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Recently, according to the US Military Audiovisual Center, the US Navy's "Lewis Pouller"-class maritime expeditionary mobile base ship No. 4 "John Canley" held a commissioning ceremony in San Diego, officially joining the US Navy's combat sequence.
It is reported that the "John Canley" will be deployed to the Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific
From mobile landing platforms to expeditionary mobile base ships
Since the 90s of the last century, with the end of the Cold War confrontation, many countries have demanded that the United States withdraw or reduce its military bases, and the number of forward combat bases in the United States around the world has been sharply reduced, from more than 5,000 in its heyday to 374, and it is difficult to meet the needs of global operations by relying only on land bases. In particular, during the Iraq War, Turkey refused to allow the US military to use its military bases, and the projection of expeditionary forces was subject to the attitudes and conditions of its allies, allowing the United States to see the potential crisis of its global military strategy. As a result, the US Navy put forward the concept of sea bases, that is, in the absence of land bases in the joint operations area, it has the ability to quickly deploy, assemble, command, deliver, reorganize, and redeploy joint maritime combat forces while providing continuous support, maintenance, and force projection for the joint expeditionary force.
In view of the fact that the sea base still relies on the US Navy's superior sea supremacy, the construction of the sea base platform cannot be based on the premise of reducing the existing fleet and the shipbuilding budget, and after compromises in all aspects, the US Navy finally decided that the sea base will not take the amphibious assault ship as the core, but the mobile landing platform ship (MLP) as the core of the sea base, to assume the dual role of the sea base and the amphibious assault ship.
In 2005, the U.S. Navy officially launched the concept test of a mobile landing platform ship, and rented the civilian semi-submersible ships "Dagongfu 1" and "Dagongfu 3" to conduct docking verification with strategic maritime ships, including maritime positioning between ships, crane docking, vehicle passage stability and other issues, and the results were satisfactory.
USS Montford Mobile Landing Platform Ship
In 2010, the United States officially issued an order to start the construction of the first batch of three mobile landing platform ships, and the total cost of the three ships was only about 700 million US dollars due to the use of a large number of civilian standard designs. The lead ship, the USS Cape Montford (ESD-1), was delivered in 2013, and the second ship, USS John Gray (ESD-2), was delivered in 2015. In 2013, the construction of the third ship "Lewis Poehler" began, in order to further explore the combat use of the sea base, the ship did not follow the design of the first two ships, but made significant modifications in the basic structure, adding a flight deck, adding a hangar for helicopter parking and maintenance, and modular combat command and personnel living cabins, etc., so that the ship continues to have semi-submersible functions while having helicopter take-off and landing capabilities. Moreover, there is a height difference of more than ten meters between the upper flight deck and the second dock deck, which can accommodate a large number of landing equipment and material containers, including even air-cushion landing craft. It can be said that the further expansion of the combat use of the ship has also changed the "Lewis Pouler" from a mobile landing platform ship to a forward supply base ship (AFSB).
In 2017, the first expeditionary mobile base ship, the USS Lewis Pooler (ESB-3), was delivered, after which it was deployed in the Middle East as a floating base at sea. The second expeditionary mobile base ship, the USS Seachel Williams (ESB-4), commissioned in 2018 and has since been deployed in Europe. The third ship, the USS Miguel Keith (ESB-5), was originally scheduled to enter service in 2019 but was postponed to May 2021 due to an accident during construction, and has now been deployed to Japan. The fourth mobile expeditionary base ship, the USS John Canley, was commissioned in February 2024. As a sixth-generation expeditionary sea base mobile platform, the ship is designed to be re-equipped with attack helicopters, which is the first of its kind among expeditionary floating base ships.
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It is reported that the "John Canley" laid the keel at the San Diego shipyard of the National Steel and Shipbuilding Corporation (NASSCO) on November 16, 2020, and was named and launched on June 25, 2022. Named after John Lee Canley, an African-American U.S. Marine Corps, Vietnam War participant, and recipient of the U.S. Highest Medal of Honor, he was awarded the Medal of Honor in 2018 for his bravery during the Vietnam War when he took over as a wounded company commander as an artillery sergeant and led the company to successfully break through the blockade line and complete reinforcement missions.
