Swinging through the internet this afternoon and its becoming more and more obvious that the America class LHD's just aren't designed for real deal Marine Corps amphibious operations.
Instead its optimized (in my opinion) to raids, SOCOM support and as a Sea Control Ship.
Why do I say that?
Simple. If you examine the specifications for that ship and then compare it to the ships that its going to replace, you see that the America class has a much smaller hospital. Much smaller well deck (when they get around to redesigning it). Much less vehicle storage...and much increased area for aviation.
Upon further reflection it becomes obvious that we're going to see MARSOC and or Navy SEALs on the big deck amphibs and the Battalion Landing Team relegated to the LPD and LSD of the formation.
What does this mean for operations? I'm not sure. You'll possibly see a new emphasis on raids (or rather a return to the raids model) and more ship boarding. Additionally you'll probably see the airwing reconfigured to meet the needs of the new reality.
That means more F-35's on the big deck than currently carried. You'll also probably see a few more AH-1Zs and almost no CH-53's..
On the LPD-17 class you'll probably see the number of CH-53's increase...along with it being the primary user of UH-1Ys. In a post I did
But if I am correct then the question must be asked. Why go through the trouble of adding a well deck to a ship that will rarely act as a traditional amphib? I contend that it won't. The talk of "redoing" the America class to fix that discrepancy was simply a shell game. I don't believe that they will actual go through with the mods. I believe that what you see is what you get and that the next move is to get the job done of redesigning/reshuffling the MEU among the Amphibious Ready Group ships to show the new thinking.
