Marines Want New Class of Aviation Support Ships
February 4, 2025 6:00 PM
SS Wright (T-AVB-3), one of two Marine aviation logistics support ships.
With the impending retirement of the aging Wright-class, the Marine Corps wants a new class of aviation logistics support ships, according to the 2025 aviation plan released this week.
The Marines currently have two aviation support ships that serve as floating repair stations with detachments of embarked Marines that can perform up-to-depot-level maintenance on Marine aircraft.
Dubbed the Aviation Logistics Support Capability/T-AVB Next, the Marines look to improve their intermediate sustainment abilities as well as those of stand-in forces with the new platform. The service pitched the repair of “battle-damaged aircraft and components” as a potential capability that these future vessels could support.
The Marine Corps identified seven capabilities that T-AVB Next should support: replenishment from combat logistic fleet ships, intermediate maintenance facilities, multiple access points for loading, dual aviation and ground maintenance operations, day and night flight operations, aircraft refueling, sea-based cargo handling and scalable modularity that could support up to 400 deployable maintenance facilities.
“The T-AVB (Next) will enable the rapid deployment of robust intermediate aviation sustainment functions, extending Marine Aviation endurance,” stated the 2025 aviation plan.
SS Wright (T-AVB-3) in the Atlantic and SS Curtiss (T-AVB-4) in the Pacific were launched in the late 1960s and converted into their current roles in the 1980s. While the vessels are operated by the U.S. Maritime Administration, they are permanently assigned to the Military Sealift Command’s prepositioning program to support Marine Corps aviation. Wright and Curtiss are slated for decommissioning in 2030 and 2033, respectively.
The crews are composed of 37 merchant mariners and a Marine aviation maintenance detachment, totaling 362 personnel. The more than half-century-old vessels sustain fixed, tilt-rotary and rotary-wing aircraft through 300 28 ft x 8 ft x 20 ft mobile maintenance facilities, allowing the service to maintain an afloat capability that would otherwise require 75 C-17 sorties to replicate.
In the 2022 aviation plan, the service lauded the vessels for their logistical role in Force Design 2030 objectives and experimentation efforts, stating that “the unique aspect of these vessels has supported operations in multiple roles for joint exercises and operational planning. Continued efforts to modernize the vessels and shape their replacements will redefine how we support the fight in future operating environments.”
In that same 2022 plan, the service specifically called out the Wright-class ships for their ability to support expeditionary advanced basing operations and the new distributed aviation operations concept.
The 2025 document states that there will be a “critical shortfall” if the Pentagon does not replace the ships.
“We require a standing capability to conduct afloat aviation sustainment activities to support EABO and DAO,” stated the 2025 aviation plan.
Marines Want New Class of Aviation Support Ships – USNI News
Source: currinsnavalandmaritme
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