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Forget a “Patrol Frigate” based on the NSC. The Navy is wedded to the LCS: 10 of the LSC-1 build and 10 of the LCS-2 build. The LCS is a “swoose” — part swan and part goose without the ability to do either job moderately well. Meanwhile, the long-serving FFG-7 class frigates are rapidly going away and there is NO replacement for them.

The LCS (at least in LCS-1 class) is overweight and all classes are UNDERARMED. This is not peculiar to USN ships because the majority are underarmed. Part of the reason comes from the Blue Water mindset of the SWO community. The SWO community has been spoiled for years operating under the layered defense umbrella of the carrier or amphibious strike group. However, the closer you get to the shore: (1) the less standoff distance you have and (2) your reaction time decreases exponentially. {Don't believe it? Consider the USS VINCENNES (CG-49) shoot down, by accident, of the Iranian Airbus airliner during the Persian Gulf War. This is what happens when distances and reaction times are compressed.]

Quite bluntly, the SWO community hasn't figured out that Green Water (and Brown Water) operations are magnitudes more dangerous places than their experiences have taught them. If the USN gets into a shooting war in Green waters, we are going to get a lot of expensive gray ships sunk or badly damaged and take a lot of killed and wounded. I have debated this with many correspondents, both in the Navy and DoD, and we share this bleak assessment. However, at the highest levels of the Navy and DoD there is LOTS of denial.