Image source: topwar.ru
Over the last four years of the naval forces of the United States was not able to fix one of the landing ships. Exceeding the budget of the renovations was $ 99 million, and these are minimum figures. But even despite such spending, the ship still cannot be used.
In the end, after almost five years of renovations, the command of the naval forces of the United States declares that it is easier to get the ship out of service than to do it on.
In addition, the U.S. Navy are going to decommission 9 other amphibious ships. All of them, as the checks are in need of costly repairs. Some of the ships remained for more than ten years of life. But the naval forces of the United States doesn't want to spend money on these ships.
Interestingly, the main operator of amphibious ships are the Navy and marine Corps of the United States. It uses ships to transport Marines during the execution of various missions in different parts of the world. The excretion of a large number of amphibious ships out of service, of course, directly affect the combat readiness of the U.S. marine corps.
According to the marine Corps of the United States, amphibious operations are very important in the context of the confrontation of the probable enemy. Force marine corps can spread ourselves out in any point of the globe, providing an impressive impact on other countries and prevent possible conflicts. However, the write-off amphibious ships can have a purely negative effect on further operations of the marine corps, according to the command of the ILC.
Meanwhile, amphibious vehicles-amphibious type "Whidbey island" was operated for 40 years. These LSD was built in the 1980-ies and 1990-ies on the now defunct shipyards Lockheed Martin in Seattle. Since then, it had been almost forty years, so that the life of the ships coming to an end. By 2024, the US Navy is going to retire four amphibious assault ship. According to the command, they are in poor condition and require more resources for future service.
On the other hand, that the landing ships were in poor condition, are guilty of the naval forces. For many years, they have deferred maintenance of ships, as the technical problems were accumulating, the state of the ships were getting worse.
However, to reduce the number of amphibious ships without permission of Congress, the Navy is. Now an ongoing debate about the future of amphibious forces of the Navy. If Congress did not approve the withdrawal of the ships out of service, the fleet will have to keep them at the docks not to be used for its intended purpose.
