After decades of sustained land operations, earlier this decade the United States Marines Corps moved away from being a so-called “second land army.” Instead, it returned to its roots as a more agile expeditionary force with a primary focus on amphibious operations.
The Growing Concern: Navy’s Role in Marine Corps Operations
However, questions need to be raised as to whether the USMC has the right tools to get the job done. The service must work closely with the United States Navy. According to a recent Government Accountability Office report, the Navy isn’t doing enough to aid the Marines in their mission.
“The Navy’s amphibious fleet transports Marines and their equipment, including vehicles and aircraft, for critical missions,” the watchdog explained. “The Navy must maintain a fleet of 31 operational ships to meet these needs. But half of the fleet is in poor condition and some ships have been unavailable for years at a time.”
Aging Fleet: The Wasp-Class Dilemma
The United States Navy currently operates 11 nuclear-powered supercarriers – more than any other nation. In addition to the supercarriers, the Navy operates amphibious vessels used to transport Marines and their equipment, as noted by the GAO.
These include amphibious assault ships that could be easily mistaken for aircraft carriers – and can operate with a variety of Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing (V/STOL), Short Take-Off Vertical Landing (STOVL), Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) tilt-rotor and Rotary Wing (RW) aircraft. These warships would be critical in a major conflict and the U.S. Navy doesn’t have enough of them – and the ones in service are aging, and in need of prolonged maintenance.
Under Maintenance: Key Vessels Out of Service
It was announced in October that USS Wasp (LHD-1), the lead vessel of the sea service’s class of amphibious assault ships, will undergo a maintenance and modernization program beginning early next year. The warship will head to the BAE Systems-Norfolk Ship Repair (NSR) in Norfolk, VA, where the work will be completed – sidelining the vessel.
In addition, the USS Bataan (LHD-5) will undergo a similar upgrade at General Dynamics NASSCO–Norfolk. As a result, neither of the warships will be able to deploy next year, and neither will be able to return to service until mid-2026 at the absolute earliest.
The U.S. Navy had planned for the maintenance periods for its eight Wasp-class LHDs, but following a catastrophic fire in July 2020, USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD-6) was found to be so damaged that the U.S. Navy was forced to scrap the vessel. That resulted in fewer vessels than expected in the fleet, putting a serious strain on operations throughout 2026.
Compounding the issue was that a third Wasp-class flattop would also need to be sidelined due to ongoing mechanical problems. In April, the USS Boxer (LHD-4) experienced an engineering issue related to its rudder, forcing her to return to San Diego for repairs soon after deploying. At this point, the 843-foot-long warship has spent more time undergoing repairs than deployed.
Repairs were originally estimated to take two to three weeks but dragged out until July. Even those repairs have been little more than a stopgap, and the service announced this summer, that LHD-4 will need to undergo pierside maintenance that could also last as long as 18 months. That work could begin in April 2025 and run through October 2026 – leaving the U.S. Navy and USMC with three fewer vessels.
Systemic Issues: Poor Conditions Across the Fleet
The GAO report found that while the two America-class amphibious assault ships are in satisfactory material condition, only two of the seven Wasp-class amphibious assault ships (multi-purpose) were deemed satisfactory. The other five were stated as being in poor material condition.
The numbers were even worse for the Navy’s dock landing ships – including its Whidbey Island-class and Harpers Ferry-class – of which nine of 10 were deemed in poor material condition. The only bright spot in the GAO report was that it found 11 amphibious transport dock vessels to be satisfactory.
GAO Recommendations
The watchdog made four recommendations – which called for the U.S. Navy to “use metrics to define amphibious ship availability goals and update its policy to clarify that it should not cancel maintenance when divesting ships before completing the waiver process.”
The service agreed with three recommendations and partially agreed with updating its policy, noting actions it will take to address the issue.
The GAO warned that the systemic issues will continue to jeopardize the Navy’s ability to maintain the fleet of amphibious warships needed for vital operations and training.
“It really raises a lot of questions about how ready this fleet is to be able to support its operations and I think that’s really the important part of this report,” GAO Contracting and National Security Acquisitions team Director Shelby Oakley told 13News Now. “And being able to get these ships in the condition that they need to be in to be able to support the mission is a really important thing.”
Is the Navy Ready? The Long Road to Fixing the Fleet
As the Navy faces significant challenges in maintaining its aging amphibious fleet, the questions raised by the GAO report are critical for the future of U.S. military operations. Without a fully operational fleet, the Navy and Marine Corps could struggle to meet the demands of an increasingly complex and dynamic global security environment.
