Posted on 10/14/2006 10:00:11 AM PDT by Jeff Head
WTF?
They need two in NORVA that's for sure around the Naval Bases. 50 plus Knots would cover a good area response wise.
The accent is on the 2nd syllable.
Stock options? Or could you point to source material that explains in detail what doesn't work with the FIELDED ship, and the time machine that shows the NOT FIELDED ship won't have any problems?
I find that systems that aren't fielded yet are ALWAYS 10 times better than the ones that ARE fielded. :-)
Yes indeed.
Thanks for the PING.
The Navy is fast developing their littoral capabilities. I guess if we have to begin patrolling our expanded security perimeter, we're going to need a different kind of vessel to do it.
Or if you're shooting at small craft. The LCS is intended for inshore work, where we wouldn't be willing to risk a billion-dollar-plus Aegis cruiser/destroyer.
Yes we are. My only real concern is that we are being told that 50+ of these vessels will be part of our 313 ship Navy of the future. I believe we need 50+ of these vessels for sure, but I also believe the other number is far too small. I personally think we need a good 450 other major surface combatants and support vessels to maintain our position of dominance on the high seas.
Our Navy is much too small at this time and our Merchant Marine is non-existant. This must change, or Gorbachev will be right. We will be forced to bow down to China and India.
GlobalSecurity.org has an interesting bit about the "StreetFighter" concept for the new Navy:
As of mid-2001 the Office of Naval Research was considering construction of a Littoral Combat Ship with a displacement of 500 to 600 tons. The LCS would have a draft of about three meters, an operational range of 4,000 nautical miles, and a maximum speed of 50-60 knots. The cost per ship might be at least $90 million.They want to make a ship cheap enough, and with few enough sailors manning it, that they can risk sending it to where it might actually be in danger. No admiral in 2006 wants to risk actual danger to a carrierThe Streetfighter would be a smaller, very fast ship (part of the more general Streetfighter concept), that could compete successfully with the enemy for control of coasts and littoral waters. These ships are envisioned as costing less than 10% as much as current Battle Force ships, while comprising more than 25% of the total number of surface combatants [that is at least 25 but no more than 50 units].
The President of the Naval War College, Admiral Art Cebrowski, and others such as Capt. Wayne P. Hughes, have advocated the deployment of larger numbers of smaller ships to operate in harms way in littoral waters. Cebrowski and Hughes talk of tactical instability, where a navy is unwilling to risk its ships because the fleet is constituted principally of small numbers of expensive ships. They propose re-balancing the fleet by supplementing the currently planned large surface combatants with the procurement of smaller ships.
You bet you...this will be a mine hunter extrodinaire...in addition to its many other capabilities. I like the modular mission concept with a one day turnaround to refit for different missions.
Here's a good site regarding it.
In addition, one of the LCS designs is in fact a trimaran...see post 23.
I think it's those performance based specs that we went to. Instead of the Navy telling the contractor what to build, the contractor does what they want and the taxpayers pay. The incremental or spiral builds, while understandable, truly do cause problems, even though you get more as technology improves. (or that's what is supposed to happen, anyway).
Tinhorn dictator looking at the US Navy off his coast: "I didn't think they'd take my threats littorally!"
http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ships/ships-pg.html
Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1940-1945
Patrol Craft
Yes, it's been testing for several years (since the late 80s), but was a limited test and not aa prototype...meaning no follow-on construction. it;s top speed is about 15 knots and it displaces about 600 tons (really small). Crew of ten and unarmed. Pure test bed.
Sort of puts old Shamu, splashing around in his pool, to shame, doesn't it? :)
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