22-05-2025
This New Beach Landing Vessel Is Being Bought By The Marines
The U.S. Marine Corps is buying a pair of new medium landing craft from Australia-headquartered firm Birdon to help the service continue to refine its new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations. The purchase of the two Ancillary Surface Craft-Medium (ASC-M) vessels aligns with a 'bridging solution' that the Marines have been working on with the U.S. Navy to pave the way for already much-delayed plans to acquire a fleet of larger Medium Landing Ships.
'The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) selected global maritime engineering leader Birdon to design and build two prototype vessels to demonstrate emerging concepts under the Marine Corps' Force Modernization objectives,' according to a press release the company put out yesterday. 'The resultant Birdon Ancillary Surface Craft (ASC) marks a critical step forward in delivering next-generation landing craft solutions to inform future capabilities, tactics, and procedures.'
Birdon is set to actually build ASC-Ms in the United States with the help of Louisiana-based C&C Marine and Repair (C&C). Construction of the first of the two landing craft is scheduled to start this summer.
Birdon's release says that the ASC-M design, a rendering of which is seen at the top of this story, will be able to carry up to 40 personnel with full combat loads or 54 tons of cargo. The vessels, which have ramps at the front that drop down for loading and unloading, are 150 feet long and 30 feet across, according to a report from WorkBoat. This would put the ASC-Ms in the same rough size-class as various Landing Craft Utility (LCU) types currently in U.S. Navy and U.S. Army service, but with a smaller stated payload capacity. As a comparison, the Navy says the new LCU 1700s that it is in the process of acquiring will be 139 feet long and 31 feet wide, similar to the ASC-M, but also be able to carry up to 350 combat-equipped troops or 170 tons of cargo.
The ASC-M does offer significant 'maneuverability, stability, and long-range ocean transit capability,' according to Birdon. 'To ensure safe landings on uncharted beaches, Birdon worked with a specialist sonar company to develop and integrate an advanced forward-looking sonar system, allowing operators to detect obstacles and assess beach gradients well ahead of the vessel,' The vessel is designed to beach and de-beach in gradients significantly shallower than existing landing craft can support, providing enhanced, safe amphibious operations capability.'
'Birdon's ASC design also features a cutting-edge fuel delivery and transfer system that allows for efficient vessel-to-vessel or vessel-to-land fuel transfer, supporting extended operational range and flexibility in challenging environments,' the company's press release adds.
The ASC-M rendering shows it armed with at least two remote weapon stations, one at the bow and one at the stern, both of which appear to be armed with a 30mm M230 automatic cannon and a 7.62x51mm M240-series machine gun. The M230 is a more multi-purpose weapon that could offer a degree of self-protection against lightly armored targets and drones. A .50 caliber M2 machine gun is also seen at the stern end on a standard deck mount. Rotating antennas typically associated with navigation radars are seen on top of the pilot house.
'MCWL and Birdon collaborated to balance requirements, operational capabilities, cost, and producibility. The team focused on advanced design concepts to improve production automation, requiring fewer hours to build each craft,' the company's release says. 'The collaboration resulted in moving from concept to an affordable, production-friendly design, ready for construction in less than 12 months. The incorporation of automated production features allows for the rapid scaling of output to meet future demands.'
The ASC-M will join a small group of vessels the Marines have already been using to help refine new concepts of operations collectively referred to as Expeditionary Advance Base Operations (EABO). A central component of EABO is being able to rapidly move relatively small formations of Marines between forward operating locations, especially ones situated on far-flung islands in the Pacific. The goal of this so-called 'stand-in force' is to hopefully deter an opponent, but also be in a better and less vulnerable position to act if called upon.
Not having to rely on large traditional Navy amphibious warfare ships to conduct these maneuvers in littoral environments, where established port facilities are also likely to be absent, is essential to the EABO concept. Depending on the exact distribution of Marine forces and the distance between operating locations in a particular area, vessels like the ASC-M could be used to move personnel and materiel between sites and/or act as 'connectors' between larger ships and the shore.
For years now, the Marines have also been working with the Navy on plans for the latter service to acquire a fleet of at least 18 and up to 35 Medium Landing Ships, or LSMs, to support the EABO construct. However, concerns about the costs of prospective designs and other issues have continually pushed back the LSM program schedule, with the first of those vessels now not set to arrive until the end of the decade at the earliest.
So, since at least 2023, the Marines and the Navy have been developing a phased approach for LSM and what is referred to as the Littoral Maneuver Bridging Solution (LMBS).
'LMBS addresses the urgent need for intra-theater mobility and tactical maneuver by leveraging a mix of existing platforms, experimental vessels, and chartered solutions, mitigating the near-term gap in organic littoral mobility and maneuver,' Gen. Eric Smith, Commandant of the Marine Corps, explained just recently in prepared remarks for hearings before the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. 'Expeditionary Fast Transports (T-EPF), Landing Craft Utility (LCU) variants, and Maritime Prepositioning Ships are providing critical operational and tactical support for dispersed units conducting EABO.'
