A Landing Craft Air Cushion 90 carries heavy vehicles and troops to a designated landing beach as part of Exercise Iron Fist on Feb. 19, 2014 in California. The Japanese military, which worked alongside the U.S. Marine Corps during the exercise, is trying to establish full-scale amphibious operational capability. Eric Coffer/U.S. Navy
Pacific Cmdr.: U.S. Lacks Ability To Conduct Successful Amphibious Assaults -- Washington Times
The head of U.S. Pacific Command believes America does not possess the capacity to conduct amphibious assaults in the wake of a crisis, as it did during World War II.
Adm. Samuel Locklear III, commander of U.S. Pacific Command gave his assessment of the deficiency in readiness on Tuesday, Stars and Stripes reported.
“We have had a good return of our Marines back to the Asia-Pacific, particularly as the activities in the Middle East wind down in Afghanistan. … But the reality is, is that to get Marines around effectively, they require all types of lift. They require the big amphibious ships, but they also require connectors (meaning landing craft and other amphibious vehicles). The lift is the enabler that makes that happen, so we wouldn’t be able to [successfully carry out a contested amphibious assault without additional resources],” Adm. Locklear said, Stars and Stripes reported.
Read more ....
Update #1: Commander: U.S. military can’t conduct amphibious operations in the Pacific -- Stars and Stripes
Update #2: ‘Climate Change’ Admiral Says US Military Can No Longer Carry Out Amphibious Operations -- Bryan Preston, PJ Media
My Comment: More budget cuts are projected for the military next year .... so I can only expect this capability to be degraded even further.
2 comments:
How is this possible. They haven't retired the ARGs of the landing craft. In fact the just commissioned two new LPD-17 class ships thus year.
It smells to me like thus Admiral is lying. Either they haven't had the capability for decades and they have been lying for decades or they are lying about the current situation...
Trevor .... I am with you on this one. The U.S. Navy is the recipient of tens of billions of dollars each year and they did not complain in the past .... and now there is a problem?
Post a Comment