Army activates first overseas watercraft unit in decades

The Army recently activated its first composite watercraft company outside the United States in decades, a move that comes as the service seeks to expand its maritime capabilities in the Indo-Pacific theater.

The 5th Transportation Company, a composite watercraft company, was activated on Feb. 8 at Yokohama North Dock, Yokohama, Japan, according to an Army release . The development was first reported by the U.S. Naval Institute .

The unit will include 13 ships and 285 Army mariners, Gen. Charles Flynn, commander of U.S. Army Pacific Command, said during a June 2023 change-of-command ceremony.

The unit’s equipment lineup, which was previously outlined in a 2021 Army release, features five landing craft utility vessels, four maneuver support vessels, two tugboats and a harbormaster operations detachment for maintenance.

Army Times previously reported that the Army Futures Command’s new Cross Functional Team-Contested Logistics is looking at expanding the use of autonomous watercraft to resupply soldiers in island chains across the Pacific, both during future exercises and in a potential conflict.

“Envision a swarm of these autonomous vessels going out to various island chains, not having to beach because we can have the UAVs come in, meet somewhere over the water, grab portions and take that area’s portion — ammo, food, blood, whatever it is — to the point of need,” said Rob Watts, team deputy director.

The Army announced the launch of a prototype Maneuver Support Vessel (Light) in October 2022, the first new class of Army watercraft in more than two decades. The vessel, a 100-foot-long landing craft with a 360-nautical mile range, will replace the Vietnam War-era Landing Craft Mechanized-8, according to the release.

The moves signal an about-face from developments in 2019, which indicated the Army was looking to cut its fleet of vessels despite a critical shortage of Navy transport ships for wartime scenarios, Army Times previously reported .

Then-Army Secretary Mark Esper informed Army senior leaders in January 2019 that they would take steps to “divest all watercraft systems” from the Army Reserve, where much of the force’s watercraft resides. But by August 2019, those plans had been paused, pending the results of a congressionally mandated study on the Army’s watercraft restructuring.

At an Association of the U.S. Army Sustainment forum in 2019, Maj. Gen. Steven Ainsworth, then-commander of the 377th Theater Sustainment Command in the Reserve, said 96% of the service’s watercraft companies were in the Reserve.

By 2021, the Army Reserve had divested all watercraft systems and realigned their watercraft-related personnel under the Harbormaster Operational Detachments, John Bradley deputy director of media relations for the Reserve Command’s public affairs office, told Army Times.

Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.

美国陆军最近在美国境外组建了数十年来第一个综合水上作战连，此举旨在扩大其在印太地区的海上作战能力。

据美国陆军发布的消息，第五运输连（一支混合型水上运输连）于2月8日在日本横滨北码头正式组建。美国海军学会率先报道了这一消息。

美国太平洋陆军司令查尔斯·弗林将军在2023年6月的一次指挥权交接仪式上表示，该部队将包括13艘舰艇和285名陆军水兵。

该部队的装备阵容此前已在 2021 年陆军发布的一份文件中概述，包括五艘登陆艇多用途舰艇、四艘机动支援舰艇、两艘拖船和一个用于维护的港务长行动分遣队。

《陆军时报》此前报道称，陆军未来司令部新成立的跨职能团队——竞争性后勤部门正在考虑扩大自主水上交通工具的使用范围，以便在未来的演习和潜在的冲突中为太平洋岛链上的士兵提供补给。

“想象一下，一群这样的自主船只前往各个岛链，无需靠岸，因为我们可以让无人机飞过来，在水面上会合，抓取物资，然后将该地区的物资——弹药、食物、血液，无论是什么——运送到需要的地方，”团队副主任罗布·沃茨说道。

美国陆军于2022年10月宣布推出轻型机动支援艇原型，这是二十多年来陆军首个新型水上舰艇。根据新闻稿，该艇为长100英尺、航程360海里的登陆艇，将取代越战时期服役的8型机械化登陆艇。

据《陆军时报》此前报道，这些举措标志着与 2019 年的发展趋势完全相反，当时的趋势表明，尽管海军运输舰在战时严重短缺，陆军仍打算削减其舰艇舰队。

时任陆军部长马克·埃斯珀于2019年1月告知陆军高级领导人，他们将采取措施“剥离所有水上舰艇系统”，这些舰艇大多驻扎在陆军预备役部队。但到了2019年8月，这些计划已被暂停，等待国会授权开展的关于陆军水上舰艇重组的研究结果。

2019 年，在美军后勤保障协会举办的一次论坛上，时任预备役第 377 战区后勤保障司令部司令的史蒂文·安斯沃思少将表示，该军种 96% 的水上运输连队都是预备役部队。

陆军预备役司令部公共事务办公室媒体关系副主任约翰·布拉德利告诉《陆军时报》，到 2021 年，陆军预备役已经剥离了所有水上交通工具系统，并将与水上交通工具相关的人员重新调整到港务长作战分遣队之下。

自2004年以来，托德·索斯为多家出版物撰写有关犯罪、法院、政府和军事方面的文章，并因与人合著的关于恐吓证人的文章入围2014年普利策奖决赛。托德是参加过伊拉克战争的海军陆战队老兵。