Can New Amphibious Ship Coalition Grow Grass Roots?

http://breakingdefense.com/2014/02/can-new-amphibious-ship-coalition-grow-grass-roots/



Can New Amphibious Ship Coalition Grow Grass Roots?
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.
on February 14, 2014 at 2:55 PM

WASHINGTON: This town needs another lobbying organization like I need another hole in my head. But when everyone else has a “grass roots” group to help make their case to Congress, not having your own is a form of unilateral disarmament — an especially bad idea in a time of escalating budget wars.

“Having a coalition base like this, I think, Sydney, is probably very important,” said Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Robert Walsh, director of expeditionary warfare on the Navy staff, in a question-and-answer session at the Amphibious Warship Industrial Coalition‘s first-ever event on Capitol Hill. “We [haven't had] that to be able to get that message out there.”

~snip~

“Amphibs” are a whole range of Navy warships, large and small, that carry Marines and their equipment: swimming “amtrac” tanks, transport hovercraft, and a host of aircraft, from geriatric H-46 helicopters to V-22 Osprey tilt-rotors to jump jets like the aging Harrier and, soon, the new F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. While less stealthy than subs and less imposing than carriers, the amphibs are among the most flexible ships in the fleet, useful for everything from disaster relief to embassy evacuations, air raids, and all-out invasions. And they are a lot cheaper than aircraft carriers.

So who builds these things? McCarthy estimates that some 2,000 companies in 48 states and over 380 congressional districts make components for amphibious warships. The problem is mobilizing them.

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I know that San Antonio-class LPDs were coming in around $1,8000,000,000 (the same cost as an Arleigh Burke Burke-class destroyer..