상륙함 미해군, 중형상륙함 RFP 발행 취소

[위종민]

When Computers Went To Sea | 미해군, 중형상륙함(구 경상륙함) 제안서 초안 공개 - Daum 카페

미해군, 중형상륙함(구 경상륙함) 제안서 초안 공개

 
미해군이 접수된 제안서 가격들이 해군의 예상을 초과함에 따라 중형상륙함(LSM; Landing Ship Medium )의 RFP 제안 요청을 취소했네요. 
 
미해병대는 저렴한 다수의 상륙함을 요구했고, 미해군은 생존성 문제로 비싼 배를 뽑자는 입장이었는데 생각보다 가격이 너무 비쌌던 모양입니다. 의회 예산국의 4월 보고서에 따르면 초도건조함들의 추정가격이 4억 6천만 달러에서 5억 6천만 달러였네요. 해군의 예상치는 18척~36척 건조시 3억 4천만 달러에서 4억 3천만 달러였고, 2020년 초기 계획에는 1억~1억 5천만 달러였습니다. 
 
Landing Ship Medium Stalled Over Cost, Navy Cancels RFP - USNI News
 
Landing Ship Medium Program Stalled Over Price, Navy Cancels Industry RFP
Mallory Shelbourne
December 17, 2024 6:06 PM - Updated: December 18, 2024 10:20 AM

Landing Ship Medium concept. NAVSEA Image

The development of a new landing ship key to the Marines Corps’ island-hopping strategy in the Western Pacific is on hold due to Navy concerns over cost, USNI News has learned.
After receiving bids from industry, the Navy canceled the request for proposals for the Landing Ship Medium, a beachable platform crucial to how the Marine Corps envisions itself operating in a conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific under its Force Design plans.
“We had a bulletproof – or what we thought – cost estimate, pretty well wrung out design in terms of requirements, independent cost estimates,” Assistant Secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition Nickolas Guertin said at an American Society of Naval Engineers symposium last week.
“We put it out for bid and it came back with a much higher price tag,” he added. “We simply weren’t able to pull it off. So we had to pull that solicitation back and drop back and punt.”
A Marine Corps spokesman acknowledged the difficulty in developing an affordable platform that can effectively shuttle Marines around islands and shorelines. For now, to quickly get the Marines a ship that can move them around the region, the Navy plans to buy a “non-developmental vessel” while it works on the requirements, Lt. Col. Eric Flanagan told USNI News last week.
“The Marine Corps and Navy are currently working to create an acquisition way ahead for LSM Block I that includes a schedule, cost estimate, and detailed requirements,” Flanagan said. “Affordability and delivery schedule are key factors in pursuing littoral maneuver in support of [stand-in forces]. As with all modernization efforts, our capabilities must be pursued within affordability constraints.”

NAVSEA Image

Requirements churn and disagreements between the Navy and Marine Corps over a path forward have plagued the Landing Ship Medium for several years, since the program was previously called the Light Amphibious Warship. While the Marine Corps has pushed for a more affordable ship that’s built to commercial standards, the Navy’s requirements for improved survivability have increased the cost.
The idea was for the Navy to buy a smaller, less expensive amphibious ship that could shuttle Marines around islands as they set up ad-hoc bases on islands and fire weaponry like anti-ship missiles in a potential conflict and quickly move to new locations. The Marines Corps has converted two of three planned Marine Littoral Regiments that would rely on the LSMs to move across the Pacific.
At a lower price point, the Navy could buy more ships, and current requirements call for 18 to 35 LSMs. The Congressional Budget Office projected the lead ship in the class costing anywhere from $460 to $560 million, according to an April report. If the Navy buys the 18 to 35 ships according to current plans, each hull could cost $340 to $430 million. Initial plans in 2020 called for each ship to cost $100 to $150 million.

