New transport ship’s trial run offers look into future

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By Christian Lowe
Times staff writer

The dry cargo and ammunition ship Lewis and Clark departs from 32nd Street Naval Station Pier in San Diego for sea trials on Tuesday morning. — Marc Vignocchi (General Dynamics NASSCO)

A key ship in the Marine Corps’ future strategy of sea basing took its maiden voyage today, moving the branch one step closer to realizing its long-term goal of launching complex operations far inland from a floating base of transport ships and amphibious assault vessels.

The dry cargo and ammunition ship Lewis and Clark slipped its mooring lines at the 32nd Street Naval Station pier in San Diego for ocean trials early this morning, the first of 11 such ships to be delivered to the Navy’s Military Sealift Command over the next several years.

The 689-foot ship built by General Dynamics Marine Systems’ NASSCO shipyard combines the capabilities of older ammunition transport ships and dry cargo supply ships that were approaching the end of their service lives, a company release said.

Company engineers will sail the Lewis and Clark in the Pacific for “builder’s sea-trials” and are expected to return to San Diego Saturday, said company spokesman Karl Johnson. The ship will undergo Navy acceptance sea trials later this spring for final delivery to the Navy this summer, Johnson added.

The Navy purchased the first nine ships for $2.8 billion, General Dynamics said.

The Marine Corps hopes to use Navy supply ships such as the Lewis and Clark as the basis for its sea basing strategy, which envisions up to a brigade’s worth of troops housed aboard a flotilla of supply ships, amphibious assault ships and warships for operations far ashore. The supply ships and amphibs would comprise a “maritime prepositioning force (future),” which, when plugged into a Marine expeditionary brigade, would constitute a maritime prepositioned group, the Corps says.

The advantage of the Lewis and Clark class of ships, Corps and company officials say, is that supplies and equipment can be moved around onboard ship while afloat, rather than having to pull into port to shift gear needed for a specific mission.

“With modular cargo holding and handling systems, the Lewis and Clark can resupply combat ships at sea with ammunition, food or fuel in one mission and then be quickly reconfigured to conduct a humanitarian sealift of supplies on its next mission,” a General Dynamics release said.

Marine plans call for the development of new air-cushioned landing craft and high-speed vessels to transport the cargo between assault ships and supply vessels while underway in rough seas.