미해병대 New Marine Corps Prototype Ship Signals Interesting Times For South China Sea

A Marine Corps experiment may offer the Philippine Navy an option to replace decaying South China ... [+]

AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

U.S. Marine Corps innovators have stumbled upon an ideal solution for the contested reefs and sea-features of the South China Sea. Tasked to build a modest prototype for a future Marine Corps landing ship, America has ended up with a tough, mobile, shallow-water mini-base, perfect for the Philippine Navy.

The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab lifted the veil on their initial effort to transform simple oil-field oriented Offshore Support Vessels into a test fleet of up to three “Stern Landing Vessels”, or SLVs, showing off the new concept just the Philippines announced a Chinese Coast Guard vessel had interfered with an effort to resupply an isolated Philippines island outpost.

Until now, the first example, built to test the variously named Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) or Landing Ship Medium (LSM) concept, was out of sight and out of mind, tucked away in a Gulf Coast shipyard. The low profile reflected wider stakeholder concerns about the relevance of the Marine Corps’ expeditionary strategy.

 

But the Marine Corps may have produced a real, low-cost winner. The three new prototypes, if found to be effective and handled adroitly, could change the game in the South China Sea.

A depiction of the SLV modifications to HOS Resolution. 

U.S. MARINE CORPS WARFIGHTING LABORATORY

A Tough Ship For A Tough Job:

For the first prototype SLV vessel, the Marine Corps started right, leasing a tough Offshore Support Vessel from Hornbeck Offshore Services. The Service then modified the no-nonsense industrial craft to become even tougher. Rebuilt for the experiment, the handy ship can host up to fifty sailors, and it now boasts an extendable ramp, a strengthened hull, a reinforced deck, along with protected steering and propulsion.

 

 

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New Marine Corps Prototype Ship Signals Interesting Times For South China Sea

A Marine Corps experiment may offer the Philippine Navy an option to replace decaying South China ... [+]

AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

U.S. Marine Corps innovators have stumbled upon an ideal solution for the contested reefs and sea-features of the South China Sea. Tasked to build a modest prototype for a future Marine Corps landing ship, America has ended up with a tough, mobile, shallow-water mini-base, perfect for the Philippine Navy.

The Marine Corps Warfighting Lab lifted the veil on their initial effort to transform simple oil-field oriented Offshore Support Vessels into a test fleet of up to three “Stern Landing Vessels”, or SLVs, showing off the new concept just the Philippines announced a Chinese Coast Guard vessel had interfered with an effort to resupply an isolated Philippines island outpost.

Until now, the first example, built to test the variously named Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) or Landing Ship Medium (LSM) concept, was out of sight and out of mind, tucked away in a Gulf Coast shipyard. The low profile reflected wider stakeholder concerns about the relevance of the Marine Corps’ expeditionary strategy.

PROMOTED

 

 

 

But the Marine Corps may have produced a real, low-cost winner. The three new prototypes, if found to be effective and handled adroitly, could change the game in the South China Sea.

A depiction of the SLV modifications to HOS Resolution. 

U.S. MARINE CORPS WARFIGHTING LABORATORY

A Tough Ship For A Tough Job:

For the first prototype SLV vessel, the Marine Corps started right, leasing a tough Offshore Support Vessel from Hornbeck Offshore Services. The Service then modified the no-nonsense industrial craft to become even tougher. Rebuilt for the experiment, the handy ship can host up to fifty sailors, and it now boasts an extendable ramp, a strengthened hull, a reinforced deck, along with protected steering and propulsion.

 

It also—most importantly—is set up to be a mini-jackup rig, equipped with four extendable legs capable of reaching into the seabed and hold the ship steady in surf. But the legs can also turn the ship into a platform or temporary pier in shallow waters—something the Filipino Navy desperately needs.

With the newly-equipped jackup rigs, the SLV is a fascinating blend of commercial utility and military expediency.

First built in the early 1950’s, jackup rigs were developed to be mobile drilling platforms, moving to where they were needed and drilling exploratory wells. Today, jackup rigs are being reinvented as wind-farm support tools, setting their extendable legs into the seabed, serving as a stable platform for generator installation, heavy maintenance or whatever might be needed..

 

While the architecture of the platforms vary, in general, jackup rigs are big, modified barges, barely able to move about without external help.

Gracing a no-frills industrial workboat with jackup capability changes things. The modified vessel, HOS Resolution, is a 250 foot long, 2750-ton working boat, is far smaller but far more mobile than the usual jackup barge.

With a top speed of just 15 knots, it certainly won’t win speed races, but, with two big CaterpillarCAT +1.2% engines, it is a powerful platform, tough enough to shoulder aside any interference. In fact, the jackup legs look capable of ripping open the hull of any vessel foolish enough to blunder near them.

In short, the SLC may be the perfect platform for setting up a useful and sustainable presence in Philippine atolls throughout the South China Sea—strategically valuable sea features that China has been trying to seize for years.

A dilapidated BRP Sierra Madre sits at Second Thomas Shoal in 2014

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A Replacement For BRP Sierra Madre:

Once the Marines are done experimenting with the vessel in a range of beach and surf conditions, the experimental vessels would make ideal gifts for the Philippines. As robust, simple craft, these modified offshore support vessels may prove perfect replacements for the Philippines’ bedraggled outpost ship, the BRP Sierra Madre.

The decrepit BRP Sierra Madre, a rusted-out World War II-era LST, or Landing Ship Tank, was deliberately grounded on the resource-rich Ayungin Shoal (known to Americans as Second Thomas Shoal) in 1999. It has served as a lonely, isolated Filipino naval outpost ever since.

Under sporadic blockade by trespassing Chinese vessels, the stranded “ersatz” outpost desperately needs replacing. In 2013, the New York TimesNYT +0.8% Magazine, in a ground-breaking visit, detailed the rough life for a detachment of nine Filipino Marines who, at that time, called Ayungin Shoal their home. Back then, the old ship had decayed to the point where “there was hardly any place inside the boat to congregate that wasn’t either a health hazard, full of water or open to the elements.” Despite occasional repairs, conditions cannot be any better now.

The HOS Resolution makes a strong replacement for the old, rusted-out LST. Big enough and powerful enough to handle the rough-and-tumble operational environment of the South China Sea, the HOS Resolution, if put into Philippine service, can push aside blockading ships and set up camp in Ayungin Shoal. And, if two more are available, members of the three-ship fleet could regularly swap out for regular refits and maintenance.

Chinese coast guard ship blocks a Philippine Coast Guard ship on Monday, Feb. 6, 2023. 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Timing Is Everything:

The Marine Corps knows exactly what they have built. It is no surprise that the public unveiling of HOS Resolution’s upgrades came just days after the Philippines announced that a Type 718 Chinese Coast Guard ship had used a military-grade laser to keep a far smaller Philippine patrol vessel, BRP Malapascua (MRRV-4403), from resupplying the BRP Sierra Madre.

News of the new craft also came days before the Philippine Marine Corps Chief, Maj. Gen. Charlton Sean Gaerlan was set to arrive in Washington to spend the week with General David Berger, America’s Marine Corps commandant, who quipped that “he had much to learn about mobility around islands and beaches”. With the modified HOS Resolution, the foresighted General and his Service—as well as the Chinese—are likely to learn an enormous amount.