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USNS Watkins (back) and heavy lift ship MV Mighty Servant 1 moor side-by-side off San Diego during a demonstration of the Mobile Landing Platform concept in 2005.
Class overview
Builders	General Dynamics
Operators	United States Navy
Planned	3
General characteristics
Length	837 feet (255 m)
Beam	164 feet (50 m)
Speed	15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Range	9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km; 10,900 mi)
Boats & landing craft carried	3 LCAC

The Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) is a type of amphibious assault ship currently being planned for the United States Navy, with the first ship due to enter service in 2015. MLP ships are to serve as floating bases for amphibious operations, and operate as a transfer point between large ships and small landing craft. Proof-of-concept testing began in 2005, with heavy lift ships serving as substitutes for the MLPs. General Dynamics' National Steel and Shipbuilding Company was awarded a contract to design and build the first ship in late 2010, and the United States Navy initially plans to acquire three vessels.

Design

The Mobile Landing Platform concept calls for a large auxiliary support ship to facilitate the 'seabasing' of an amphibious landing force by acting as a floating base or transfer station that can be prepositioned off the target area. Troops, equipment, and cargo would be transferred to the MLP by large-draft ships, from where it can be moved ashore by shallower-draft vessels, landing craft like the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), or helicopters. In order to transfer vehicles to the larger ships to the MLP, the vessels were originally to be fitted with a Vehicle Transfer System; a ramp connecting the two ships alongside, and able to compensate for the movements of both vessels while underway.

A preliminary design by General Dynamics envisioned a ship that carried six LCACs, with the ability to turn-around (dock, unload or load, then launch) two landing craft simultaneously. The MLPs were to host a brigade-size force, sail at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph), and have a maximum range of 9,000 nautical miles (17,000 km; 10,000 mi). Each ship was to cost US$1.5 billion to build. However, cutbacks to defense spending planned for the Fiscal Year 2011 budget forced the downscaling of the design in mid 2009.

General Dynamics identified the civilian Alaska-class oil tanker (built by the subsidiary National Steel and Shipbuilding Company) as a suitable basis for an "MLP 'Lite'", with the design modified into a float-on/float-off vessel that could be built for only US$500 million per ship. As part of the cost tradeoff, the Vehicle Transfer System was scrapped in favour of skin-to-skin mooring of a host ship alongside the MLP, and the LCAC complement was reduced to three. The new design is 837 feet (255 m) long, with a beam of 164 feet (50 m), a top speed of 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), and a maximum range of 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km; 10,900 mi).

Concept testing

In September 2005, the United States Navy approved trials of the MLP concept, to test the feasibility of seabasing for an amphibious operation. The heavy lift ship MV Mighty Servant 1 served as the substitute for the MLP, while the Roll-on/roll-off vessel USNS Watkins played the role of a planned type of transport ship for the United States Maritime Prepositioning Force. The first part of the trial consisted of the two ships transferring cargo between themselves while anchored in Puget Sound. After successfully completing this, the vessels sailed to San Diego, where cargo was transferred from Watkins to Mighty Servant 1, then taken ashore by LCACs; slightly submerging the deck of the heavy lift ship allowed the hovercraft to "'fly' aboard".

A second series of tests was conducted off Norfolk, Virginia in September and October 2006, with USNS Red Cloud and MV Mighty Servant 3. This time, the ships were moored together while underway, during which vehicles drove from Red Cloud onto Mighty Servant 3, then embarked aboard LCACs. In February 2010, Mighty Servant 3 joined USNS Soderman for further trials in the Gulf of Mexico. During these, personnel and a wide range of vehicles, from Humvees to M1 Abrams tanks, were transferred to, then launched from Mighty Servant 3, in conditions up to Sea State 4.

Construction

In August 2010, the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego was awarded a US$115 million contract to design the Mobile Landing Platform, and build the first ship. Construction is due to begin in July 2011, with orders for the second and third vessels to be made in the 2013 and 2015 fiscal years. The first ship is to be operational by 2015, with the third in service by 2018.

Mackenzie Eaglen of the Heritage Foundation has testified before the United States House that this acceleration of the program is the result of killing the program.

References

1. ^ "The US Navy's Mobile Landing Platform Ships". Defense Industry Daily. Watershed Publishing. 18 August 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2011.
2. ^ "Mobile Landing Platform [MLP]". GlobalSecurity.org. Retrieved 13 January 2011.
3. ^ Scott, Richard (30 September 2010). "Floating world: US Navy eyes Mobile Landing Platform as sea base pontoon". International Defence Review. Jane's Information Group.
4. Robbins, Gary (14 August 2010). "General Dynamics gets $115M for 'pier at sea'". San Diego Union-Tribune. The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC. Retrieved 10 January 2011.
5. Eaglen, Mackenzie. "Testimony before The Readiness Subcommittee of The House Committee on Armed Services" Heritage Foundation, 3 March 2011.

• United States Navy proposed ships
• Amphibious warfare vessel classes
• Amphibious warfare vessels of the United States