WASHINGTON: Is the US Navy really so short of warships that Marines must catch a ride on foreign vessels, like heavily armed hitchhikers? The answer is, well, sort of. Where there’s smoke, there’s often fire — the Marines definitely could use more amphibious warfare ships— but on this story, politicians, lobbyists, and some of my media colleagues have blown some extra smoke.
There’s a story in how the story has evolved. On June 14, the Marine Corps Times, a Gannet publication mostly read by the military, published “Marines to deploy aboard European allies’ ships.” Starting this fall, the story said, US Marines would embark on British and Italian ships, and test out Danish, French, and Spanish ones. Along with land-based Marine Corps task forces, said Brig. Gen. Norm Cooling, the allied vessels can help make up for a longstanding shortage of US amphibious warships in the Mediterranean. The key concern, reportedly, will be ensuring the Marines’ high-powered but heavy V-22 Osprey can fly off European flight decks.