Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) Program

[kevinkins]

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R46374

"The concept was developed with an eye toward potential conflict scenarios with China in the Western Pacific. Under
the concept, the Marine Corps envisions, among other things, having reinforced-platoon-sized Marine Corps units maneuver
around the theater, moving from island to island, to fire anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) and perform other missions so as
to contribute, alongside Navy and other U.S. military forces, to U.S. operations to counter and deny sea control to Chinese
forces. The LAW ships would be instrumental to these operations, with LAWs embarking, transporting, landing, and
subsequently reembarking these small Marine Corps units."


https://www.forbes.com/sites/craighoope ... dc9b0f97fa

[Gunner98]

Thanks for that - a scenario in this one for sure...

[kevinkins]

I agree. Trying to wrap my head around "moving from island to island". That is, which islands and what firepower and sensors. Maybe the sensors are the most important in this operational concept.

[kch]

The concept of small, numerous, and ultimately expendable, amphibious ships doesnt seem to be very realistic considering how Western armed forces are structured and the focus on avoiding casualties through stand off weapons, UAVs etc etc. Somebody will surely raise the question of how these ships are meant to survive.

[kevinkins]

Nothing really new in this article but it's a good operational summary of the current situation. It does forward the idea that smaller carriers might be more survivable. To what degree is questionable.

https://www.sandboxx.us/blog/fighter-fu ... t-century/

[Fido81]

I wonder how the USN could design, build, and test so many small ships so quickly...

[kevinkins]

More detail on the program:

https://news.usni.org/2020/06/08/marine ... operations

"The survivability of the LAW ships would come from their ability to hide among islands and other sea traffic, from defensive support they would receive from other U.S. Navy forces, and from the ability of their associated Marine Corps units to fire missiles at Chinese ships and aircraft that could attack them with their own missiles (which can be viewed as an application of the notion that the best defense is a good offense).”

And why not provide support from a converted super tanker:

https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedi ... arine-team

[kevinkins]

And another on the future of amphibious:

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-fr ... s-assault/

[kevinkins]

Another concept involving distributed operations:

https://warontherocks.com/2020/07/bring ... -seaplane/

[SeaQueen]

This is maybe more context than information about the system itself, but the LAW, in my mind is just a method of supporting EABO.


https://www.hqmc.marines.mil/Portals/14 ... 121328-460

https://warontherocks.com/2020/04/the-r ... sign-2030/

https://warontherocks.com/2020/05/getti ... orm-right/

https://warontherocks.com/2019/08/for-t ... perations/