(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:
(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:
(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.