
The Marine Corps assistant commandant lamented the shortfall of amphibious ships in the Navy’s current fleet and upcoming shipbuilding plans, saying it forced both the Marine Corps and the Navy to respond to situations with “opportunistic and kind of crisis-response solutions” rather than with the preferred three-ship Amphibious Ready Group/Marine Expeditionary Unit setup. Speaking at the Surface Navy Association’s annual conference in Arlington, Va., Gen. John Paxton spoke about recent events in which Marines had to self-deploy on V-22s and…