'Experimental and chartered vessels are also being used to refine tactics, techniques, and procedures, providing valuable lessons for the future LSM program,' Smith added. 'While LMBS cannot fully replicate the capabilities of the LSM, it enhances mobility and sustainment, ensuring Stand-in Forces remain agile and combat-ready in contested littoral environments for the near future.'
In line with this, in January 2024, the Marines cut a separate deal with Birdon to test and evaluate a heavy landing craft called the H260, based on a design the company had already been working on for the Australian military.
'Looking outwardly similar to many oil and gas offshore support vessels, but with integrated signature reduction features, the 260-foot-long craft features a payload of 440 short tons, deck space of 8,000 sq ft, the ability to accommodate 72 Marines and 26 crew, a range of over 5,000nm, and a draft of only 6.5 feet allowing it to access a far larger proportion of beach and riverine offload locations than similar sized vessels,' the company said in a press release at the time. 'Its inherent robustness and resilience enable the H-260 to adapt to a wide range of mission profiles and sustain multiple deployments. The aft loading and forward enclosed ramps enable rapid load transfer while adding flexibility to cope with a wider range of landing sites.'
When it comes to current plans for LSM, in April, the Navy announced its intention to award a sole-source contract to Bollinger Shipyards to build an initial 'Block I' ship. Shortly before leaving the post in January, former Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro had announced that the first LSM would be named USS McClung in honor of 'U.S. Naval Academy graduate and Public Affairs Officer Major Megan M.L. McClung, USMC, who was killed in action while serving in Iraq.' In April, USNI News reported that there had been no change to the naming plan.
The Block I LSM will be based on a design that Bollinger had developed for Israel, also known as the Israeli Logistics Support Vessel (ILSV), the first of which were delivered in 2023. The ILSV, which can load and unload personnel and cargo directly from a beach via a ramp at the bow, is reportedly just under 312 feet (95 meters) long, just over 66 feet (20 meters) across, displaces some 2,755 tons empty, and has a total payload capacity of over 2,200 tons. It is said to have a top speed of just over 14 knots and a maximum range with a full load of at least 6,500 nautical miles.
The ILSV is notably derived from an open-ocean optimized subclass of the General Frank S. Besson class Logistics Support Vessel (LSV) that VT Halter Marine developed in the 1980s for the U.S. Army, which you can read about in much greater detail here. The Philippine Navy also operates a derivative of that design called the Bacolod City class. Bollinger acquired VT Halter Marine in 2022.
It's also worth noting here that the Army has been continually pushing to divest portions of its obscure watercraft fleets in recent years, ostensibly to help free up resources for other priorities. This is despite the benefits that the LSVs, in particular, have to offer, especially in a future conflict in the Pacific, as is now further underscored by the Block I LSM plans. Just this week, Breaking Defense reported that the Army may now be looking to axe its own next-generation Maneuver Support Vessel-Light medium landing craft program, which has suffered delays, as part of a new force-wide restructuring effort.
The Navy is also already looking toward a follow-on LSM 'Block Next,' and has moved to acquire the technical data package for the LST-100 landing ship from Dutch shipbuilder Damen as part of that work. The LST-100 is some 328 feet (100 meters) long, around 52.5 feet (16 meters) wide, has a deadweight of up to 1,400 tons, a top speed of 14 knots, and a range in excess of 4,000 nautical miles, according to Damen. The ship, which can load and unload personnel and cargo via clamshell doors in the bow, can also deploy its own smaller landing craft and maneuver other payloads from within its hull ashore with the help of a large crane. It has a flight deck at the stern designed to accommodate an NH-90 or similar-sized helicopter, as well.
'LSM Block I is the mid-term solution to support the Marine Corps' shore-to-shore littoral mobility requirement,' according to Marine Commandant Smith's recent prepared remarks for Congress. 'The final phase, LSM Block Next, will incorporate advanced technologies and lessons learned from LMBS and LSM Block I to further enhance the ship's capabilities.'
Overall, the current LSM plans would seem to stand in significant contrast to the urgency in the messaging coming from the Marines and elsewhere in the U.S. military, particularly in the context of concerns about the prospect of a high-end conflict with China before the end of the decade. This all also comes as China's People's Liberation Army is steadily expanding its own amphibious warfare capabilities, which would be especially relevant in a potential military intervention against Taiwan.
In addition, the delays and other difficulties the Marines and Navy have faced already in trying to acquire the LSMs underscore larger issues facing the U.S. shipbuilding industry, which is dwarfed by that of China. The U.S. government has been trying to take steps in recent years to bolster America's ability to produce or otherwise acquire naval vessels, as well as commercial ships.
When the first Block I LSMs may begin to enter service remains to be seen, but the Marine Corps is pushing ahead with the acquisition of other vessels like the ASC-Ms to help lay the groundwork for when those ships arrive.
Contact the author: joe@
