Fleet Marine Force

The amphibious ship-enabled Mew remains the crown jewel of our naval expeditionary

force

s. No naval ship in our inventory is capable of supporting a more diverse set of missions than the amphibious warship that began the Marine Corps and continues to be an expeditionary

force

fully tied to the Navy on land and at sea throughout its history The Marines have prevailed as America's 9-1-1 Force responding to the global crisis assisting the Joint Force and the entire government and deploying to conflicts in every Clement location. Naval amphibious warship forces have been deployed globally. in support of peacekeeping missions, they evacuated U.S. embassies and provided humanitarian assistance to those in need.

They were there when troops were needed to confront Saddam Hussein's forces from the sea in the Gulf War. They were sent to the hills of Afghanistan after 9/11 and will once again be safe. to confront Isis more recently, they were the first on the ground to support evacuation efforts in Kabul again and again. Naval forces on ships are often the first to arrive on the scene, the first to comfortably provide aid, the first to contain a brewing crisis and when asked to do so. make it the first to fight the convoy of US Marines arriving in northern Syria, as our nation expects the Marine Corps, when partnered with the Navy, to be uniquely capable of conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through our posture of Strong and constant presence that we provide to the Joint Force and our allies. ability to remain and persist within an adversary's weapons engagement zone, capture and defend key maritime terrain, including maritime lines of communication, and respond immediately to global crisis.

We must retain no fewer than 31 amphibious warships to meet requirements set forth in national defense strategies spanning multiple administrations. Through 2010, amphibious ready groups and Navy expeditionary units maintained the ability to provide Force Commander It brings together three arguments worldwide 365 days a year. Analytical studies from 2008 to 2022 showed that with current maintenance 31 prime amps are required to maintain two Art Muse. Ford throughout the year, each consisting of three amphibious warships, today, if the indicated contingency plans indicate that we will be required to deploy five art Muse in a time period condensed in times of conflict, in addition, ships must be available for training to ensure the proficiency we need.

To fulfill our mission, the essential task is that the size of our amphibious

fleet

has decreased over the years. Ucom no longer receives a mu 365 days a year for active 24/7 crisis response, if the inventory supports it, would you benefit from having a mu enabled? both by tactical aviation and by group 5 unmanned aerial vehicles that are capable of performing reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance and would be on station 365 days a year. I would, Congressman, but as you well know, as a commander you never get everything you want, but those capabilities are certainly precious, uh. For effective deterrence, the 30-year shipbuilding plan, when combined with decommissioning plans, sees a drastic decrease in amphibious warships from 31 in 2022 to 28 in fiscal year 2025 and then to 24 in the year fiscal 2037.

At the same time, the historic naval

fleet

Readiness levels are 46 percent compared to plan, 80 percent and extended maintenance cycles are averaging more than 12 months Vice 8. further reduce the availability of global maritime mobility Maritime mobility within range of an adversary is crucial to Our success operating within this Zone will allow the Marines to hold key terrain while our largest amphibious ships secure critical maritime lines of communication. We must be able to move troops and supplies within the West. This opens the door for additional follow-on forces from the Marine Corps and the larger Joint Force to mobilize and respond to distributed maritime operations, such as expeditionary ones.

Advanced space operations require the ability to maneuver to and within global littorals, a key planning factor remains operating without ports or runways. To achieve this, we need 35 medium landing ships produced by the Navy's light amphibious warship program, in addition to our traditional amphibious warships. Light amphibious warships are smaller than our recognizable vessels, but larger than our current ship-to-shore connectors, such as the amphibious landing combat vehicle or landing craft air cushion. Requirement 35 arises from a minimum of 9 LSMs being required to support a Marine regiment. Our standing forces require Maritime Mobility for three regiments to ensure 27 ships are available to these forces at any given time.

We must account for eight additional ships due to routine maintenance cycles and it seems that in Indo paycom those connectors within the theater are going to allow things like the Army vessel, the Navy's next generation connection to operate in that disputed space , the Marine Corps' light amphibious warship, all of those things are incredibly important if you were to believe Admiral Aquilino and Admiral Davidson, which I believe have stated that the risk Once in a while, connectors within the theater are incredibly important to bridge the tyranny of distance to be able to operate effectively in the Indo paycom and your estimate is that today there is a deficit as we talk to logistical connectors within the theater as I mentioned and how essential do these programs allow logistics to flow? ?

This is a critical question. Movement within the theater is very important, especially the distances we're talking about in the Pacific and the fact that we will be under multi-domain attack essentially when we do this. Ultimately, the LSM will allow Marines to move quickly and efficiently throughout the battlespace to sense and make sense of adversary actions and provide valuable intelligence to commanders. They are critical to modernizing our legacy prepositioning capability into a dynamic, integrated, afloat and secure network that is ideal for small-scale in-theater distribution and sustainment and will complement the actions of the larger Naval and Joint Force; however, LSM Fielding does not begin until 2029, until then a bridging solution is required.

Some examples in use include expeditionary and contract rapid transport. Commercial vessels that can provide a basic level of mobility. The Expeditionary Fast Transport is an aluminum catamaran based on a commercial design. It is helping to temporarily bridge the gap between airlift and C-lift through its ability to transport Marines and their equipment to shallow, austere areas. integrated port projects, the Marine Corps Warfare Laboratory working with the Military Sealift Command has contracted to charter a Stern Landing commercial vessel. This vessel will be used to test the shorter Shore Beach. Concepts associated with expeditionary advanced base operations where expeditionary rapid transport cannot be used.

Lessons learned using the stern landing ship will be valuable in developing the final requirements for the LSM. These are some of the things we've heard about the Second Marine Division potentially working cooperatively with the Sixth Fleet to conduct ASW operations, screening operations, could you give us more details? Talking a little bit about that, all of that is ongoing in all the domains and the guidelines that we adopt. The cold response is an exercise that is going on as we speak to get us all to stretch our left and right buoys and it cannot be successful. if you only occupy one domain and try to achieve effects in one domain, the

marine

s are doing a fantastic job of leading from the front and showing the rest of us how to do it well, especially in the brown water environment, then you as a combatant commander If While we see much promise in these experimental efforts, as we look to the past for inspiration and continue to experiment, we must also look to leverage what our allies and partners have to offer, including commercial vessels and literal staging platforms, as a way to enhance our literal knowledge. . maneuver capabilities today In the future, the Navy must advocate for an increased Department of the Navy budget, this will allow multi-ship purchases authorized by Congress to provide cost savings through industrial stability and improve current maintenance and the preparation cycles of the amphibious ships that you refer to storing.

It is not good to have them, they are essential if we are going to achieve the objectives of the National Security strategy, the national defense strategy, the national military strategy, we need those 31 shifts plus the light amphibious warships that are not good to have. They are essential They are essential to deter the advance of the campaign there They are essential to be able to respond to a crisis They are essential in a war Our maritime mobility is of vital importance now and will be even more so in the future