I got this from NRAINSTRUCTOR (thanks buddy! welcome aboard!)
via The Atlantic...(follow the link and read the whole thing)
Not the story big Navy wants out.Of the 11 commissioned U.S. warships ships en route to Japan, almost half are big Cold War-era amphibious assault vessels purpose-built to land Marines on hostile shores. But while these unglamorous transport ships dispatch helicopters and critical aid to a grateful ally, they're being marginalized by a Navy that tends to fixate on the capabilities to wage a high-tech, blue-water war, while underestimating the importance of mundane disaster-response work in maintaining our global power and influence.
The Navy's amphibious forces have carried out the lion's share of America's disaster-response work, responding to 114 crises and contingencies over the past 20 years. Yet this enviable record means little inside the beltway. With the recent cancellation of the pricey $25-million dollar Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, a specialized floating tank meant to speed Marines from sea to shore, defense leaders are signaling that troop transporters, helicopter carriers, and other old-school "charge the beach" tools of amphibious warfare are obsolete and not worth full funding. The EFV deserved cancellation for a number of reasons, not the least of which was its price tag, but skeptics of amphibious warfare are using the EFV's demise to claim that the amphibious fleet as a whole has lost its reason for being and should be cut.
But even as Washington cuts, more countries are investing in amphibious warfare platforms than ever before.
Not a story about the glorious aircraft carriers.
Not a story about the exotic and powerful destroyers.
Not a story about a "Global Force for Good".
A story about the busiest ships in the fleet.
ABOUT DAMN TIME!
