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U.S. Navy Christens USNS Lansing Spearhead-Class Fast Transport Ship for Expeditionary Operations.
On 10 January 2026, the U.S. Navy christened the future USNS Lansing (EPF 16) at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, completing the Spearhead-class line. The milestone underscores continued investment in rapid sealift, intra-theater lift, and afloat medical support as logistics face pressure in the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
On 10 January 2026, the U.S. Navy christened the future USNS Lansing (EPF 16), a Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport, during a ceremony at Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama. The event, highlighted by Military Sealift Command on X and by Austal USA on LinkedIn, marks the ship’s transition from construction to trials. In a context of growing maritime competition and strain on naval logistics in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, the christening of Lansing, the sixteenth and final ship of its class, underlines Washington’s intention to maintain fast, agile sealift and afloat medical support in contested theaters. For partners and competitors alike, the ceremony signals that the United States continues to invest not only in combatants but also in the enabling platforms that make large-scale naval operations feasible.
The expeditionary fast transport is a high-speed, shallow-draft U.S. Navy vessel designed to move troops, equipment, and medical support rapidly within contested maritime theaters (Picture Source: U.S. Government)
USNS Lansing is the sixteenth Spearhead-class expeditionary fast transport and the third built in the enhanced Flight II configuration, which combines high-speed intra-theater lift with dedicated medical facilities. Built by Austal USA on an aluminum catamaran hull, the ship is approximately 103 meters long with a beam of about 28.5 meters and a shallow draft close to 3.8 meters, allowing access to ports and littoral areas closed to larger combatants. Propulsion is provided by four MTU 20V8000 diesel engines driving waterjets, enabling speeds above 35 knots and, in favorable conditions, approaching 40 knots. The ship’s core feature is its reconfigurable mission bay of roughly 20,000 square feet, designed to carry vehicles, containers and palletized cargo, complemented by a flight deck that can operate large helicopters and, in the Flight II variant, is structurally adapted to support tiltrotor aircraft such as the MV-22 or CMV-22. This combination gives Lansing a rare mix of speed, volume and aviation flexibility for an auxiliary platform.
Compared to the earlier Flight I EPFs, which were optimized almost exclusively for fast sealift, the Flight II design, beginning with EPF 14 Cody, accepts a reduced cargo capacity in exchange for enhanced medical and aviation capabilities. Cargo payload is lowered from around 600 short tons to about 330 short tons to make room for strengthened structures, additional berthing, expanded power and utilities, and Role 2 Enhanced medical spaces including treatment areas and an elevator linking the mission deck and medical facilities. Lansing, as the final Flight II hull, completes this evolution. The ship is designed to sail with a core crew of civilian mariners under Military Sealift Command while embarking mission-tailored detachments of up to around 155 personnel, including full expeditionary medical teams. This gives commanders a flexible option that can act as a high-speed connector, a forward medical node or a mobile casualty evacuation platform without requiring a dedicated hospital ship, especially in areas where access to fixed medical infrastructure is limited.
The programmatic path leading to this christening illustrates both a mature industrial line and a deliberate naming policy. Austal USA received the contract for EPF 16 in 2022, extending a class whose first units entered service in the early 2010s and that has become a regular presence in multiple theaters. Lansing’s keel was laid in September 2024 in Mobile, in parallel with the completion of EPF 15 Point Loma. The ship is named after Lansing, the capital of Michigan, following an announcement by Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro in July 2024. The choice emphasizes the city’s long history as a manufacturing hub that supported U.S. war production from the Civil War through the conversion of automotive plants in the Second World War. At the christening ceremony, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Congresswoman Lisa McClain, the ship’s sponsors, carried out the traditional bottle-breaking over the bow, symbolically linking Midwestern industrial heritage, a Gulf Coast shipyard and a global naval mission. MSC Commander Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson delivered remarks underscoring the role of Military Sealift Command and the civilian mariners who will operate the ship in support of fleet operations worldwide.
