“Well-Deck” Amphibious Assault Returns With Launch of 3rd America-Class Amphib

by Kris Osborn, President, Center for Military Modernization

A new variant of the Navy’s classic, if even timeless “well-deck” for amphibious attack has now hit the ocean, as the Navy’s third America-class amphibious assault ship launches into the ocean from its floating dock.

Following the first two new America-class amphibs, the USS America and USS Tripoli, groundbreaking and now operational ships bringing new air-attack dimensions to amphibious war, the Navy and HII have a launched a cutting-edge third America-class amphib bringing the classic well-deck to amphibious warfare. Both the USS America and USS Tripoli are capable of deploying with as many as 15 5th-generation F-35Bs, bringing previously unprecedented stealthy 5th-generation air attack and sensing to evolving concepts of amphibious warfare.

The third America-class ship, called the USS Bougainville has now “hit the sea,” bringing a sea-basing kind of manned-unmanned teaming, ship-to-shore, amphibious attack by launching manned and unmanned amphibious vessels from a well-deck. The USS Bougainville will also incorporate next-generation aviation, yet bring-back the timeless ability to attack land from the ocean, if in a different way than it was thought of historically. A photo and an announcement related to the launch of the USS Bougainville was published by HII, the America-class amphibious assault platform ship-builder. 

A 2014 paper from the Marine Corps Association, the professional journal of the U.S. Marine Corps, points to sea-basing as a foundation upon which the Navy will shift away from traditional amphibious warfare.

“Seabased operations enable Marines to conduct highly mobile, specialized, small unit, amphibious landings by stealth from over the horizon at multiple undefended locations of our own choosing,” the paper writes.

In effect, future “ship-to-shore” amphibious attacks will look nothing like the more linear, aggregated Iwo Jima assault. A Naval War College essay on this topic both predicts and reinforces this kind of modern strategic thinking.

“The basic requirements of amphibious assault, long held to be vital to success, may no longer be attainable. Unlike the Pacific landings of World War II amphibious objective areas could prove impossible to isolate,” the paper, called Blitzkrieg From the Sea: Maneuver Warfare and Amphibious Operations, states.