Key Points: The San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks (LPDs) offer a cost-effective alternative to aircraft carriers while enhancing Marine Corps capabilities in expeditionary and amphibious warfare.
-Designed to transport over 600 Marines, helicopters, and landing craft, LPDs are critical for Day One assault operations, enabling Marines to penetrate enemy defenses.
-These vessels boast robust armaments and advanced surveillance systems, such as the Next Generation Surface Search Technology, ensuring operational dominance.
-With increased focus on amphibious warfare in the Indo-Pacific, LPDs provide flexibility for countering China’s A2/AD strategies, supporting allied freedom of navigation, and training forces for complex joint operations.
San Antonio-Class Ships: The Navy’s Answer to Modern Amphibious Warfare
Defense analysts have been wondering about aircraft carriers for years. Are they obsolete? Are they too expensive to build and maintain?
Can they survive a hit from carrier-killing missiles? Could an ultra-quiet nuclear-powered or diesel-electric sub sink a carrier with a heavy-weight torpedo?
All good questions regarding the constraints and limitations of the future aircraft carrier mission set. However, there may be a ship that could put these questions to rest.
Amphibious Transport Docks Can Dominate
Look no further than the U.S. Navy’s San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks. This is a relatively inexpensive solution compared to the $120 billion Ford-class carrier program. U.S. Marines feel right at home on these vessels.
080906-N-1082Z-254 ATLANTIC OCEAN (Sept. 06, 2008) The amphibious transport dock ship USS San Antonio (LPD 17) transits the Atlantic Ocean. San Antonio is deployed as part of the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group (ESG) in support of maritime security operations in the Navy’s 5th and 6th Fleet areas of responsibility. The Iwo Jima ESG is made up of San Antonio; the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD 7); the guided-missile cruiser USS Vella Gulf (CG 72); the guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage (DDG 61); the amphibious dock landing ship USS Carter Hall (LSD 50); all homeported at Norfolk, Va.; the guided-missile destroyer USS Roosevelt (DDG 80), homeported at Mayport, Fla.; and the fast attack submarine USS Hartford (SSN 768), homeported at Groton, Conn. US Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jason R. Zalasky (Released)
More than 633 leathernecks can fit onboard the assault ships. The amphibious transport docks carry a nice contingent of helicopters and landing craft for seaborne operations. This puts the word “expedition” back into the Marines’ skill set.
Jarheads are primarily trained to attack by sea, and the San Antonio-class is where they feel most comfortable.
Back to the Basics for the Marines
Marines have given up their tanks and are now more like amphibious light infantry. They would rely on the U.S. Army to employ M1 Abrams tanks to battle on Day 2 or Day 3 of an amphibious operation, with the Marines leading the first-day spearhead from the San Antonio-class ships.
The San Antonio-class features “Expeditionary Fighting Vehicles (EFV) or Amphibious Assault Vehicles (AAV) augmented by helicopters or vertical take-off and landing aircraft,” according to the official U.S. Pacific Surface Fleet page.
Landing Platform Docks Have the Answer
These ships are also known as the Landing Platform Dock (LPD). Each LPD is 684 feet long and 105 feet wide.
So, there is a significant amount of space for various aircraft that can help the Marines dominate a fight. Two boilers, steam turbines, and shafts push out 24,000 horsepower.
Landing Platform Docks like the San Antonio-class come with their own armaments. They have two 30mm Bushmaster II cannons and two Rolling Airframe Missile launchers to protect against marauding enemy fighters from above.
A New LPD Comes Online
In September, a new LPD joined the active force. The USS Richard M. McCool Jr. (LPD-29) was commissioned at Naval Air Station Pensacola.
It’s interesting that the navy chose Pensacola for the ceremony because that base is associated with naval aviation – likely meaning that the Sea Service believes that LPDs can work as carrier-like vessels with their full complement of aircraft. An additional 13 LPDs of the San Antonio-class could be built someday, which shows you just how much confidence the Navy has in these vessels.
Moreover, the LPDs can collect intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance data with their Next Generation Surface Search Technology. This gives fleet commanders more situational awareness about the enemy activities on the sea and shore. The LPD is a Day One asset that can send the Marines to deliver doom while sitting back and launching aircraft and armored vehicles to break the enemy’s will to fight.
Joint Operations and Combined Arms Is the Name of the Game
The LPD is a great ship to train young Marines and naval personnel. Landing operations are complex air-sea-land operations. During a training event, all components of a combined force must be prepared to do their best work. It is an intricate ballet of moving pieces. I wouldn’t be surprised if Navy SEALs also prep for a shore landing by rigging explosives against enemy defenses.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (April 8, 2017) – Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Sailors man the rails as the ship departs Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding for builder’s sea trials off the coast. The first- of-class ship—the first new U.S. aircraft carrier design in 40 years—will spend several days conducting builder’s sea trials, a comprehensive test of many of the ship’s key systems and technologies. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Christopher Delano).
During the Global War on Terror, Marines were accustomed to ground combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, but now the jarheads are back to their number one mission – amphibious warfare. These landing attacks will come in handy in East Asia. China has numerous territorial claims on various islands, rocks, and reefs in the South and East China Sea.
Since the Chinese have militarized these features, they create a defensive screen and make up part of Beijing’s Anti-Access/ Area Denial (A2/AD) strategy to keep the Americans guessing how better to patrol the Indo-Pacific.
The LPD would be perfect for challenging these territorial claims and could ensure that the Americans and their allies always have constant maritime freedom of maneuver and open sea lines of communications in the Indo-Pacific. LPDs are floating, sovereign military bases that can bring intense firepower to a fight.
Let’s credit the Navy and Marine Corps for returning to the basics of amphibious warfare. Island hopping may make a comeback in the Indo-Pacific. If that’s the case, then the LPD and its Marines on board are ready to rumble.
About the Author: Dr. Brent M. Eastwood
Brent M. Eastwood, PhD, is the author of Don’t Turn Your Back On the World: a Conservative Foreign Policy and Humans, Machines, and Data: Future Trends in Warfare, plus two other books. Brent was the founder and CEO of a tech firm that predicted world events using artificial intelligence. He served as a legislative fellow for U.S. Senator Tim Scott and advised the senator on defense and foreign policy issues. He has taught at American University, George Washington University, and George Mason University. Brent is a former U.S. Army Infantry officer. He can be followed on X @BMEastwood.
