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There is hardly a news article or internet site that has not reported over the last several weeks the monumental requirement for the deployment of U.S. armed forces to support crisis response operations in Afghanistan and Haiti. Among the forces that rapidly responded were those who have spent countless hours preparing for and were forward-positioned to immediately conduct such operations—U.S. Navy and Marine Corps expeditionary teams. These forces operate directly from some of the most capable platforms in the Navy’s inventory—amphibious warships.
As the Taliban rapidly moved to take over the capital of Afghanistan, it appeared certain Kabul would fall and the Hamid Karzai International Airport would soon be a prized target of the Taliban. In order to protect U.S. citizens, assets, and Afghani refugees, the Secretary of Defense ordered the forward-deployed 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) to rapidly reposition from amphibious warships in the Middle East to reinforce security of the U.S. embassy in Kabul and the Hamid Karzai International Airport before they were taken over by the Taliban. The ships of that amphibious ready group include the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima (LHD-7), transport dock ship San Antonio (LPD-17), and dock landing ship Carter Hall (LSD-50). Some of the very first forces on the ground at the airport were the Marines from Battalion Landing Team (BLT) 1/8 and Combat Logistics Battalion 24, assigned to the 24th MEU deployed from amphibious warships to Kabul. These forces were able to keep the airport open and provide safety and security that safeguarded evacuation of more than 120,000 Afghans and U.S. citizens who needed to flee Afghanistan. At the time of the movement to Afghanistan, the 24th MEU was on station in the Middle East with its partners of the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group on a scheduled deployment to provide crisis response across the entire spectrum of operations. Forward-deployed amphibious ships and their embarked Marine Air Ground Task Forces allow for a rapid response to virtually any crisis situation – in a matter of hours, not days, such as the Afghanistan situation.
At the same time, the 24th MEU was conducting operations in Afghanistan, another group of expeditionary forces were supporting the earthquake-ravaged country of Haiti almost 8,000 miles away. In the early morning hours of 14 August 2021, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake struck the Tiburon Peninsula in the Caribbean nation of Haiti. This earthquake, the deadliest natural disaster of 2021, is the worst disaster to strike Haiti in over a decade. No sooner had the earthquake struck, Haiti faced the wrath of tropical storm Grace. Being one of the poorest countries on the earth, Haiti had little choice but to reach out to other nations for support for disaster relief. Quickly answering the call, the Navy deployed the San Antonio-class amphibious landing platform dock ship USS Arlington (LPD-24), full of supplies and with a contingent of Marines and medical support teams capable of conducting ship-to-shore movement via small craft from their well deck or aircraft from the flight deck. Specifically designed for this type of mission, the San Antonio-class amphibious landing platform has the capability to assist in a natural disaster operation with advanced medical capabilities. These capabilities include operating rooms for surgical support, an intensive care unit, and a multibed hospital for numerous of patients not to mention extremely large storage facilities.
In both operations the first call was for the all-encompassing capability of Navy and Marine Corps expeditionary forces. Together, the amphibious assault ship (LHA/LHD) and landing platform dock (LPD) classes provide a significant capability for both the protection and evacuation of U.S. noncombatant evacuees such as in Afghanistan and disaster relief operations all over the globe. The new LHA America class were built to embark the Joint Strike Fighter F-35B and has the greatest command-and-control capability for deployed units. Since the first commissioning of the San Antonio class in 2006, these ships have been called on numerous time to conduct operations ranging from strike and antipiracy to noncombatant evacuation.
Amphibious warships combined with a Marine air-ground task force are the true work horses of the fleet. Whether acting forward as a stand-in force deterring great power threats or being ready to respond to lesser scale but nonetheless destabilizing events, the amphibious ships are some of the greatest instruments of national power the United States possesses. As demonstrated by the recent operations in Afghanistan and Haiti, the current amphibious forces have a capability that can quickly move from high-intensity conflicts to other-than-combatant operations such as disaster support. The projected threats of the future will demand a highly capable, versatile, and survivable platform that can operate at long distances and with superior flexibility. Rather than making fewer LHA/LPD ships, forthcoming budgets should direct the continued build of these extraordinary platforms. The near simultaneous and unexpected one-two punch of these recent events, and the above described Navy–Marine Corps team response, demonstrates the incredible capability and agility, from hard to soft instruments of power, of U.S. amphibious forces. No other maritime nation in the world has the capability to project this type of power from the sea like U.S. amphibious forces.
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