The SSG Elroy F. Wells, the first of the Army’s new Maneuver Support Vessel (Light) class amphibious watercraft, assists in a counter-drone demonstration in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, Sept. 12, 2025. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii — The Army is wrapping up yearlong testing in Hawaii of its next-generation shallow-draft amphibious boat with a series of mock medical evacuations.
The 8th Forward Resuscitative and Surgical Detachment on Tuesday finished testing how the prototype watercraft could quickly move patients in and around an island chain, whether that need arises from combat casualties or injuries from natural disasters.
The detachment had identified a “gap” in its capacity to quickly move patients between islands, particularly in shallow water, detachment commander Lt. Col. Patrick Kadilak said during a pierside interview that day on the joint base.
Soldiers with the 8th Forward Resuscitative and Surgical Detachment, 18th Theater Medical Command, prepare a mock patient in a makeshift operating room aboard the SSG Elroy F. Wells in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, March 24, 2026. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
Docked nearby was the SSG Elroy F. Wells, the first of the Army’s new Maneuver Support Vessel (Light) amphibious watercraft.
The 117-foot-long MSV-L prototype on Tuesday carried the detachment’s autonomous vehicle laden with medical supplies, an Infantry Squad Vehicle and a 20-foot shipping container modified into a surgical operating room.
The container was tailored using existing equipment and could potentially be used on any watercraft, Kadilak said.
Earlier testing was conducted on the beaches of Bellows Air Force Station on the windward side of Oahu, he said.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Davis, vessel master of the SSG Elroy F. Wells, speaks with Lt. Gen. Mary Izaguirre, surgeon general of the U.S. Army, dockside at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, March 24, 2026, before boarding the amphibious boat for a validation test. (Wyatt Olson/Stars and Stripes)
“The concept we’re kind of working with is the MSV-Light has access to the shallower beaches that other vessels do not, the same as a UH-60 Black Hawk medevac helicopter has access to certain landing zones that a Chinook or an airplane may not,” Chief Warrant Officer 2 Matthew Davis, the prototype’s vessel master, said in a dockside interview Tuesday.
“Using the MSV-Light we can access a beach, retrieve casualties, perform a [casualty evacuation] operation in a littoral environment to get them to a higher echelon of care, whether that be another island or another larger vessel with more capability.”
The MSV-L was intended to replace the Vietnam War-era Landing Craft Mechanized-8 watercraft.
The MSV-L can carry up to 82 tons of cargo, including tanks or Strykers, and travel 30 knots when empty, 21 knots when fully loaded.
The Army originally worked with Oregon-based Vigor Works to build 13 of the vessels over 10 years for the Indo-Pacific, but the future of the new amphibious class is uncertain.
Breaking Defense reported in May that the Army was considering canceling or curtailing the run of MSV-Ls to free up funds for other projects.
A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, is delivered to a beach on Bellows Air Force Station, Hawaii, via the SSG Elroy F. Wells, the first of the Army’s new Maneuver Support Vessel (Light) class amphibious watercraft, Feb. 25, 2026. (Devin Davis/U.S. Army)
The prototype has proven agile in delivering the joint force’s most potent weapons systems during validation events in recent months.
In September, the Marine Corps 3rd Marine Littoral Regiment used the Elroy F. Wells to move a Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System, or NMESIS, to a beach on Marine Corps Base Hawaii.
Soldiers with the Hawaii-based 25th Infantry Division in February validated the prototype for use in delivering the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, to the shallow-water beaches off Bellows.
The prototype has won over Davis in the year he has been commanding it.
“This vessel has exceeded every requirement that was written,” he said. “One of the biggest things I think we’ve demonstrated out here is the range far surpasses what that requirement was, and although it does have a limited payload, its speed and access with that shallow draft allow it to get to places that other vessels can’t and increases the capability of the joint force.”
