Berger gambled and lost it all...Light Amphibious Warship is delayed and more amphibious ships are being retired.

 Thanks to George for the link!

via Defense News.

The U.S. Navy wants to buy one last San Antonio-class amphibious ship and then end the production line, the service announced in its fiscal 2023 budget request.

-----

 Under the Navy’s proposal, it would buy just three of the 13 Flight IIs and then end the program, shrinking the amphibious fleet dramatically as the Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships hit the end of their service lives and are decommissioned.

The Navy and Marine Corps are conducting an amphibious warship requirements study expected to wrap up very shortly. Lt. Gen. Karsten Heckl, the deputy commandant of the Marine Corps for combat development and integration, said in January he worried the study’s final result would be based on budget limitations rather than actual need.

-----

 The fleet has 32 amphibious ships today, in line with what Heckl said the Marines need. Marine Corps leadership has said dropping to 28 could mean delays in arrival times in a crisis.

The decision to stop the LPD production line could drop the service to 24, at the very low end of an estimate released by the Biden administration last spring. It’s unclear if a number that low would add risk to arrival times or force a more fundamental rethinking of the ARG/MEU construct in place today.

Here

Berger failed.  Badly.  To be frank, he jeopardized the Marine Corps because of his false belief that his plan would save it.

No way could the Marine Corps become the lead service in the sea battle!

The Navy has old pros and would not tolerate the Marines becoming the lead dawg in that fight.

So where are we now?

The Navy is slow.  Painfully slow.  But you can bet your last dollar that they will gobble up every ounce of every shipbuilding dollar to put shooters in the water.

It's gonna be either subs, frigates or destroyers.  They'll wait a bit on replenishment ships and even longer to get the light amphibious warship in the water.

Meanwhile the Marines, that the Commandant tried to turn into a joint force sensor, is left on the beach looking dazed and confused.

Amphibious assault?  After all the work to keep it viable he threw it away.  I contend that an airborne assault is more hazardous but the Army is still doing it.  Not for airborne sake but for assault and force in readiness sake.

Berger forgot that.

You wonder why the Marines are having recruiting woes?

It's because no one knows what the Marines are anymore!

Its hard to sell "join the Marines and be in logistics"!  Refuel joint and allied aircraft!  Become a sensor for the joint force!

It's easy to sell "be one of the few, the proud, the Marines!" Be part of the force that is "ready when the nation is least ready"!

He threw that all away and now the Navy is pouncing to gobble up budget.

The weird thing is that even trying to pivot back to becoming a force in readiness, assault force...to becoming Marines instead of Missile Marines is gonna be super difficult.  Even more difficult now than even 6 months ago.

The budget is gonna get ravaged by inflation, social spending, increased costs because of all of the above, a pay raise to the troops and finally increased operating costs across the board.

The ground side has been ravaged for funding.  The wing remains but how do you crawl out from underneath the expensive as fuck F-35B, MV-22C, CH-53K and other systems they have?

I can predict that they'll go after the AH-1Z and UH-1Y claiming they no longer are viable but the truth is that its the lowest hanging fruit on the air side.

The real savings could come from chopping a bunch of generals, and colonels.  For a force as small as the Marines are we have WAAAAAAAAAAY too many.

It's all probably immaterial.

Berger crushed the Corps and the accountants will come to crush Berger's dream.