USN and USMC Landing Ship Medium Acquisition Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to record the U.S. Navy (USN) and U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) Landing Ship Medium (LSM) program background, identify the acquisition dilemma, and provide a path forward and contract recommendations. The LSM program is a USMC priority acquisition program originating from USMC Force Design 2030 organizational changes; however, the program is managed within the USN’s Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) Program Executive Offices Ships acquisition portfolio. The USMC LSM acquisition requirement is 35 ships, and the initial cost estimate for each ship was between $100 million and $150 million. However, the USN expressed concern over initial LSM deficiencies in survivability, which required additional equipment and modification to ship design and raised cost estimates to more than $350 million per ship. Differences in minimum LSM capability requirements widened the program scope between the services and compounded NAVSEA concerns over fulfilling the USMC requirement with a constrained shipbuilding budget, which delayed the procurement contract award to, at earliest, fiscal year 2025. The acquisition team must tailor, combine, and transition between acquisition pathways to deliver the LSM to the warfighter by 2030, in order to meet USMC requirements while also reducing per-unit costs through capability trade-offs to meet shipbuilding budget constraints