(a) Sense of Congress
It is the sense of Congress that—
the requirement of the Navy and Marine Corps to develop and consistently project three amphibious ready groups and the accompanying marine expeditionary units is foundational to the force sizing construct of the Department of the Navy;
the Secretary of the Navy should obtain the expected service life of the amphibious ships and require the Navy to rigidly adhere to the direction provided by section 8678a of title 10, United States Code;
similar to the analysis conducted on extending the submarine force structure, a comprehensive assessment of all LSD-41 and LSD-49 class dock landing ships should be conducted to assess the viability of extending such ships beyond their expected service life;
the budget of the President submitted to Congress under section 1105(a) of title 31, United States Code, should consistently support a comprehensive service life extension program of the Wasp-class amphibious assault ships and fully resource mid-life maintenance of the San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships;
the Optimized Fleet Response Plan Force generation construct of the Navy, as operating as of the date of the enactment of this Act, sub-optimizes the ability to project amphibious readiness groups; and
the Navy should adopt an alternative force generation model that expands the ability to maintain a continuous 3.0 amphibious ready group/marine expeditionary unit presence capable of deploying additional amphibious readiness groups.
(b) Annual risk assessment
Section 8026 of title 10, United States Code, is amended—
by inserting (a) In general.— before The Secretary ;
by adding at the end the following new subsection:
(b) Risk assessment
Not later than March 15 of each year, the Commandant of the Marine Corps shall submit to the Committees on Armed Services of the Senate and House of Representatives an assessment of the risks associated with amphibious forces, which shall be known as the Amphibious Forces Risk Assessment of the Commandant . Each such risk assessment shall include, for the year covered by the assessment, each of the following:
An identification and definition of each level of risk, including the determination of the Commander of what constitutes significant risk.
For each category of risk identified, an assessment of the extent to which the degree of risk is expected to increase, decrease, or remain stable as a result of budgetary priorities, tradeoffs, and fiscal constraints or limitations based on the most recent future-years defense program under section 221 of this title.
Each risk assessment under this subsection shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may contain a classified annex.
(c) Number of amphibious warfare ships
Section 8062 of title 10, United States Code, is amended—
in subsection (b), by striking 31 and inserting 33 ;
in subsection (e)(4), by striking scheduled maintenance and repair actions to maintain the minimum number of available amphibious warfare ships to meet operational requirements. and inserting the required number of amphibious war ships to achieve a 3.0 amphibious ready group/marine expeditionary unit presence, as determined pursuant to the Global Force Management Implementation Guidance and the certification of the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the marine expeditionary unit presence requirement.
(d) Modification of amphibious warfare ships
Section 2244a(b) of title 10, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
(4) Exception for amphibious warfare ships
The prohibition in subsection (a) does not apply to a modification to an amphibious warfare ship (as such term is defined in section 8062(h) of this title) during any of fiscal years 2027 through 2034.
(e) San Antonio-class maintenance plan
Not later than September 30, 2027, the Secretary of the Navy shall submit to the congressional defense committees a mid-life maintenance plan for San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships class.
(f) Reporting requirements
Not later than March 1, 2027, the Secretary of the Navy shall submit to the congressional defense committees the following reports:
A report containing an assessment of all LSD-41 and LSD-49 class dock landing ships and, for each such vessel, an identification of options to extend the service life of the vessel.
A report on options for the comprehensive development of a modernization program that includes a service-life extension plan for Wasp-class amphibious assault ships and a mid-life maintenance plan for San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ships. Such report shall include, for each such option, an assessment of—
the overall timing of the application of such option each Wasp-class amphibious assault ship and San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock ship and whether such timing coincides with the optimal service life extension option for the ship;
specific modernization program objectives for each class of ship;
the amount of funding required to carry out the modernization program; and
the capability of the defense industrial base to support the modernization program.