The Navy’s been carrying on about “littoral combat ships” for at least thirty years.
What have we got to show for it?
In Elmo’s SyFy Navy. I remember Elmo’s Navy in the early 70s. Bell bottoms, long hair and sideburns all at a time when soldiers used Dippity Doo to keep their long hair slicked back to conform. Elmo’s sailors didn’t have to worry about all that.
From what the media says....the ships are undermanned and would only work in wartime if everyone onboard pulled a twenty-four shift....for weeks at a time. They’d all be zombies after five days.
Mabus. A name found prominently in Nostradamus...
Obama: Ships for the navy are not as important as obama phones for the Amish...
I don’t think radar is the big concern for the Navy. This is nothing but lining the pockets of big campaign contributors in Congress.
Many countries have space-based ship tracking capabilities that do not rely on radar, so stealth ships are a waste of taxpayer monies.
The first DDG-1000 is 90% complete, and should join the fleet on schedule; units two and three are still building at Bath. The capabilities of these vessels are tremendous, but they’re just too darned expensive. Meanwhile, we had existing DDG and cruiser designs that could be updated—and remain mission ready—for years to come.
LCS was a good idea, but poorly executed. Biggest weakness, as I understand it, is a weak anti-air capability. So, if you have an adversary with even a rudimentary anti-ship/cruise missile capability, you’ll still need a cruiser or destroyer to protect the LCS. The idea of building 50 was preposterous, and you can make the case we don’t need the 30 or so that are planned. Meanwhile, we’re going to lay-up almost two dozen cruisers and destroyers so we can can maintain our carrier force (a good idea) while funding the DDG-1000 science project and trying to get something out of the LCS project.
Not built? The Zumwalt was launched last October.
You realize these ships are not the ONLY ones the Navy will have in the pacific... right?
And the LCS may have some flaws, even big ones, but that is not the same as “doesn’t work”. Do the engines run? Can it float? Do the weapons function? Then it ‘works’. How effective it is remains to be seen but you can’t argue that it “doesn’t work”