/surface battle that they aren’t designed for? The amphibs are not stealthy (LPD-17 class claims to have some degree of stealth), do not have integrated air/surface combat control software suites, do not have optimally located sensors, etc. Yes, they could be rebuilt to incorporate all that but the cost to do so boggles the mind. Does it make sense to risk the amphibious fleet just to gain a few extra missiles in a fight the ships are not suited for? If we lose amphibs trying to fight a battle they’re not suited for we lose our amphibious capability (or that portion, at least) for the rest of the war. We’re not going to build new multi-billion dollar amphibs in any relevant time frame.
Mission. The amphibious fleet doesn’t just “drop off” the Marines. That’s kind of what happened at Guadalcanal ! The entire ship(s) has to be unloaded to maintain a continuous flow of supplies for the ground fight. Once the ships are emptied, their job will be to go get more supplies. The amphibs embarked supplies are only sufficient to maintain the ground force for a couple of weeks at combat usage levels (always way beyond peacetime estimates!). When is the amphibious fleet going to have time to hang around for an air/sea battle? That’s just not their job.
Manning. You can’t just add weapons with no additional crew. Weapon and sensor operators will be needed. Additional high end electronic and weapon system maintenance technicians will be needed. Additonal crew will be needed to feed these added people. Additional berthing, galley space, heads, etc. will be needed to service the added manpower. The Navy is already on an ill-advised quest for reduced manning and this is going to increased manning.
Cost. While there are no details offered on what the upgrade/conversion would consist of, it’s clear that this won’t be cheap! These ships already cost multi billions of dollars and this is just going to drive the price way, way up. The Navy is already screaming about not enough funding for new ships and that’s before the looming SSBN replacement program in addition to the normal ship construction. Where is this money going to come from.
I also have to ask, where and when did this Marine become an expert on naval battles? This seems like yet another example of the Marines pushing into areas they aren’t qualified for (aviation, UAVs, fleet defense, long range strike, cyber warfare, etc.).
Amphibious ships are highly specialized, incredibly rare and valuable, and not easily replaced. Why would we want to risk them in a battle they’re not suited for? Wouldn’t it make far more sense to build dedicated, optimized destroyers to fill the destroyer role?
This has to be the dumbest idea I’ve heard in a long while. I know, I know, the Navy has come up with a LOT of dumb ideas recently (Zumwalts with no ammo for the guns, for example) so maybe this isn’t the absolute dumbest but it’s certainly up near the top.
I see why reality has decided to divorce itself from the Navy! They were in a loving relationship once but have nothing in common anymore.
(1)USNI News website, “Navy Pitching Amphibious Warship Overhaul to Boost Lethality, Survivability” Megan Eckstein, 13-Nov-2018,
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