The U.S. Navy has chosen the LST-100 from Dutch shipbuilder Damen to be the basis of a new class of Medium Landing Ships, or LSMs. The service’s goal now is to have received the first of those ships before the end of the decade, avoiding setbacks that have become worryingly commonplace with Navy shipbuilding programs in recent years. The planned acquisition of a fleet of 35 LSMs, which has been long delayed, is seen as central to enabling still-evolving U.S. Marine Corps’ expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations.
The Navy announced the LSM decision today in a video on social media that includes statements from Secretary of the Navy John Phelan, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle, and Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Eric Smith. This follows a similar video announcement last week, wherein the service disclosed its decision to cancel the Constellation class frigate program. Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) separately confirmed to TWZ that it is hoping to see construction of the first LST-100-based LSM start in 2026 and to take delivery of that ship in 2029. These ships are primarily expected to be used for ferrying relatively small Marine units, especially between far-flung islands, without the need for access to established port facilities, in future conflicts in the Pacific region.
“As I announced last week, we are fundamentally reshaping how the Navy builds and fields its fleet. Today, I’m taking the second major step in that effort, selecting the design for our Medium Landing Ship, an operationally driven, fiscally disciplined choice that puts capability in the fleet on a responsible timeline,” Secretary Phelan says in today’s video. “Last month, with the concurrence of the Commandant [of the Marine Corps] and the Chief of Naval Operations, I approved the LSM design selection [of] the LST-100 landing ship transport, a roughly 4,000-ton ship with a range of more than 3,400 nautical miles that gives us the right balance of capability, affordability, and speed to field.”
The baseline LST-100 design is approximately 328 feet (100 meters) long, some 52.5 feet (16 meters) wide, and can reach a top speed of 14 knots, according to Damen.
The ship can load and unload vehicles, personnel, and other cargo directly onto a beach via clamshell doors in the bow. There is also a loading ramp at the stern. In addition, the ship, with a standard crew of 18, can deploy smaller landing craft and otherwise maneuver large payloads from within the hull with the help of a large crane on the deck at the bow end. The vessel has a flight deck at the stern designed to accommodate an NH-90 or similar-sized helicopter, as well. Overall, it has the capacity to carry up to 234 troops and nearly 11,000 square feet (1,020 square meters) of roll-on/roll-off cargo space.
“The LST-100’s cargo capacity, helicopter capacity, berthing, and crane make it an excellent choice for the Marine Corps requirement of no less than 35 Medium Landing Ships to support naval expeditionary forces,” Marine Gen. Smith also says in today’s video. “The Medium Landing Ships will enable our Marines to be more agile and flexible in austere environments where there are no ports providing the joint force the needed operational mobility within the adversary’s Weapons Engagement Zone.”
“No significant changes are planned to the baseline LST-100 design,” NAVSEA has told TWZ. “The Navy will award Engineering Services to Damen to support incorporation of class-standard equipment, and to ensure design documentation that supports Buy American Act requirements, other regulatory mandates, and maximize the platform’s long-term sustainability.”
As mentioned, the Marines view the planned LSM fleet as critical to the service’s new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations, which are still being refined more than five years after they were first unveiled. Future Marine operations are expected to focus heavily on the rapid deployment and redeployment of relatively small forces to far-flung locales to create complications for opponents, especially within the context of a larger island-hopping scenario in the Pacific.
The Navy and Marine Corps have been going back and forth on plans for what was originally dubbed the Light Amphibious Warship for years now. In December 2024, the Navy announced it was axing an expected request for proposals for the rebranded LSM effort, citing “affordability concerns.” The following month, the service said it had begun looking at existing commercially available designs to get the program moving again.
“A year ago, the Navy canceled the LSM request for proposals when the conceptual design produced bids that were simply unaffordable,” Adm. Caudle explained in the video announcement today. “We applied common sense, went back to basics, and reassessed the program. We identified proven in-service designs that meet the Commandant’s requirements, and then scrutinized them for reducibility performance and trade-offs.”
