[Freeport]

We've been talking this over this morning in the office. Our consensus is: What? Wait... I had a ship, called a Frigate, that did anti-air, anti-surface and anti-subsurface, now I need three ships that are understaffed to do the same job? That's progress how?

[sphinx]

Frigates have become good examples of mission creep. They were originally supposed to be fast, light, cheap, and expendable. They have been steadily evolving towards bigger, multi-purpose platforms, and getting much more expensive in the process. The LCS as originally conceived was essentially backfilling that mission. But in the case of the LCS, the Navy started growing the mission even before the first one was launched. A little procurement discipline is badly needed.