The conversions were unusually valuable because they performed a repeatable institutional function instead of a spectacular combat role. Amphibious formations could be planned around the known troop and landing-craft capacity of these ships. Their usefulness came from making many different landings possible, not from one famous engagement. A modern cruise liner could carry more people at higher speed and might seem to offer the same conversion opportunity. Missiles and nuclear submarines, however, weaken the historical protection that speed offered against conventional submarines, so the wartime solution cannot be copied without reconsidering modern threats.
Chapter · 39:53-42:28
The unglamorous ships that amphibious plans were built around
The Glen class supplied a core capability around which amphibious formations could be organized, but modern equivalents would face a different threat environment.