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\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThere is a significant rethink under way in both the United States and the United Kingdom regarding the future roles and posture of their marine forces and this could have significant repercussions for the countries’ navies, not least in terms of the kinds of amphibious shipping that may be required in the future. The new US Navy Force Structure Assessment (FSA) – looking at the future size and shape of its fleet – due to be released before the end of the year and what emerges in the UK from concept studies for a future Littoral Strike Ship (LSS) may provide early clues as to the future shape of amphibious shipping.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAfter years of operating primarily as elite land forces, both the US Marine Corps (USMC) and the UK’s Royal Marines are seeking to reintegrate with their respective navies. At the same time, they are grappling with the implications of technological change and the new anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) environment, which poses challenges for littoral operations. For both forces, the challenges and trajectories look similar, although they are approaching the issues from very different scales of current capability.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNew platforms for a new operating environment\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe UK and the US have done much to shape modern amphibious warfare; for example, pioneering the concept of helicopter-borne assault, initially with converted aircraft carriers and then with specially designed helicopter carriers (landing platform helicopter, or LPHs). Specialist oceangoing ships with floodable docks to land heavy equipment (landing platform docks, LPDs, and landing ship docks, LSDs) also became a key part of the mix. However, the ultimate achievement in terms of capabilities has been the marriage of significant naval-aviation facilities and a floodable dock in a big-deck amphibious assault ship, a concept adopted by a number of navies, most recently China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNevertheless, as suggested in new planning guidance from the new USMC Commandant General David Berger that is looking set to become influential and is already much-praised, concentrating forces aboard very large and expensive platforms may not be the optimum solution in the current operating environment. Clearly, the US Navy’s fleet of large amphibious vessels is not about to disappear, but General Berger also talks about \u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ecreating ‘\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003ea new fleet design of smaller, more lethal, and more risk-worthy platforms’. The upcoming US Navy FSA could signal a reduced future requirement for large amphibious ships, perhaps freeing up funding for more, cheaper platforms, as well as other vessels that are also urgent requirements for the fleet.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eThe thinking on what these new amphibious platforms might look like, and just what capabilities they would need, is still in the early stages. It is unclear how they might incorporate new technologies such as uninhabited systems, not least to improve their ability to stand off at range. Furthermore, what factor should speed play in their design? Do they need to deploy heavy equipment? In order to integrate more fully into naval missions, to what extent might combat capabilities such as anti-ship missiles be incorporated?\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch3 style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eFuture Commando Force concept and the LSS\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eThe work in the UK comes under the title of Future Commando Force. Part of the approach is clearly to create a more distributed, flexible capability able to be forward-deployed and as such is focused on smaller but potent capabilities more akin to special forces. One of the most visible elements of the process has been the unveiling of the LSS concept.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eThe LSS has been derided by some as ‘power projection on the cheap’ because of the suggestion that it would most likely be based on converted commercial shipping. Nevertheless, it provides the potential for a cost-effective approach to delivering a large multi-mission platform that could perform a range of maritime-security and humanitarian-assistance tasks, but not necessarily provide full heavy-lift and landing capability. The initial concept development should be reaching fruition soon.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eThe LSS could also fulfil a significant presence mission as part of a littoral strike group (LSG) that could include one or two other platforms, such as one of the new-generation Type-31 frigates. With their large volume, these new frigates could also be useful hosts for elements of an embarked force and add to a multiplicity of littoral strike platforms in a more mixed force.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eHowever, the Future Commando Force concept is not without controversy. It includes the option to aggregate and incorporate LSGs into a bigger force, but critics are concerned that this could undermine the Royal Marines’ ability to deliver a significant, robust and sustainable littoral strike force – particularly the ability to deploy heavy equipment in anything other than a benign, follow-on scenario.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eClearly, the LSS is not the full answer, especially in a contested A2/AD environment. At the same time, UK specialist amphibious shipping has also been pared back by recent defence cuts, including the sale in 2018 of the LPH HMS \u003cem\u003eOcean \u003c/em\u003eto Brazil. But, again, future specialist-platform requirements may not necessarily look like the specialist shipping of old.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background: white; color: #333333;\u0022\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background-color: white; text-align: left; color: #333333;\u0022\u003eSome of the potential approaches to delivering the Future Commando Force, particularly in a contested environment, were tested during the UK deployment \u003c/span\u003e\u003cem style=\u0022color: #333333; text-align: left;\u0022\u003eBaltic Protector\u003c/em\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background-color: white; text-align: left; color: #333333;\u0022\u003e this summer. The deployment included a disparate, some might say ‘motley’, collection of platforms – an LPD, an auxiliary LSD and the UK’s primary casualty-treatment vessel, which can also serve as an aviation-support ship. Each ship provided different capacities, from command and control to heavy-lift and aviation capability, and offered an opportunity to assess their relative strengths and how they might integrate with future technologies.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022text-align: left;\u0022\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis analysis originally featured on the IISS Military Balance+, the online database that provides indispensable information and analysis for users in government, the armed forces, the private sector, academia, the media and more. Customise, view, compare and download data instantly, anywhere, anytime. The Military Balance+ includes data on amphibious vessels by type in fleets worldwide.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\u0022margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022background-color: white; text-align: left; color: #333333;\u0022\u003e \u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","className":"richtext reading--content font-secondary"}), document.getElementById("react_WhCq4pjmEaQIskDtuASA"))});
Both the United States and the United Kingdom are rethinking the future roles and posture of their marine forces. As Nick Childs explores, approaches to current challenges in the operating environment could alter how amphibious shipping features in the future fleet mix of their respective navies.\u0026nbsp;
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