The Navy’s amphibious fleet is in such a sorry state that half of the ships are declared to be in “poor condition” and not on track to serve for

The Navy’s Amphibious Fleet Is In Really Bad Shape

submited by
Style Pass
2024-12-04 07:30:08

The Navy’s amphibious fleet is in such a sorry state that half of the ships are declared to be in “poor condition” and not on track to serve for the entirety of their service lives. In addition, the sea service will struggle to maintain a fleet of at least 31 amphibs into the 2030s as required by law.

Those are some of the grim findings of a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on the state of the Navy’s 32 amphibious assault ships (LHD/LHA), dock landing ships (LSD) and amphibious transport docks, (LPD), which come together to form Amphibious Ready Groups (ARG) that transport Marines, their aircraft and other vehicles across the seas.

Without these ships, which are based in San Diego, Little Creek, Virginia, and Sasebo, Japan, Marines can struggle to deploy or train, and Tuesday’s GAO report lays out how bad the fleet has gotten, and how hard it will be to get it back on a proper course. 

The GAO highlights a host of longstanding problems that have afflicted the entire fleet to varying degrees, including chronic maintenance delays, competing budget priorities, ill-planned early-retirement efforts that went forward without required congressional approval, scarce spare parts, shoddy contractor oversight and other issues. 

Leave a Comment