The U.S. Navy has officially ended a long-standing tradition of allowing aviators to command amphibious warships, pivoting instead to place all authority under the hands of surface warfare officers.

The decision, revealed in an April 24 internal memo confirmed by the service, isn’t just a procedural tweak—it’s a major structural change driven by the worsening readiness of the amphibious fleet.

According to the memo, the change was triggered by sobering realities: lack of ship readiness, maintenance chaos, and subpar operational availability.

The Navy brass concluded that aviators, while competent flyers, aren’t the right fit to command complex amphibious platforms that demand deep mariner and maintenance expertise. Simply put, the fleet was underperforming, and the commanders in charge didn’t have the right experience for the job.

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As a result, starting in fiscal 2028, only surface warfare officers will be eligible to command America-class and Wasp-class amphibious assault ships, San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks, and both Harpers Ferry and Whidbey Island-class dock landing ships.

It’s a sweeping change meant to sharpen performance across the amphibious force—one that plays an essential role in delivering Marines to global flashpoints.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Daryl Caudle laid out the logic succinctly in a statement: “Given the challenges that reside with the amphibious fleet, the current major command construct underutilizes and fails to properly leverage the depth of mariner expertise resident in the SWO community.” In other words, the Navy is done experimenting. The days of treating ship command as a joint prize for aviators and mariners alike are over.

From the CNO: no more aviator command of amphibs
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The service spent two years analyzing the problem, and the results weren’t pretty. Amphibious ships—which are supposed to be at a minimum 80% mission-ready according to the Marine Corps—had fallen to a dismal 41% readiness rate by mid-2025.

That translates to fewer ships available for global operations, which undermines U.S. power projection and directly affects Marines’ ability to respond wherever they’re needed.

To fix the mess, the Navy’s top personnel and operations leaders are creating a transition timeline and overhauling billet structures to realign leadership positions.

The War Department’s plan is to make sure commanding officers stay put longer, build deeper expertise, and ensure ship performance is tied to commanders with the right background.

Caudle said this “enables commanding officers to stay in place longer in order to provide more command stability, focused oversight, and solution ownership required to drive measurable performance.”

The move has been met with some grumbling in the aviation community, although Caudle reassured them that aviators won’t lose command opportunities. They will continue to lead aircraft carriers, nuclear-capable submarine tenders, expeditionary sea bases, and amphibious command ships.

This keeps career progression intact for pilots while freeing up amphibious ship commands for those best trained to run them.

The operational logic makes sense. Driving and fighting a massive flat-deck amphibious carrier packed with Marines, vehicles, aircraft, and weapons isn’t just about tactics—it’s about understanding complex maintenance cycles, propulsion systems, and shipboard logistics.

The Navy says it takes at least two years before an officer develops the “exquisite knowledge” to truly command such a vessel. Surface warfare officers spend their entire careers mastering that trade, whereas aviators typically focus on flight operations rather than ship systems.

The Navy currently maintains 32 amphibious warfare ships, but according to a 2024 Government Accountability Office report, fully half of that fleet is in poor condition.

Deferred maintenance, underfunded shipyards, and leadership gaps have caused cascading readiness shortfalls. Even as the service works to replace aging ship classes and extend the lives of existing hulls, leadership stability remains a critical missing piece.

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith, speaking at the Modern Day Marine Expo in Washington, didn’t mince words. He praised the power and flexibility of today’s amphibious fleet but slammed the readiness failures holding it back.

Smith emphasized that combatant commanders across the world are asking for more amphibious readiness groups, but the Navy has struggled to deliver them because of maintenance backlogs and crew shortfalls.

To his credit, Gen. Smith is not sitting idle. The Marine Corps is working to optimize repair schedules, purchase additional ships, and invest in service-life extension programs.

But even those moves need cooperation from the Navy chain of command, which is now being retooled under this new leadership model.

Some within the fleet see this as a long overdue correction. For years, critics argued that handing amphibious commands to aviators was a relic of bureaucratic horse-trading within the Navy—more about balancing career paths than ensuring operational excellence.

Now, with warfare priorities shifting toward near-peer naval competition, the stakes are too high to maintain outdated traditions.

The move fits neatly into a broader push by the Trump administration and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s team to refocus the military on hard readiness, not woke politics or bureaucratic appeasement.

The days of diversity metrics outranking shipyard output are coming to an end, and results—real results—are finally driving decisions again.

By consolidating command authority under surface warfare officers, the Navy is putting responsibility squarely in the hands of those who know how to sail and fight these ships.

The goal is clear: restore amphibious dominance, improve readiness, and ensure America’s Marines can sail swiftly into harm’s way with ships that actually work.

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