Defense Media Network has a must read on the evolution of amphibious ships from WW2 onward.
Pay close attention to the section on the Newport Class Tank Landing Ship. Consider what it could do today. Instead of buying fleets of MLP's, LCACs, LCUs and JHSVs, we would have maybe a dozen or so doing the job of a whole flotilla of smaller boats almost as fast but with a battalion of men and equipment from the MPS ships hovering offshore.
