The MLP has been nicknamed the "pier-at-sea" because the vessels will serve as a staging area for supplies and equipment. Other ships will dock with the MLP and offload material that will be transported ashore. The MLPs also are designed to service the type of hovercraft that are used to shuttle Marines. The Navy awarded NASSCO contracts to build three MLPs, and the Obama administration has set aside money for a fourth. The ships will be operated by the Military Sealift Command.Maybe this is buyers remorse on my part. Maybe I'm beginning to question the concept in this time of budget austerity (oh the pain is coming...and with the meetings that I'm hearing about that the President is having, the defense budget will be raped to pay for EVERYTHING else). But I wonder if money wouldn't have been better spent on enhanced at sea cranes or maybe modifying current ships to meet the projected requirement.
I'm looking at the MLP and I see a few more LCACs that could have been purchased...maybe high speed LCUs...more capable-heavy lift LCUs...but the MLP? A super specialized ship in an age of multi-use platforms?
I'm just not sure anymore.
Meanwhile the chinese have been busy stealing every design not hidden behind 512 bit encryption...look at the weapons designs on public display..shameless
ReplyDeletehttp://trishul-trident.blogspot.sg/2012/11/highlights-of-airshow-china-2012-in.html
Worth having a read of this article nominating MLP as the most obvious cut the USN could make - also note the comment :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2011-10/400-billion-dod-cuts-heres-one
This ship is an abomination. And is primarily corporate welfare for NASSCO’s short order book.
ReplyDeleteIt has been re-designed three times before this point adding costs, i.e. the Navy did not know what they wanted or could afford.
It fails the "should-cost" test by coming in for over a half-million bucks, when it should have cost no more than $250 mil. And then the Navy will redesign it again to be an AFSB which they don’t really know what they want to do. The USN defaults to using old amphibs for lots of missions they are still trying to define the rqmts for. And then they wake up and realize old amphibs are worn out warships which are very expensive to maintain – dahh~
And most importantly, MLP has very limited capabilities. Only THREE LCAC can be lifted when the Gators need MORE landing spots of “connectors”.
The MLP is intended to work, (only) with sealift ships and “connectors”. Why can’t amphibs be tied up to the “Pier at Sea”? We all know that that amphibs are no longer intended to do Lo/Lo ops like was done up from WW2 until the 90s.
The MLP only has small work deck which can also be used as a flight deck. And I believe they even descoped the DPS which would have been key component to functioning alongside other ships at sea.
IF the USN had simply bought or chartered a clear deck aft Flo/Flo, like for instance MV Blue Marlin, they could have floated on and lift ANY barge with the ALL the capabilities now built-into the MLP. And they would have had a sealift ship which supports MOST USN and USAV landing ships/craft to boot.
Once again the Navy has miss-designed a exquisite system with mixed results for lots of bucks!