The US Navy Has A New Small Ship Strategy

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit moves through the Gulf of Aden during an amphibious assault rehearsal.

Breaking Defense: ‘If It Floats, It Fights:’ Navy’s New Small Ship Strategy

Existing amphibious ships might be the "Swiss Army Knife of the fleet," but the Navy and Marines want an enemy who "jumps on it in the opening gambit...they're gonna have the shock of their life."

WASHINGTON: We’re getting the first glimpses of the Navy’s new force structure plan, as officials begin dropping clues about the Pentagon’s months-long effort to war game new plans for modernizing the Navy and Marine Corps.

Previous comments from the reform-minded Marine Commandant have suggested that those plans will include moving Marines from large, big-deck amphibious ships to smaller, faster and harder to track ships that can move Marines around contested areas in the western Pacific or the crowded Baltic Sea quickly.

And it’s become clear that one way to do that is to buy dozens of what’s being dubbed the light amphibious warship, or LAW.

“I think we’re late to need with building the Light Amphibious Warship, which is why we’re trying to go so quickly,” Marine Maj. Gen. Tracy King told the virtual Surface Navy conference Thursday. The Navy is looking to replicate what it did with the recent frigate award, which moved quickly to identify and buy an existing design to start building as soon as possible.

The small amphibs are being considered primarily for moving troops around faster than the big decks can, while providing presence in the littorals and operating among archipelagos while offering Chinese missiles and aircraft a smaller target. The Marines also want to make sure that the ships can defend themselves.

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WNU Editor: It looks like the US Navy and Marine Corps have embraced the light amphibious warship program.