SUBJECT AREA- General EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Thesis: With the current emphasis on reducing defense budgets and a smaller military force improved through enhancements and selected modernizations, perhaps the Department of the Navy should pursue Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC) vehicle retirement and Landing Craft Utility (LCU) enhancement. Discussion: In 1992, the Department of the Navy shifted its strategic focus away from a global threat to the challenges and opportunities posed by regional events. The new strategy emphasized power projection and employment of naval forces from the sea into the littoral regions of the world. It was later updated to expand the role of naval forces further across the spectrum of conflict to include peacetime operations, crisis response, and regional conflicts. This expansion coincided with an era of declining defense budgets resulting in a smaller, restructured force frilly prepared for the challenges of the new era. The concepts of stealth, mobility, and over-the-horizon warfare transitioned from the era of "blue-water " naval warfare to a new era of "brown-water " naval warfare. Additionally, the Marine Corps warfighting philosophy of maneuver warfare now emphasizes those concepts in "Operational Maneuver From the Sea (OMFTS)" and "ship-to-objective " maneuver, but at what cost? The traditional ship-to-shore maneuver with conventional landing craft has served as doctrine fo