It is worth mentioning that the "John Canley" will be deployed to the Seventh Fleet in the Western Pacific, which deserves our vigilance.
"Lewis Pouler" added an aviation deck and hangar, upgraded from a transshipment dock to a mobile sea base
Expeditionary mobile base ship performance
In the case of the USS Louis Pouler, this class of ships has been improved on the design of the Maersk S-class 6,600 TEU container ship to make it meet the standards of military ships. With a length of 233 meters, a width of 50 meters, a draft of 7.8 meters, and a full load displacement of 78,000 tons, the ship adopts diesel-electric propulsion and IPS integrated electric propulsion system, with a power of 64,000 horsepower and a speed of 15 knots. Among them, the third ship, the "Miguel Keith," is about 240 meters long and has a full load displacement of about 90,000 tons, making it the largest surface ship of the US military except for the "Ford" and "Nimitz" class aircraft carriers.
The class of ships has a double-deck design. The upper flight deck covers an area of 4,831 square meters, supported by 13 columns, and has the ability to take off and land helicopters at night, with 15 take-off and landing points for AH-6, CH-47, MH-53, MH-60, MV-22 series aircraft. In addition, there are two large hangars on the upper flight deck, equipped with JP-5 aviation fuel and spare parts storage equipment. The open lower deck consists of modular container mission bays for the storage of mine-clearance and special operations support equipment, boats, and weapons and ammunition. In addition, there is a 13-ton crane and a 40-ton crane on the deck, which are mainly used for the transportation of mine-clearing and special operations support equipment, 12-meter special warfare boats and other heavy equipment.
Aerial view of the U.S. Expeditionary Mobile Base Ship
In terms of personnel-related facilities, the ship is composed of 250 military personnel and 44 civilian crews. Of the 250 servicemen, 100 are combat personnel and 150 are personnel of the aviation and mine sectors. The servicemen live mainly in the bow of the ship, with 12, 15 and 30 rooms in dormitory, as well as three suites for commanders and administrative officers. In addition, the ship has an operational command room, an officer/enlisted man/sergeant major canteen, offices, conference rooms, a logistics warehouse, a maintenance workshop, a flight control tower, a fuel tank, and adequate desalination equipment and air conditioning equipment. The 44 civilian crew members live mainly in the stern of the ship, all in single quarters.
In terms of combat missions, the ship has the ability to perform a variety of missions, such as anti-mine warfare, anti-piracy operations, maritime security operations, humanitarian assistance, disaster assistance, participation in logistics support and crisis response operations of the U.S. Marine Corps.
Compared with other large combat ships, the expeditionary mobile base ship has significant advantages. First of all, it's cheap. This class of ships is based on the design of the merchant ship Maersk S-class 6600 TEU container ship to change to military ships, therefore, it greatly reduces the initial research and development costs, and the design and construction of this type of ship has been quite mature, for the later modification and new construction costs will be greatly reduced.
Secondly, the tasks are diverse. This class of ships can change their configuration in a timely manner according to different threat environments and combat missions. It has a variety of modular container mission cabins in the open lower deck space, which can be installed at any time according to different mission requirements. For example, in the face of the expansion of non-war missions and the increase in emergency rescue and disaster relief missions, this class of ships can carry a variety of helicopters for a variety of missions and a large number of rescue materials, as well as a disaster relief hospital ship with complete facilities and sufficient beds, so that it can be quickly turned into a new ship through the combination of modules at any time.
Due to the wide surface space and huge carrying capacity of the expeditionary mobile base ship, the United States has been actively exploring various application scenarios for it
Finally, adaptability. After the completion and commissioning of this class of ships, it can carry various types of helicopters and support the take-off and landing of various types of helicopters, tiltrotors and various fixed-wing UAVs. In addition, in wartime, this class of ships can also transport a large number of special combat personnel and their weapons and equipment. This is of great significance for future regional landing operations and troop projection.
epilogue
In general, the ESB expeditionary mobile base ship, as a maritime mobile base on which the US military has high hopes, is an important part of the US military's overseas operations, and its modification potential is huge and should not be underestimated. In addition to the four expeditionary mobile base ships already in service, two more are currently under construction, which is worth noting.