Navy Officials Reveal Details of New $100M Light Amphibious Warship Concept

[nittany03]

Looks like SWO O-4s will have more shots at command if this goes through. About 20-25 percent the size of an LSD, and designed to carry about 75 Marines. Beachable, but still designed to be an actual ship you can live on, not a connector from ship-to-shore. Only does 15 knots, and has to have top cover from something bigger like a DDG, LPD, or (gulp) LCS. And it isn't required to shrug off hits Sammy B- or Stark-style, just stay afloat long enough for said top cover or another LAW to be able to rescue the survivors.

 

[Pags]

Looks and sounds like an LST.

 

[squorch2]

looks and sounds like it'll be on the seabed after an 802 hits it

ETA: did you know early command is a negative predictor of O-5 command?

 

[nittany03]

Looks and sounds like an ass-backwards LST.

FTFY.

 

[wink]

Looks and sounds like an LST.

Looks like? Nah.


Looks more like a modern day Higgins Boat. LCU, LCA, etc.

 

[bubblehead]

Just what we need, another ship we can neither man nor equip properly.

 

[Pags]

FTFY.

I didn't realize that the bow was to the right in the picture in the article. I just saw beach ramp and thought LST.

 

[Pags]

Looks like? Nah.
View attachment 28047View attachment 28048

Looks more like a modern day Higgins Boat. LCU, LCA, etc.

To me it looks exactly the same as your first picture hence why I jumped to LST. Article says a 200-400ft long ship self deploying ship (not carried in someone else's well deck or davit). WWII LSTs were ~400ft. LCIs were less than 200' and the other types you mentioned are even smaller.

What's old is new again but it's not a bad idea. In WWII they said LST stood for Large Slow Target and they werent wrong, the LSTs were slow and vulnerable but they were critical pieces of amphibious warfare that enabled large heavy equipment to be landed directly onto unprepared beachheads. After the MULBERRY harbors were destroyed by a storm the LSTs kept the ETO going across the Normandy beaches until a real harbor was taken.

 

[Pags]

Fun LST fact: to figure out how to ventilate the tank deck during LST development and to later train tankers an LST building was built at Ft Knox (and is still there).

 

[Jim123]

LSTs were slow and vulnerable but they were critical pieces of amphibious warfare that enabled large heavy equipment to be landed directly onto unprepared beachheads. After the MULBERRY harbors were destroyed by a storm the LSTs kept the ETO going across the Normandy beaches until a real harbor was taken.

Doing humanitarian ops several years ago (DSCA in the lower 48, as it were), I was pulling the mid watch for a few days. Whoever was on the same watch at Second Fleet would have some random question every hour or so on chat, usually about the day's metrics and usually already in the oprep sent the night before. No worries though, it broke up the monotony for me and he or she was probably busy working on the morning brief on their end. A couple times when we chatted a bit (in the little popup window, not the main one) about the latest goings on with the ops and the news. The LARCs were quite a hit with the locals, more fun to watch than the LCUs we brought and we didn't bring any LCACs (which would have drawn a crowd). There was a 53 that blew some stuff over in an LZ (TACAMO pilot on the TACRON staff underestimated the downwash even after I warned him on the phone, lolol).

On that chat with the C2F watch, I quipped that I wished the U.S. Navy still ran LSTs- for no other reason than it would have been an awesome!

 

[Hair Warrior]

Just what we need, another ship we can neither man nor equip properly.

What if we just let the Marines drive their own ship?

 

[nittany03]

What if we just let the Marines drive their own ship?

 

[DanMa1156]

I legitimately cracked up laughing when I saw this. This was just such a perfect response. Just... perfect.

 

[Hair Warrior]

 

[Notanaviator]

Tying this back to the other conversation about what happens in the next large peer conflict, not just initially but after the first couple rounds, when ability to ramp up scale of industrial production, is a $100-130MM design going to be sustainable?

I’ve long thought that with the ongoing deep water oil downturn, one could do some noodling about how you nationalize the dozens of privately owned 150-300ft OSVs currently tied up across South Louisiana. They’re geared almost exclusively toward just equipment, not berthing, but the iron is there.