Marines to Test Prototype Landing Ship to Support New Force Design - USNI News

After making a series of modifications to an offshore support vessel, the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab is ready to start experimenting with a prototype for a landing ship the Marines say is key to the service’s island-hopping future in the Western Pacific.

Through Military Sealift Command, the Marine Corps has contracted Hornbeck Offshore Services to alter the offshore support vessel for the types of missions it envisions Marines taking on in future conflict. The service took the existing vessel and added the capability to land Marines and equipment from the stern.

“We’ve added a large ramp to the vessel to make it more beachable. The company has added a bunch of landing skegs and other protective things in the rear underpart of the ship to protect the rudders and the props, again, because we are looking to beach this vessel at the stern,” Lt. Col. Timothy Smith, the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab’s logistics combat element lead, told reporters today.

“The vessel has a 12-foot draft. It’s got 6,000 square feet of cargo space on a wet deck. It has the capability to hold 38 Marines and a commercial crew of somewhere between 12 to 15 mariners.”