Littoral Combat Ships for the 21st Century
Posted on 03/23/2010 8:45:14 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
month into a maiden voyage that has seen a trio of drug-smuggling attempts thwarted, the commander aboard the Navy’s first littoral combat ship today described the vessel’s performance to date as “exceptional.”
Now floating off the coast of Colombia, the USS Freedom received high marks from Navy Cmdr. Randy Gardner, who delivered an assessment to reporters today from aboard the ship via telephone.
“The performance of the ship so far has been exceptional,” he said of the Freedom, which set sail Feb. 16 from Mayport, Fla. “We are learning a lot about what Freedom can do well.”
Freedom and its crew grabbed headlines in recent weeks after interdicting three vessels transporting illicit drugs through the western Caribbean. Military officials say the ship’s speed, which at roughly 46 miles per hour is significantly faster than U.S. frigates that max out just below 30 miles per hour, is responsible for much of its counternarcotics success.
In its most recent interdiction, the Freedom disrupted a high-speed ship known as a “go-fast” vessel and recovered more than 2 tons of cocaine that officials said was bound for the United States.
After detecting the suspected drug vessel March 11, the Freedom launched a high-speed pursuit and deployed a separate team of sailors and Coast Guardsmen aboard rigid inflatable boats to intercept it. Smugglers aboard the fleeing vessel began dumping its cargo into the southern Caribbean Sea.
The Navy-Coast Guard response team recovered 72 bales of cocaine weighing a total of 4,680 pounds from the water after being jettisoned from the vessel that was on a “stereotypical route” pursued by drug traffickers with U.S.-bound narcotics, Gardner said.
(Excerpt) Read more at defense.gov ...
Don’t tell Obama we got any of those things
Heavens to Murgatroyd. Is that some kind of record?
That its enough for it to snow over Los Angeles
That is a LOT of cocaine. Think about how much space 4K 1lb bags of flour would take up. That's a lot of bags.
I have no idea what an ounce of cocaine goes for. But, my math is good enough to know that 4K lbs is 64,000 ounces.
No. This is a record:
“Coast Guard Makes Record Maritime Cocaine Seizure
Release Date: March 21, 2007
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: (202) 282-8010
Washington — The U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration announced today the record maritime seizure of approximately 42,845 pounds of cocaine aboard the Panamanian flagged motor vessel Gatun on Sunday off the coast of Panama by the San Diego-based Coast Guard cutter Hamilton and the Alameda, Calif.-based Coast Guard cutter Sherman.”
That’s nothin’ to snort at!
42,845 lbs? Unbelievable. That must have started as a small forest of cocoa plants. I'm not positive what the gross-tonnage is on the average cement mixer, but I'd wager it's less than 42K lbs.
a littoral boat,
Well, that’s good because when Obama cuts the navy’s budget to pay for ObamaCare, the “blue water” fleets will have to mothballand the only “projection of US power” will be limited to within US territorial waters(Another canada)
According to the DEA, in 20001 111 tons of cocaine were seized along with 2-3 tons of heroine.
How much was not seized? Another 50%? 75%? 100%?
What is the armament aside from that forward gun?
Check out the LCS SITE
Armament:
- 1 x RAM launcher, 21 missiles (Freedom)
- 1 x SEARAM launcher, 11 missiles (Independence)
- 4 x Netfire PAM, 60 missiles (Anti-surface Warfare Package)
- 1 × Mk 110 57 mm gun (Both)
- 2 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns (Both)
Okay. I looked em up. The first two are defensive.
Seems lightly armed offensively.
Heavens to Murgatroyd. Is that some kind of record?
If you snort it all in one day, yes.
My understanding is that the basic components of the three major packges (Mine interdiction, Anti-sub, and anti-surface) consist of the following:
- The MIW module includes: the AN/WLD-1 remote minehunting system, AN/AQS-20A sonar mine detecting set, organic airborne surface influence sweep, airborne laser mine detection system and airborne mine neutralisation system.
- The ASW module includes the Sea TALON (tactical littoral ocean network) undersea surveillance system, being developed by Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors, which integrates a range of acoustic sensors with semi-submersible vehicles and network-centric communications.
Passive sensors include the advanced deployable system (ADS), a rapidly deployable bottom array acoustic surveillance system. The semi-submersible, the AN/WLD-1 with an ASW mission system, tows a remote towed active source (RTAS), a multiband transducer with a remote towed array multi-function sonar.
The ASW module also includes systems to be deployed from the MH-60R helicopter (mk54 torpedoes, sonobuoys, Raytheon AN/AQS-22 airborne low-frequency sonar) and unmanned surface vehicles, USVs (dipping sonar, multi-static active sonar and ULITE ultra-lightweight towed array).
General Dynamics Robotics was awarded a contract for four USVs for the ASW module in October 2006.
The 11m Fleet Class USV weighs about 7.7t, has a payload of about 2,270kg, speed of 35kt and is capable of operating continuously for over 24h.
- The SUW module includes a General Dynamics mk46 30mm cannon (also used in the rapid airborne mine clearance system and the US Marine Corps expeditionary fighting vehicle), which fires at up to 200 rounds a minute, and a version of the US Army's non-line of sight - precision attack munition missile system. The NLOS launch system and precision attack missile are being jointly developed by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. The direct attack missile has a dual-mode uncooled infrared and semi-active laser seeker, multimode warhead and range up to 40km. The embarked MH-60R is armed with guns and Hellfire missiles.
14,528,000 grams. I wonder how many hits of crack that converts to?
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