Navy Amphibs Challenge China in the Pacific With “Distributed” Amphibious Operations

By Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

It comes as little surprise that the US Navy continues to operate and train in the Pacific with various Amphibious Assault Ships, platforms which can combine to project power, network air-surface and undersea forces and operate groups of unmanned systems. 

The US Navy published photos of one of its AH-1Z Cobra Corps helicopter operating in close coordination with one of the services’ Amphibious Transport Docks, the USS Green Bay. This demonstrates an increasingly emphasized ability for the Navy and Corps to conduct island-hopping types of amphibious surface-air combat operations across the Pacific.   

Such a forward power presence is pertinent to deterrence missions related to the South China Sea, as it places US amphibious reconnaissance and attack forces within range of securing island territories as needed or conducting helicopter and surveillance place submarine-hunting missions. 

The connection between a Cobra helicopter and an amphib Landing Dock is quite significant in a number of key respects as it suggests avanced networking and also aligns with the Navy’s Distributed Maritime Operations. Helicopters can of-course drop sonobuoys and scan areas for undersea activities. 

Beyond this, however, the Navy has in recent years been upgrading critical elements of its Amphibious Ready Groups and Marine Expeditionary Units to enable both condensed and “disaggregated” maritime operations. Instead of being more limited to only operating in close proximity with a big=deck Amphib, both Amphibious Transport Docks and Dock Landing Ships have been upgraded with aviation and command and control technologies to enable highly effective dispersed, yet networked maritime operations. Additional antennas, aviation assets and multi-domain networking systems such that the various elements of an amphibious ready group can operate as both a concentrated group of amphibious platforms and also a more disparate, spread apart or “disaggregated” formation which is both securely networked and also dispersed across vast swaths of ocean. This kind of reach is especially important in coastal, open ocean and island areas such as the Pacific which are not only spread across expansive distances but also vulnerable to increasingly long range enemy sensors and weapons.