At least one LST-100, which was notably built at the Albwardy Damen yard in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, is in service with the Nigerian Navy, which also has a second example on order. In 2024, the Australian government also selected the LST-100 design as the starting point to meet its Landing Craft Heavy requirements. The ships for the Royal Australian Navy are set to be built in that country by Austal.
“We will competitively award a vessel construction manager to oversee the LSM program, drive execution, and facilitate genuine competition among multiple shipyards,” Secretary Phelan said in today’s announcement.
In April, NAVSEA had put out a contracting notice announcing its intention to secure data rights to the LST-100 design, which would significantly expand opportunities for domestic production of the ships, as well as subcomponents, in the United States. U.S. government ownership of the rights also means the Navy will not be locked into a particular vendor in the future.
“The Navy secured rights to the technical data package from Damen for a cost of $3,296,356 and has appropriate rights to build and maintain the LSM fleet,” NAVSEA has confirmed to TWZ. “The Navy intends to build at multiple US shipyards. Foreign shipyards are not anticipated.”
Choosing the existing LST-100 design is being very actively presented as a way to help keep schedule and other risks, as well as cost growth, down, as well.
“This non-developmental build-to-print approach drives down cost, schedule, and technical risk for both the Navy and industry,” according to Secretary Phelan. “Working with Congress, we’re embracing commercial practices and speed.”
“We are also changing how we do business in shipbuilding. Starting from a complete 3D design and working hand in hand with the designer, the Navy is incorporating a disciplined set of class standard equipment so that this ship is maintainable, repairable, and able to meet its operational availability targets in the real world, not just on paper,” per Adm. Caudle. “Once those standards are baked in, the design will be truly production-ready, needing only to be tailored to each shipbuilder’s specific production process.”
It is important to point out here that the Navy had outlined a similar plan for the abortive Constellation class frigate, the design of which was derived from an existing, in-production Franco-Italian ‘parent.’ In the end, Navy-directed changes led to a ship that was fundamentally different, causing delays, cost growth, and other issues, as you can read more about here. This all ultimately contributed to the program’s cancellation. Caudle’s comments above look to be in direct reference to some of those pitfalls, including the fact that work had started on the first-in-class USS Constellation class before the underlying design was anywhere close to being finalized.
As mentioned, NAVSEA says it is targeting 2026 for the start of construction of the first LSM, which it hopes to have in hand in 2029. “The Navy is working to accelerate the delivery of this urgently needed capability,” the command also told us today.
How long it might be before the full fleet of 35 LSMs is delivered remains to be seen. The Navy and the Marines have already been working to acquire a number of interim ships, as well as using contracted vessels, to help provide various aspects of the new expeditionary and distributed concepts of operations that the LSMs are intended to support.
The Navy has also talked in the past about acquiring some number of interim LSMs from Bollinger Shipyards, possibly utilizing a design the company developed for Israel called the Israeli Logistics Support Vessel (ILSV). The ILSV was itself derived from an open-ocean optimized subclass of the General Frank S. Besson class Logistics Support Vessel (LSV) that is in service now as part of the U.S. Army’s obscure watercraft fleet, which you can learn more about here.
“The Navy expects to build at least one LSM at Bollinger Shipyards,” NAVSEA has told TWZ.
As an aside, former Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro had announced in January 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 responding to TWZ‘s queries today, NAVSEA says there has been no change to the naming plan.
Overall, “the Department [of the Navy] will continue to innovate and reform our shipbuilding approach, integrating hard learned lessons from prior Navy shipbuilding efforts, proven commercial best practices, and streamlined acquisition,” Secretary Phelan said today. “It is the dawn of a new age for Navy shipbuilding.”
The Navy is now looking to the LST-100-based LSM, a key development for supporting future Marine Corps operations and the first big decision regarding a new class of ships since Constellation, to be an important cornerstone in that new shipbuilding future.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com