Now we know what will happen to the Marine Corps LHA/LHDs...the Missile Marine Corps will turn them into Light Carriers to augment the big deck carriers. But what about the LPDs?

 via Naval Institute News.

Esper’s Battle Force 2045, which he rolled out during an online event today at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, lays out plans for achieving a fleet of 500 manned and unmanned ships by 2045, and a fleet of 355 traditional battle force ships by 2035 – all in a resource-constrained budget environment.

First, he said, the fleet would have a larger and more capable attack submarine fleet of 70 to 80 SSNs.

“If we do nothing else, the Navy must begin building three Virginia-class submarines a year as soon as possible,” he said in the event during his opening remarks. “If we do nothing else, we should invest in attack submarines,” he repeated later during a question-and-answer session.

Esper also called for refueling a total of seven Los Angeles-class SSNs, compared to the five or six the Navy had previously discussed, and invest heavily in the SSN(X) future submarine program.

Second, Esper stated that nuclear-powered aircraft carriers would remain the most visible deterrence on the seas, but he said a new future air wing would have to be developed to increase their range and lethality, and that light carriers would have to supplement the Nimitz- and Ford-class supercarriers to help achieve greater day-to-day presence while preserving limited CVN readiness, which has been strained recently by overuse and backups at maintenance yards. Up to six light carriers, possibly based on the America-class amphibious assault ship design, would operate both instead of and alongside the CVNs.

Here

I've wondered what the Missile Marines were gonna do with the LHA/LHD since they would no longer be needed for the amphibious assault mission (remember Berger tossed the idea of amphibious forcible entry into the trash can) and now we know.

They're gonna use them for a bullshit light carrier mission.

Never mind that they're not designed for that role.

Marine Aviation has been tossed a temporary bone to keep them at the table (and prevent them from joining with the Ground Combat Element in being repulsed by this idea).

I say temporary because all that money the Missile Marines are tossing to aviators that left the service (up to 100 thousand dollars to return to active duty) is just a short term fix.

Check this out from the same article.

Sixth, he said, the Navy would need unmanned aircraft launching off carrier decks to cover all the missions of today’s air wing: fighters, refueling, early warning and electronic attack. He alluded this recently while speaking to sailors aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70), USNI News previously reported.

Read the article to get the flavor for yourself and develop your own opinion.  Oh but let me leave you with this.

Remember me telling you that those Light Amphibious Ships was a shatterpoint for this whole concept?  Behold!

 And lastly, he pledged his support for the Marines’ Force Design 2030 effort and the new classes of ships and connectors needed to accomplish this, though he added that more work would be needed in this area.

Amazing.

The current individual sitting in the Commandant's chair will be a lame duck by the end of next year.  The bubba sitting in the SecDef's chair will be gone sooner no matter how the election turns out.

These plans are D-E-A-D. DEAD!

They worked hard to produce a steaming pile of shit. 

Sidenote.  The answer to what will happen to the LHA/LHDs has been answered. So let's assume that this abomination actually gets done.  What happens to the LPDs the Marine Corps demanded it needed and now a few years later appears to have no need for?