USNS Lansing joins a class with a well-established operational record. Fifteen Spearhead-class EPFs already serve under Military Sealift Command, supporting missions that range from crisis response to theater security cooperation and humanitarian assistance. Ships such as USNS Millinocket have deployed to the Indo-Pacific as platforms for Pacific Partnership, delivering medical assistance, engineering support and civil-military engagement across countries including Kiribati, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and Vietnam. Other ships in the class, like USNS Brunswick, have embarked systems such as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) during exercises, demonstrating how EPFs can move long-range fires and other critical capabilities quickly between austere ports. The class has also supported activities in the Baltic, Mediterranean and Atlantic, where the combination of speed, shallow draft and modular payloads has proven useful for connecting U.S., NATO and partner forces. Lansing, with its Flight II enhancements, brings additional medical depth and aviation flexibility to a concept already validated in operations and exercises.
From a capability standpoint, Lansing’s main advantage lies in the combination of speed, access and modularity at lower operating cost than major combatants or amphibious assault ships. The EPF design is intended to bridge the gap between low-speed sealift and high-cost airlift, providing a mid-range option that can move meaningful payloads quickly without relying on fully intact deep-water port infrastructure. The shallow draft and stern ramp enable loading and unloading of vehicles and equipment at small, degraded or improvised facilities, exactly the type of ports likely to be targeted or disrupted early in a high-intensity conflict. The mission bay can be configured for containers, light armored vehicles, trucks or engineering equipment, while seating and berthing arrangements support transportation of company-sized formations or tailored joint task forces. In the Flight II configuration, this transport function is complemented by Role 2 Enhanced medical capability, easing pressure on scarce rotary-wing and fixed-wing evacuation assets by stabilizing casualties closer to the frontline and acting as an intermediate medical node during sustained operations.
These characteristics are directly relevant to the current geostrategic environment. In the Indo-Pacific, U.S. concepts such as Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations and distributed maritime operations rely on the ability to sustain small, widely dispersed units across island chains under the threat of Chinese anti-ship missiles, submarines and a dense reconnaissance-strike network. A fast, shallow-draft transport capable of shuttling troops, sensors, munitions and medical teams between small ports, beaches or temporary facilities supports that concept and complicates adversary targeting by multiplying lines of communication. In Europe, the same ship type offers a way to move equipment and forward-deployed units between North Sea, Baltic and Mediterranean ports, providing alternatives if major facilities suffer sabotage, cyber-disruption or long-range strikes. EPFs are equally relevant for crisis response and gray-zone scenarios, from the evacuation of civilians to rapid humanitarian assistance after natural disasters, missions already demonstrated by ships of the class during Pacific Partnership and other deployments that combine soft-power signaling with practical support.
Strategically, the christening of USNS Lansing signals both continuity and transition in U.S. naval logistics and support policy. It confirms that high-speed auxiliary platforms are regarded as critical enablers of sea control and power projection rather than peripheral assets, and it underlines the central role of Military Sealift Command and civilian mariners in daily fleet operations. At the same time, EPF 16 closes the Spearhead production line, opening questions about the next generation of connectors and support ships, whether more heavily protected, more autonomous or more specialized for medical, command or unmanned operations. In the meantime, Lansing and her Flight II sisters Cody and Point Loma provide an immediately available platform for experimentation with new concepts of employment while meeting the concrete demands of Indo-Pacific and European theaters and reinforcing U.S. ability to operate in contested littorals.
Beyond its technical and programmatic aspects, USNS Lansing carries a strong political and symbolic message. Naming the ship after Lansing and selecting the state’s governor and a local member of Congress as sponsors links the vessel to a broader U.S. industrial and civic base that extends well inland. For domestic audiences, this emphasizes that maritime power rests on a nationwide network of workers, factories and communities; for international observers, it illustrates how American naval presence at sea is sustained by a deep industrial and human foundation. For Military Sealift Command, the addition of a sixteenth expeditionary fast transport increases flexibility in global tasking and offers some relief to a class that has been heavily engaged in recent years. When Lansing enters service, she will not only complete the Spearhead-class EPF program but also extend U.S. sealift and humanitarian reach into littoral areas where future security challenges are likely to concentrate, making the ship an important enabler of both deterrence and crisis response.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.