Navy defends littoral ship against watchdog’s criticism

Stars & Stripes ^ | July 25, 2013 | David Lerman

[0.E.O]

I remember thinking that the Des Moines looked like a 7/8th battleship. Still plenty big but able to go where deep draft ships could not.

They were longer than the pre-World War II era battleships were. They displaced a lot less since they didn't have the heavy armor, but overall length was 80 or 90 feet longer than the West Virginia.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

A simple question needs to be asked of the US Navy.

For the price of this high tech ship, how many low tech, expendable ships could be produced?

In World War II, destroyers and smaller ships were classified as expendable.

Personally, I would like to see even a small single ship that could be configured with a bunch of different weapons systems, but just two at a time, such as a single, 8” howitzer, a half dozen short to medium range cheap attack drones, ship-to-ship or ship-to-shore missiles, a dozen M2 .50 cal machine guns, and surface to air missiles.

Several hundred such ships would pack far more punch than a single LCS.

[FreeAtlanta]

Clogged fuel injectors was probably from crappy “green” fuel additives.

[onedoug]

Is this the homosexual Navy’s opinion? Are there any others?

[Oztrich Boy]

For the price of this high tech ship, how many low tech, expendable ships could be produced?

Approximately ~ One.

LCS is the "low tech, expendable ship"

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

$600m for a single ship is a tad pricey. I’m looking for something on the order of Allen M. Sumner-class destroyers, which during WWII cost about $8m each, which with inflation would be around $108m today.

But even those were elaborate and expensive ships. You should be able to get a fairly simple ship for $50m, which would give you a fleet of 12 ships for the price of a LCS.