Mobile Landing Platform

The Mobile Landing Platform (MLP) is a type of amphibious assault ship being constructed for the United States Navy, with the first ship due to enter service in 2013. MLP ships are to serve as floating bases for amphibious operations, and operate as a transfer point between large ships and small landing craft. Proof-of-concept testing began in 2005, with heavy lift ships serving as substitutes for the MLPs. General Dynamics' National Steel and Shipbuilding Company was awarded a contract to design and build the first ship in late 2010, with construction beginning in July 2011. The United States Navy initially plans to acquire three vessels (with a possible fourth proposed in 2012), which will be designated the Montford Point class.

Design
The Mobile Landing Platform concept calls for a large auxiliary support ship to facilitate the 'seabasing' of an amphibious landing force by acting as a floating base or transfer station that can be prepositioned off the target area. Troops, equipment, and cargo would be transferred to the MLP by large-draft ships, from where it can be moved ashore by shallower-draft vessels, landing craft like the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC), or helicopters. In order to transfer vehicles from the larger ships to the MLP, the vessels were originally to be fitted with a Vehicle Transfer System; a ramp connecting the two ships alongside, and able to compensate for the movements of both vessels while underway.

A preliminary design by General Dynamics envisioned a ship that carried six LCACs, with the ability to turn around (dock, unload or load, then launch) two landing craft simultaneously. The MLPs were to host a brigade-size force, sail at 20 kn, and have a maximum range of 9000 nmi. Each ship was to cost US$1.5 billion to build. However, cutbacks to defense spending planned for the fiscal year 2011 budget forced the downscaling of the design in mid-2009.

General Dynamics identified the civilian Alaska-class oil tanker (built by the subsidiary National Steel and Shipbuilding Company) as a suitable basis for an "MLP 'Lite'", with the design modified into a float-on/float-off vessel that could be built for US$500 million per ship. As part of the cost trade-off, the Vehicle Transfer System was scrapped in favor of skin-to-skin mooring of a host ship alongside the MLP, and the LCAC complement was reduced to three. The new design is 837 ft long, with a beam of 164 ft, a top speed of 15 kn, and a maximum range of 9500 nmi. Converteam supply an integrated power system and vessel automation system for the MLP.

In March 2013 CNO Jonathan Greenert showed Powerpoint of the MLP-Afloat Forward Staging Base (MLP-AFSB), a proposed variant of the MLP with increased accommodation, a hangar and large flightdeck on piers above the semi-submersible deck, This was first proposed in January 2012, around the time of the sudden announcement that the USS Ponce would be converted as an interim AFSB. The MLP-AFSB could be used to support special forces and intelligence gathering as a base for helicopters, MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, and even the F-35B stealth fighter, but the main role of the Ponce will be operating minesweeping MH-53E Sea Dragon helicopters. "a number of variations" of the MLP were being considered; the AFSB can fulfil many of the roles of a $2.5bn "big deck" amphibious ship at a quarter of the price.

Concept testing
In September 2005, the United States Navy approved trials of the MLP concept, to test the feasibility of seabasing for an amphibious operation. The heavy lift ship MV Mighty Servant 1 served as the substitute for the MLP, while the Roll-on/roll-off vessel USNS Watkins (T-AKR-315) played the role of a planned type of transport ship for the United States Maritime Prepositioning Force. The first part of the trial consisted of the two ships transferring cargo between themselves while anchored in Puget Sound. After successfully completing this, the vessels sailed to San Diego, where cargo was transferred from Watkins to Mighty Servant 1, then taken ashore by LCACs; slightly submerging the deck of the heavy lift ship allowed the hovercraft to "'fly' aboard".

A second series of tests was conducted off Norfolk, Virginia in September and October 2006, with USNS Red Cloud (T-AKR-313) and MV Mighty Servant 3. This time, the ships were moored together while underway, during which vehicles drove from Red Cloud onto Mighty Servant 3, then embarked aboard LCACs. In February 2010, Mighty Servant 3 joined USNS Soderman (T-AKR-317) for further trials in the Gulf of Mexico. During these, personnel and a wide range of vehicles, from Humvees to M1 Abrams tanks, were transferred to, then launched from Mighty Servant 3, in conditions up to Sea State 4.

Construction
In August 2010, the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company in San Diego was awarded a US$115 million contract to design the Mobile Landing Platform, and build the first ship. Construction on the first vessel began in July 2011.

In January 2011, the names for the three ships were announced:
 * USNS Montford Point (T-MLP-1)
 * USNS John Glenn (T-MLP-2)
 * USNS Lewis B. Puller (T-MLP-3/T-AFSB-1)

Orders for the second and third vessels are expected to be made in the 2013 and 2015 fiscal years. The keel for the first Montford Point-class Mobile Landing Platform was laid on 19 January 2012. Construction of John Glenn begin on 17 April 2012, by which time the Montford Point was 48% complete. The Montford Point was christened in San Diego on March 2, 2013. The first ship is to be operational by 2015, with the third in service by 2018. The Montford Point completed final contract trials on 13 September 2013; the John Glenn was floated off on 15 September and construction began on the Lewis B. Puller on 19 September 2013.

In March 2012 the USN requested a fourth ship in the FY14 budget of the National Defense Sealift Fund, and proposed that both MLP-3 and MLP-4 would be MLP-AFSB variants. Congress rejected both requests on the grounds that the Ponce could do the job and AFSB's should in any case be funded out of the main Navy account. the Chief of Naval Operations is still planning to buy two MLP and two MLP-AFSB despite the uncertainty caused by the sequester, in fact the late-2012 "Vision for the 2025 Surface Fleet" by the head of Naval Surface Forces envisages buying more MLP variants as a cheap alternative to traditional amphibious ships.