The US Marine Corps may be without landing ships
Over the past four years, the US Navy has not been able to repair one of the landing craft. The repair budget was overrun by $99 million, and these are the minimum figures. But even despite such expenses, the ship still cannot be operated.
As a result, after almost five years of repair work, the command of the US Navy says that it is easier for him to decommission the ship than to repair it further.
In addition, the US Navy is going to decommission another 9 other amphibious assault ships. All of them, as shown by inspections, are in need of expensive repairs. Some ships have more than ten years of service left. But the US Navy no longer wants to spend money on these ships.
Interestingly, the main operator of amphibious assault ships is not the Navy, but the US Marine Corps. He uses ships to carry Marines on various missions around the world. The withdrawal of a large number of amphibious assault ships from service, of course, will immediately affect the combat readiness of the US Marine Corps.
According to the US Marine Corps, landing operations are very significant in the context of confronting a potential enemy. Marine forces can be deployed anywhere in the world, having an impressive impact on other countries and preventing possible conflicts. However, the decommissioning of amphibious assault ships can have a purely negative impact on further operations of the Marine Corps, the command of the ILC believes.
Meanwhile, Whidbey Island-class amphibious assault ships were to be operated for 40 years. These LSDs were built in the 1980s and 1990s at the now defunct Lockheed Martin shipyard in Seattle. Almost forty years have passed since then, so that the life of the ships is coming to an end. By 2024, the US Navy plans to decommission four more amphibious assault ships. According to the command, they are in poor technical condition and require large resources for further maintenance.
On the other hand, the Navy itself is to blame for the fact that the landing ships were in poor condition. For many years they put off the maintenance of the ships, thus the problems of a technical nature accumulated, the condition of the ships worsened.
However, the fleet cannot reduce the number of landing ships without the permission of the US Congress. Discussions are ongoing about the future of the Navy's landing forces. If Congress still doesn't approve the decommissioning of the ships, the fleet you will have to keep them in the docks without the possibility of using them for their intended purpose.
Information