U.S. Army shedding it's watercraft

[Grey Havoc]

https://gcaptain.com/u-s-army-to-divest-a-majority-of-its-watercraft-and-maritime-capability/

There appears to be no discussion on how the US Army plans to support their present maritime operations, and possible future commitments while eliminating nearly 80% of its present force, which resides in the US Army Reserve. Soldiers who are now in the Maritime field, and who have spent their careers training to be Army Mariners, will be “assessed into units where they can best serve the needs of the Army Reserve whiles also being gainfully employed”.

Army officials are also removing Watercraft positions within the assignment system, to ensure Soldiers in the future cannot be assigned to maritime duties, indicating there is no plan by the Army to reconsider their actions, or bring back a watercraft capability should the world situation change. A final line in the Army’s plan to eliminate watercraft is the instruction to “Remove all markings prior to turning in systems and vessels to DRMO”. A sad ending to a capability, which has existed since World War I.

Our questions include asking how the Army now plans to respond to military and humanitarian aid in remote and austere locations, where ports and harbor infrastructure do not exist?

[Raises eyebrow]

The world has already changed, and the Army is very likely to be not only needing what watercraft & related maritime capability it still has but more besides in the very near future. The new SecDef and the new Secretary of the Army appear to not share this view, however.

 

[Foo Fighter]

Perhaps they expect the roles to be uniquely Navy/marines in execution.

 

[Moose]

They just started buying a (very nice) new LC for Active units, too.

Going by this Shepard article from earlier this month(paywall warning), they may be intending to go for commercial solutions to take up the slack. But doing so in such a sudden manner and without a clearly articulated plan strikes me as an odd, impulsive, and so far insufficiently justified move. I can hope that the Congress will exercise some oversight and tell the Army to pump its breaks until it makes things more clear. But that's probably hoping for too much.

 

[Grey Havoc]

The more cynical might think it a move intended to force the U.S. Army into a position where it will have no choice but to procure large quantities of a new design heavy lift helicopter, not to mention fund the development of same in the first place.