America's Got Useful Ships Just Lying Around

U.S. Navy mulls putting aviation logistics ships to work

So today the Navy has 29 amphibs and might manage to boost that number to 33 by 2018.

But never fear. It turns out that Military Sealift Command, the Navy’s quasi-civilian specialist branch, has lots of useful ships lying around mostly idle that, with some imagination, can partially fill in for the pricey amphibs.

Take, for example, MSC’s two aviation logistics shipsâ??— S.S. Wright and S.S.Curtiss. Six hundred-and-two feet long, displacing 24,000 tons fully loaded, the twin loggies each boasts a large helicopter landing pad, multiple cranes and a full-length cargo hold opening onto ramps on its sides and stern. With a crew of just 41, each of the vessels can accommodate more than 360 passengers.

While less tough than dedicated amphibs and totally lacking defensive weaponry, under the right circumstances the aviation logistics ships could embark potentially hundreds of Marines and their vehicles plus thousands of tons of supplies. Joining other specialized ships, the loggies could help send the Leathernecks ashore to invade an enemy, defend an ally or help out following a natural disaster.

The idea was that, during wartime, the T-AVBs would tie up alongside a pier just behind the front lines of some foreign war zone. The Marines on the ground would send their damaged and broken copters back to the loggies for repairs.

But Curtiss and Wright have rarely performed that specific role. Both vessels activated for the 1991 Gulf War. Wright also supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Wright helped out the relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, tying up on Staten Island as temporary lodging for aid workers. Otherwise, the T-AVBs mostly sit inactiveâ??—â??Wright in Baltimore, Curtiss in San Diego.

But the Navy and Marines are waking up to the vessels’ utility. “These are vessels are not amphibious ships as we know them, but quite frankly, Marines, we’ve been operating off these ships in varying degrees for years,” Jim Strock, whose job it is to brainstorm new “seabasing” ideas for the Corps, told the U.S. Naval Institute’s news blog.

According to the blog, the Navy conducted a test earlier this summer, using a crane aboard one of the T-AVBs to lift a flat-bottom landing craft onto the vessel. In theory, Curtiss and Wright could embark Marines and landing craft, anchor offshore, drop the craft into the water and then load infantry into the craft for the choppy ride ashore. World War II-style.

More likely, the T-AVBs would plug into a seabaseâ??—â??a sort of constellation of special cargo ships, each performing a niche role housing, transferring and sending Marines onto a beach. The Navyâ??—â??and MSC, in particularâ??—â??has been working hard on new seabasing technology for several years now.

Here’s how a seabase could work. Cargo ships carrying Marines and their vehicles could converge on an anchorage 25 miles or so from shore. With Navy destroyers protecting against air and sea attack, the transports could join “skin-to-skin” or connect via floating docks called “lighterage.” With helicopters and catamarans assisting, the vessels could shuffle people and vehicles, prepping them to move ashore.

Next, a Mobile Landing Platformâ??—â??the Navy is building several of themâ??—â??would connect to the cargo ships. The MLP can partially submerge, flooding its deck so that hovercraft and landing craft can motor on and off. The other ships in the seabase connect Marines to the MLP; the MLP gets the Marines into the landing craft that haul them to the beach.

Working together, the seabasing ships mostly duplicate the functions of purpose-built amphibs. The major difference is the amphib’s weaponry, high-tech communications gear and toughness. Battling neo-Soviets, the Red Chinese horde, Terminators or aliens, you’d want amphibs. For somewhat more routine ops, a seabaseâ??—â??potentially including Curtiss andWrightâ??—â??should suffice.

To be clear, the Navy is considering new roles for the aviation logistics ships because it, and the whole U.S. military, is running out of money. But that doesn’t mean sending the T-AVBs on an amphibious assault isn’t a fantastic idea. “The best solution isn’t always the fanciest or the most expensive,” former Defense Secretary Bob Gates once said

This article originally appears at War is Boring.