The USS Tripoli unleashes F-35B stealth power and Osprey airlift. This amphib is engineered to dominate maritime air attack, projecting power from the skies.
By Kris Osborn, Warrior
Years ago, U.S. Navy weapons developers and planners envisioned the first two America-class amphibious assault ships as "aviation centric," meaning they were built without a well-deck and primarily engineered to support maritime air attack with the arriving F-35B and high-performing MV-22 Osprey.
The third America-class Amphibious Assault Ship, the USS Bougainville, does bring back the well-deck and is expected to arrive this year, so elements of water-driven manned and unmanned amphibious attack are going nowhere. Yet constructing new "aviation-centric" amphibs was all part of the initial conception of the ship class, as it sought to leverage breakthrough air attack technologies in the short term, without forsaking or ultimately compromising the core concept of ship-to-shore amphibious assault enabled by a well-deck.
Therefore, both of the first two America-class ships, the USS America and the USS Tripoli, were built with extra deck and hangar space to transport high-value aircraft such as the then emerging F-35B and high-performing Osprey. The USS Tripoli, in particular, was given structural reinforcement and special non-skid, heat-resistant deck coating to better support F-35B operations. The USS America and USS Tripoli can each travel with as many as 20 F-35Bs and up to 12 Osprey tiltrotors, supported by UH-60 SeaHawk helicopters.
The Concepts of Operation supporting these ships seemed to focus on bringing 5th-Generation stealth air-attack capability to the realm of amphibious warfare and leverage the transport, speed and weapons delivery abilities of the Osprey. Small infantry carriers, mortars and groups of combat-ready Marines can travel hundreds of miles in an Osprey to deliver supplies, conduct forward reconnaissance or even perform what's called Mounted Vertical Maneuver -- the ability to drop self-sustaining forces in behind enemy lines for short-term clandestine, high-risk combat, scouting or rescue missions. The Osprey can travel faster than 200knots in airplane mode, yet hover and maneuver close to the ground with the agility of a helicopter....all while operating with a combat radius of 450 nautical miles.
The USS Tripoli is traveling with more than 2,200 Marines, yet by itself the ship does not seem fully optimized for ship-to-shore watercraft-driven amphibious attack, as it has no well deck. However, the ship could unleash F-35B 5th-generation air attack from closer in to shore and transport combat units and weapons "by air" with the Osprey.
Since well-decks exist to a sufficient degree with the existing WASP-class amphibs, the idea was to architect a new class of amphibs uniquely positioned to project power ... from the "air." After all, prior to the F-35B, amphibious warfare commanders had "no" built-in, organic 5th-gen air support. Close-in, organic 5th-generation air support provides an entirely new dimension of amphibious warfare, particularly given the stealth, weapons and drone-like surveillance capacity of the F-35B.
5th-Generation Amphibious Attack
With 5th-generation air support and ballistic missile protective cover provided by Aegis-enabled destroyers and cruisers, the USS Tripoli could be well positioned to "take" or "secure" areas of the Iranian coastline bordering the Strait of Hormuz. Such an effort would be well fortified by U.S. Army 82nd Airborne paratroopers, Marines traveling in Ospreys and of course drones and fighter jets.
An air-focused attack on the Iranian coastline makes tactical sense given that the U.S. already has air superiority over Iran and could use ship-based ballistic missile defenses to support arriving forces along the Iranian coastline. The units would need very strong 5th-gen close-air-support to defend arriving forces, and the Marines and soldiers themselves would be well advised to operate with organic drone-defenses in the form of mobile EW systems or small-to-medium caliber transportable surface-to-air counter drone swarm defenses such as small arms using "proximity" fuses to blanket an area with explosive fire and "stop" or "destroy" groups of incoming drone swarm attacks.
An air assault would enable attacking forces to simply "jump" over or "avoid" many sea mines and swarming boat attacks likely to greatly challenge any kind of amphibious landing.