U.S. Marines with 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, post security during a field training exercise at Marine Corps Training Area Bellows, Hawaii, May 30, 2022. US Marine Corps Photo

While the ship is a key part of the Marine Corps’ Force Design strategy, any platform that fulfills the requirement will get purchased out of the Navy shipbuilding account. With mounting bills to pay out of the shipbuilding budget – including submarines, destroyers and cruisers – the amphibious warships remain a lower priority.
Last fall, the Navy put out a request for proposals to the shipbuilders after finalizing requirements for the Landing Ship Medium earlier in 2023, USNI News reported at the time. Those requirements called for a platform that could haul 75 Marines and 600 tons of equipment, and have a cargo area of about 8,000 square feet, a helicopter pad, a 70-person crew, spots for six .50-caliber guns and two 30mm guns.
“Specific configuration details will be determined during the detailed design phase, but generally the ship will be less than 400 feet long, have a draft of less than 12 feet, an endurance speed of 14 knots, and roll on/roll off beaching capability,” Naval Sea Systems Command told USNI News at the time.
The wide range of capabilities that last year’s RFP asked the shipbuilders to provide may have increased the cost, according to Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel who is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“At the high end, it was almost an [tank landing ship] kind of vessel, something about the size of a World War II LST,” Cancian told USNI News. “And of course at the low end, something quite small. When you give bidders that much range, you’re naturally going to get pushed to the high end. So I’m not surprised.”
Naval analyst Bryan Clark said the Marine Corps was willing to accept more risk to the platform in exchange for cost savings, but the Navy’s standards for warships prevent the services from going down this path.

Undated photo of World War II tank landing ship USS LST-325. US Navy Photo

“The way the Navy manages programs – shipbuilding programs in particular – is you’ve got the people that enforce technical standards have a veto over what the program managers do in terms of establishing requirements for the ship,” Clark told USNI News.
The Navy’s Fiscal Year 2025 shipbuilding request, unveiled earlier this year, asked to buy one Landing Ship Medium. Congressional authorizers approved the purchase of the ship in their National Defense Authorization Act agreement. The policy bill includes a provision that fences funding for the program until the Navy secretary verifies the “basic and functional design” of the ship. That provision is waived if the Navy pursues a commercial platform or a “nondevelopmental item,” according to the legislation.
Meanwhile, House defense appropriators cut most of the funding the Navy sought to buy the first Landing Ship Medium, while Senate defense appropriators allotted the $268 million the service asked for in the budget proposal. It’s unclear what the final defense spending bill will do to the program.
For now, the Marine Corps is leasing a stern landing vessel so it can experiment with a platform similar to a future Landing Ship Medium. The Marines took a modified offshore supply vessel, known as the Resolution, and are leasing it from Hornbeck Offshore Services so they can perform water testing and work out the requirements for a future LSM.
The Marines are already manning the units that would operate from the LSMs. The service converted its Hawaii-based regiment to the 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment in 2022 and one of its Okinawa-based regiments to the 12th Marine Littoral Regiment in 2023.
“The Navy and Marine Corps are committed to delivering a timely, affordable, littoral maneuver solution, which requires alignment of capabilities, resources, acquisition, and Congressional support,” Flanagan told USNI News.
“The Marine Corps is looking to leverage existing commercial and military capabilities that require minimal modification and can provide sustainment and littoral mobility.”

[Black Knights (윤재산)]

roc쓰는법을 까먹은 usn

[위종민]

싸면 못 쓴다고 비싼 거 사주겠다고 호기롭게 질렀다가 막상 받아보니 가격표가 너무 비싼 ㅜㅜ

[백선호]

이 상륙함을 쓸 곳으로 어디를 생각하고 있을까요? 남중국해? 설마 오키나와 근처???

[위종민]

남중국해 남사군도나 서사군도, 필리핀 북부 바시 해협의 섬들, 난세이 제도의 섬들 정도일 것 같습니다. 2차대전 당시 호주군들과 같이 싸웠던 것처럼 육자대나 필리핀 해병대들과 같이 싸울 생각일 수도 있겠네요.