By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization
Surface, air and undersea maritime warfare drones can be “cached and hidden” on large amphibious assault ships to survey enemy coastline, hunt submarines, conduct forward undersea and surface reconnaissance, deliver small attack units or even launch precision attacks when directed by a human.
“Cached and hidden” were the words used by the Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Christopher Mahoney when talking on Capitol Hill about how large amphibious assault ships can host, store, launch, hide and operate large numbers of drones. These operational dynamics offer a window into part of the rationale behind a widespread Congressional, Navy/Marine Corps and industry push for more amphibious assault ship pertains to the increasing operational scope the ships are able to perform.
Forward positioned amphibs can not only launch amphibious assaults if needed but also operate as maritime 5th-generation air attack transporters. A single America-class amphib, for instance, can deploy with as many as 20 F-35s on board, something of considerable relevance in the heavily Maritime regions of the Pacific where an ability to project 5th-gen airpower would provide a decisive margin of difference for any US and allied force needed to combat a Chinese air and amphibious assault. China has no vertical-take-off 5th-gen equivalent and only a few prototype carrier-launched 5th-gen J-31 prototypes, so the ability to forward operate F-35s on carriers and amphibs in the Pacific offers a decisive and impactful advantage with efforts to deter Chinese aggression. At the same time, amphibs can not only launch 5th-gen air attacks but also, as Mahoney referred to, they can operate large numbers of unmanned systems in support of an integrated, joint warfare effort.
Drone Explosion
Explosive growth in networking technologies, acoustic and electronic sensing and AI-enabled data analysis continues to propel an ongoing Navy and Marine Corps effort to exponentially increase its number of unmanned systems. Algorithms enabling increased autonomy, coupled with increasingly secure transport layer information exchange, are generating new concepts of operation for maritime and amphibious warfare, ideas which help implement the Navy’s larger Distributed Maritime Operations strategy. The thinking with DMO, an effort underway for several years now, is to enable a strongly networked, yet disaggregated multi-domain maritime force to vastly expand its combat engagement envelope and operational sphere using new generations of long-range sensing, radar, precision weaponry, satellites and a fast-growing fleet of drones.
A former Director of Navy Expeditionary Warfare seemed to anticipate this as far back as five or six years ago by advocating for the Corps to use big-deck amphibs as “motherships” controlling thousands of unmanned systems. “We will still need the bigs,” Ret. Maj. Gen. David Coffman said years ago at the Surface Navy Association when he served as the Director, Navy Expeditionary Warfare. At this time, Coffman envisioned a future operating environment in which large fleets of increasingly capable, autonomous unmanned systems could deliver supplies, provide supportive fires, search for enemy targets in high-risk areas, clear mines, find submarines and operate as forward “nodes” in a dispersed maritime formation.
Amphibious assault ships are critical to these kinds of disaggregated, manned-unmanned operations for several key reasons, Coffman told Warrior, not only because they provide the required protected mobility for Marines but because they add paradigm-changing operational capability to the force as well.
“It’s not just about the numbers with amphibious assault ships…but the inherent capability. Some can’t see beyond considering amphibs as a ‘bus’ for protected mobility to move Marines. We must move beyond this to recognize how amphibious assault ships contribute to all aspects of warfighting,” Coffman, Senior Warrior Maritime Warfare Expert, said in an interview.
Not surprisingly, this concept of amphibs as command and control for large drone fleets, has continued to rapidly explode across the Navy and Marine Corps in recent years, particularly given the Corps’ growing Pacific emphasis.
Warrior 2022 Intv. With Rep. Wittman on Drones & Amphibs
The Pacific effort has taken on new urgency in recent years; it includes the addition of special shallow-water “littoral” Marine Corps combat units, stand-in forces and Light Amphibious Warships (LAW) designed for highly-lethal, high-speed “island hopping,” multi-domain kinds of warfare in the Pacific. The Corps is moving quickly to prioritize high-speed lethality, expeditionary warfare and air-sea-ground multi-domain warfare.
Marine Corps Needs More Amphibious Assault Ships
In order to support a new tactical paradigm in which large numbers of unmanned systems are deployed and controlled from big-deck, mothership amphibs, the Navy and the Corps simply need more amphibious assault ships. The explosion of unmanned systems of all sizes across the Navy requires new applications of command and control for amphibious sea-land attack.
Several years ago, Congress passed a law formally requiring that the Marine Corps and Navy operate a minimum of 31 amphibious assault ships, given global combatant commander demands and a fast-intensifying threat equation. Despite this legal mandate being in place for several years, the Corps does not currently have 31 amphibs, a circumstance about which many Marine Corps leaders and members of Congress are expressing grave concern. Some proponents of a smaller fleet have argued that the Corps simply requires at least 24 “operational” amphibs at one time, something which Marine Corps weapons developers describe as insufficient to meet Combatant Commander demand.
“If the law says 31 we ought to have 31. We work with our Navy partners to ensure we have as many operational amphibious assault ships as possible. We need ships operationally available not just for deployment but so we can do the training we need to do,” Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, Commanding General, Marine Corps Combat Development Command and Deputy Commandant for Combat Development and Integration, told reporters after a Capitol Hill event by an industry association known as the Amphibious Warfare Industrial Base Coalition.
Amphibs proved quite critical in recent NATO training exercises in the Norwegian Sea wherein Swedish CB90-class fast-assault craft operated with an entered into the USS Gunston Hall (LSD 44) Dock Landing Ship during NATO’s Steadfast Defender 24. The Swedish fast-attack craft entered the well-deck as part of a demonstrated multi-national maritime warfare interoperability exercise.
Congress Calls for More Amphibs
Lawmakers from both parties and senior Corps leaders echoed a consistent message at the AWIBC event, emphasizing that sufficient numbers of amphibs are needed to address a changing and increasingly ominous threat environment.
“We are all of one mind in Congress. This is the most dangerous national security moment we have had in decades. Some people would say since the height of the Cold War, some would say World War II,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told an AWIBC audience while emphasizing support for at least 31 amphibs for the Navy/Corps, multi-year contract buys to ensure industry workforce stability and an increased defense budget allocating at least 5-percent of the GDP on defense.
Wicker’s remarks aligned closely with those of Democrat Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, who stressed the need for consistent funding to ensure a “resi
lient supply chain.”
“We have a legacy of skilled manufacturing and a workforce that helps sustain America’s Naval security. The sustainment of our shipbuilding industry is not just a Wisconsin idea….we need to keep pace with China’s rising sea power and develop the platforms necessary to project power. The Navy requires a robust and stable shipbuilding industry,” Baldwin said. “A shipbuilding base cannot simply ‘pop up’ at a moment’s notice.”
Baldwin’s comments are reinforced by findings from a recent AWIBC data survey which found that 40-percent of the shipbuilding industry would need to begin large-scale layoffs if funding for LHA or LPD production were delayed by a year or more. Speaking for the Marines on this topic, Assistant Commandant of the corp Gen. Mahoney said delays in amphibious warship deliveries can impair national security.
“I’m concerned about any programmatic slide we have….. a slide to the right is not often recoverable,” Mahoney said.
Kris Osborn President of Warrior Maven – Center for Military Modernization. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a Masters Degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.
