There is some controversy that our new America-class amphibious warfare ships are optimized for aircraft operations and lack the ability to carry and use small amphibious craft to move land forces ashore. Although the last ships of this class will have some capability of this kind, they will be in the minority.
But the threat of shore-based anti-ship weapons has made it too risky to put our amphibious warfare ships close enough to do that old-style dash to shore in a D-Day like wave of small craft.
So our plan is to stay over the horizon and use the range and speed of the Osprey to move through the killing zone and secure a landing area.
We still need to move equipment ashore by small boats, of course. But that requires a safe zone off the landing area. When we have that achieved, that's when the Mobile Landing Platform comes in:
The Navy will christen Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) John Glenn on Feb. 1, during a 10 a.m. PST ceremony in San Diego, Calif. ...
The John Glenn is the second ship of the Montford Point-Class. Using the commercially designed Alaska-class crude oil carrier as its base, the Navy's Strategic and Theater Sealift Program Office worked in conjunction with General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Company (NASSCO) to develop a design that supports the Navy's core capabilities while maintaining low costs.
The ship will leverage float-on/float-off technology, allowing the John Glenn to partially submerge, facilitating easy movement of cargo and craft. Additionally, the ship’s size allows for 25,000 square feet of vehicle and equipment stowage space, tankage for 100,000 gallons of potable water and 380,000 gallons of JP-5 fuel storage.
With this set of capabilities, the ship is able to easily transfer personnel and vehicles from other vessels such as the large, medium-speed, roll-on/roll-off ships (LMSRs) onto landing craft air cushioned (LCAC) vehicles and transport them ashore.
MLP has a maximum speed of 15 knots and range of 9,500 nautical miles. At 785 feet long, MLPs displace more than 78,000 tons when fully loaded. The platform with its open, reconfigurable mission deck will serve as an important flexible and transformational asset to the Navy as it can be reconfigured to support a wide variety of future operations.
We didn't get rid of the capability to move equipment ashore from closer to the shore. We put that capability on a different ship.
And it can be used for disaster relief without tying up a big carrier or amphibious warfare asset, I imagine.
More on the class here.
