The Navy and Marine Corps are on drugs and their heads are still stuck in WWII. 
The EABO concept was developed with an eye toward potential conflict scenarios with China in the Western Pacific.
Under the concept, the Marine Corps envisions, among other things, having reinforced-platoon-sized Marine Corps units
maneuver around the theater, moving from island to island, to fire anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs) and perform other
missions so as to contribute, alongside Navy and other U.S. military forces, to U.S operations to counter and deny sea
control to Chinese forces. The LAW ships would be instrumental to these operations, with LAWs embarking, transporting,
landing, and subsequently reembarking these small Marine Corps units.
What a collection of morons. 
Yep, load a bunch on Marines on board a ship that can't defend its self, that has been bought instead of ships that can defend themselves, therefore aren't available to escort and defend it, with the object of landing said marines on an island somewhere so they can fire anti ship missiles and anti aircraft missiles at the ships and aircraft that likely would have sunk the ship transporting them before they got to where they were going to set up their missiles to defend themselves.
Is it just me but wouldn't it make more sense to buy ships that can project power and survive doing so, rather than buy glorified ferries that will not survive?
When it comes down to it, wouldn't a large amphib that can lash marine vehicles to their deck, permitting the marines to use their vehicle based weapons while at sea in transit, as they currently do, make more sense? The whole idea seem to be to divide the force into expendable, offensive, networked penny packets and hope enough of them survive to make an impact.
