As of December 2012, the Navy had taken delivery of eight LPD 17-class ships. The remaining three are under construction at Huntington Ingalls Industries Gulf Coast shipyards, with the final ship, LPD 27, scheduled for delivery in 2017. Six already have entered the fleet, with the USS Anchorage (LPD 23) and USS Arlington (LPD 24) joining them in the next two years.

“As the LPD 17-class comes online on both coasts, it really brings additive capability to the MEU/ARG team as a theater and national crisis response force,” Col. Francis Donovan, then-CO of the 24^th MEU, noted. “The best way to describe the LPD 17 class is not just as a replacement for the former ships, but as bringing it to the next level. It really shows a lot of folks listened to the Marine Corps and Navy and did a lot of hard work to create a ship that is evolutionary and really changes the game for expeditionary and amphibious operations.

“As the LPD 17-class comes online on both coasts, it really brings additive capability to the MEU/ARG team as a theater and national crisis response force.”

“For example, there are shared blue-green [Navy-Marine] command and control spaces, with a sliding partition wall between the landing force ops center and the Navy command and control center, which is very innovative. So if you just treat it as a bigger, faster LPD, with bigger berthing spaces, larger passageways and the ability to hold about as much bulk cargo as the LHD, that’s not really right.”

The 24^th MEU’s deployment with the USS New York (LPD 21) provided a first real-world opportunity for a Marine commander to see how that evolution in capabilities could be applied to the different missions an ARG is called upon to perform.

“We committed our MEU executive officer and Bravo command group, which basically is half our staff, to the LPD full-time for our work-up and deployment,” Donovan explained. “We saw her as a potential independent deployer, able to move off and support a different mission, maybe a different commander or even a different geographic combatant area, and have all MAGTF warfighting capabilities, both green and blue, aboard to do the job. So it has given us a true ability to spread our MEU/ARG team out over thousands of miles, still with command and control, and have a slice of the MAGTF on that great platform.”

He also was quick to say having a bigger ship does not equate to bringing a whole lot more materiel along. Rather, it gives the MEU the option of taking the optimum mix for the mission at hand, as well as enough cargo space – and larger passageways for easier movement internally – to change that mix, if needed, while still at sea. That could include adding or changing the aircraft or combat vehicles, the number and skillsets of the Marines on board, or even adding a MARSOC or Navy SEAL team on top of the full MEU force.

Being larger does not mean the LPD 17 class is a bigger target, at sea or when operating close to shore.

Being larger does not mean the LPD 17 class is a bigger target, at sea or when operating close to shore.

“We probably have the smallest radar cross-section of a ship our size,” Nelson said. “During acceptance trials, other ships, looking at their radars, said we looked more like a small fishing boat than a large warship. We’re similar in some respects to the Arleigh Burke [guided missile destroyers], being harder to detect and so presenting a smaller target.

“We do carry the RAM [rolling airframe missile], which is largely for anti-missile defense, but can be used against enemy aircraft close-in. We also have two 30mm Bushmaster guns, which are enough to handle any small boat attacks, and a lot of crew weapons. We also carry a typical amphibious anti-torpedo system.”

While improving both LPD and overall ARG survivability, those elements also add to the new ships’ ability to operate independently, away from the safety net of the ARG.

While improving both LPD and overall ARG survivability, those elements also add to the new ships’ ability to operate independently, away from the safety net of the ARG.

“As we get closer to the beach to drop off boats and such, that very, very low radar cross signature allows us to maneuver closer, even with some of the new threats out there,” Donovan said. “So that increases force protection, which is really key. We travel in international waters, but once it is decided we need to get close to the beach, it is the best of both worlds.”

He also believes the new LPDs will contribute greatly to the Marine Corps’ desire to return to its pre-9/11 posture with respect to how many MEUs were deployed at sea.

“Up to 2006, we deployed two MEU/ARG teams per coast per year, which allowed us to basically cover the ‘arc of instability’ – from North Africa through the Red Sea and across toward Indonesia. That allowed us to keep a full-up MEU in the Med and North Africa region all the time and still support CENTCOM and PACOM,” Donovan said. “But due to a lack of ships during the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we deployed only one MEU per coast per year, which means you have big gaps.

“We need to get back to that constant flow and coverage. The Corps has said it wants 38 amphibs, but whatever that number is, we need to give AFRICOM and EUCOM a dedicated three-ship MEU/ARG team to be used in the Mediterranean and northern Africa, plus one to CENTCOM and one to PACOM, always out there, always present.

“And I think we should look very seriously to building more LPDs when it is time to replace the LSDs, which was not crewed nor built to be an independent deployer, able to split off and execute a wider range of MAGTF missions from the sea.”

“And I think we should look very seriously to building more LPDs when it is time to replace the LSDs, which was not crewed nor built to be an independent deployer, able to split off and execute a wider range of MAGTF missions from the sea. So from Frank Donovan’s view, replacing the LSD with LPDs would give us incredible capability.”

He also would like to see one other change he believes would greatly enhance MEU/ARG operations in the littorals. The ability to send Marines up rivers or to locations near the shore was diminished a few years ago, Donovan noted, when Marine rifle companies using Zodiac boats were disbanded.

“We believe the answer now is what they call a riverine command boat [RCB]. The Navy Expeditionary Corps has a terrific boat that could hold 10 or 12 Marines,” he explained. “Having that kind of troop-carrying boat brought back to the MEU/ARG team would really increase our capability set to better cover more of the littoral areas of the world.

“I would be willing to give up an LC or LCAC to have four of those. Then the MEU/ARG could make blue water launches of V-22s and Harriers long-range, go into green water with the LPDs and LSDs working closer to shore, then kick out these RCBs to go into brown water, moving upstream or to ports, airfields or embassies near the ocean.”

“Having that kind of troop-carrying boat brought back to the MEU/ARG team would really increase our capability set to better cover more of the littoral areas of the world.”

Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has called the ARG “one of the most flexible, most lethal, most important things we have in the Navy.” In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee in 2012, he outlined the Navy’s plans for ARGs with the new LPD 17-class.

“To support routine forward deployments of Marine Expeditionary Units, the amphibious force will be organized into nine 3-ship Amphibious Ready Groups and one 4-ship ARG in Japan, plus an additional big-deck amphibious ship available to support contingency operations worldwide,” he told lawmakers. “We will place two LSDs into reduced operations status, allowing us to reconstitute an eleventh ARG in the future or to build up the number of ships in the active inventory, if necessary.”

This article was first published in the USS Arlington (LPD 24) Commissioning publication.