A third potential LCS mission harkens back to a World War II concept and could fill a current void in U.S. Marine Corps littoral warfare capabilities. The U.S. Navy was often short of dedicated amphibious and inshore warfare vessels from 1938 through 1944. One solution to this shortage was the conversion of older destroyers into High-Speed Transports (APDs) that could deliver small teams of Marines, Underwater Demolition units and Army Rangers to hostile territory. These ships often carried up to a company-sized unit and had enough onboard weaponry to provide limited fire support to their embarked units.
I cited the same experience in calling for new APDs (sorry, USNI membership needed for online access) for disaggregated Marine operations. I suggested using old Perry frigate hulls (I think we have 7 available) to experiment with the concept before building them from the keel up. I also suggested experiments with the LCS using modules to convert those ships to armed troop transports. Despite my worry about that class' survivability close to shores, the ability to put modules into the ship would more easily enable peacetime experiments with the concept than rebuilding a Perry.
That author calls the Perry old and worn out (yet our allies seem to be able to use them refurbished), but the purpose of adapting them to APDs would be to experiment prior to designing dedicated APDs.
And as long as we are discussing mission modules that are built in standard shipping containers, my modularized auxiliary cruiser suggestion has merit for lesser threat environments where longer endurance is required.
UPDATE: The Navy and Marines lack the hulls to even practice large-scale amphibious warfare, and are worried that threats require those skills on a larger scale:
They agree that the Corps’ Marine Expeditionary Units are well-trained, but near peer threats such as Russia, China, North Korea or Iran would require the use of a Marine Expeditionary Brigade or even a Marine Expeditionary Force.
Enemy anti-ship assets will have to be suppressed long before the large hull amphibious warfare ships get close enough to shore to disembark Marines.
