Navy & Marine Corps Choose Damen's LST-100 Design for Landing Ship

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have made a significant decision in their fleet modernization strategy, selecting Dutch shipbuilder Damen’s LST-100 design as the foundation for the new Medium Landing Ship (MLS) program. Navy Secretary John Phelan announced the selection in a video posted on X, characterizing it as the second major step in fundamentally reshaping how the Navy builds and deploys its fleet.

The LST-100 Landing Ship Transport, a roughly 4,000-ton vessel with a range exceeding 3,400 nautical miles, was chosen after careful evaluation by Navy Secretary Phelan, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Daryl Caudle, and Marine Corps Commandant General Eric Smith. The selection prioritizes what leadership describes as the optimal balance of operational capability, fiscal responsibility, and deployment speed.

“This is an operationally-driven, fiscally-disciplined choice that puts capability in the fleet on a responsible timeline,” Phelan stated, emphasizing the strategic importance of the decision within the broader context of naval modernization efforts.

The Medium Landing Ship program has evolved significantly since its introduction in the Marine Corps’ Force Design 2030 initiative in 2019. The vessel’s primary mission involves transporting Marines and equipment through challenging environments, particularly the island chains of the Indo-Pacific region—a strategically critical area where operational mobility remains essential.

Marine Corps Commandant General Eric Smith highlighted the operational advantages, noting that “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.” This capability addresses a key requirement for distributed operations in contested maritime environments.

The Marine Corps has established a requirement for 35 ships as the ideal fleet size, though this represents an aspirational goal rather than a guaranteed outcome, pending annual Congressional shipbuilding budget allocations. Previous iterations of the program encountered significant obstacles when initial requests for proposals generated responses deemed “simply unaffordable” by Admiral Caudle.

The Navy plans to competitively award a vessel construction manager to oversee the program’s execution and facilitate genuine competition among multiple shipyards. However, specific details regarding shipyard participation and program timelines remain undisclosed pending further announcements.

Notably, while Damen’s involvement remains implicit through the LST-100 selection, neither Navy nor Damen officials have publicly commented on the company’s future role in the program. Naval Sea Systems Command has previously requested a technical data package from Damen for the ship’s design. Earlier this year, the Navy awarded Bollinger Shipyards of Louisiana a $9.5 million contract to construct the first MLS, though that effort pursued a different design derived from Israeli and U.S. Army vessel platforms.

This decision represents a strategic pivot toward leveraging proven international designs to accelerate capability delivery while maintaining fiscal discipline—a critical consideration as the Navy navigates competing modernization priorities and budget constraints.

Source ID: SRCE-2025-1764950686231-1196