Five Principles For Building A New U.S. Amphibious Warfare Fleet (From RealClearDefense)

As part of his new Force Design 2030, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, General David Berger, proposes to radically reshape the Navy’s fleet of amphibious vessels. Large amphibious warfare vessels are considered too vulnerable to future long-range precision strike weapons. The Marine Corps wants to rely less on the current classes of relatively large, expensive, and allegedly vulnerable platforms and field larger numbers of smaller, less detectable and cheaper amphibs. The proposed changes are complex and will take time to implement. Care must be taken to avoid wrecking the existing amphibious warfare fleet and the industrial base that built and supports it prior to the introduction of new ship classes. I propose five principles the Sea Services’ leadership should adopt for managing the transition here.