Ping.
Well, they are finally having to come to grips with these vessels.
The vessels themselves, particularly with the upgrades and uparmaments now recommended, can be turned into decent frigates.
Now they have to work out the logistics See this article:
http://navaltoday.com/2016/09/09/us-navy-announces-new-changes-for-lcs-crews/
This is a little more detailed and objective view of what has been announced.
They are still going to build 28 of the up armed LCS, and then 24 of the new Fast Frigate designs that have even better armor and layout. 52 vessels altogether.
They just have to learn now how to practically use them...something old Navy slats have been hollering about since the onset.
Finally someone is listening.
For the first 28 vessels (of a planned 52) they will create six, four ship flotillas of vessels. Each flotilla will have four of the same type/class LCS. Freedom class on the East coast, Independence class on the West Coast.
This makes up 24 of the 28 vessels. They will then take the first four LCS (LCS-1 through LCS-4), two from each type, and form a testing flotilla that can be available at anytime for exercises or combat, but who will be focused on long term integration, policy, procedure, etc. as they continue to build out these vessels.
Going to a Gold Blue crewing configuration makes a lot more sense to me.
Also, dedicating each flotilla to either ASW, ASuW, or MCM as their primary mission will also make a lot of sense, even though the crews will be trained to be able to operate in other areas if needed.
All of this final starts to make sense of how they will man, train, operate, and deploy these ships.
It has just been a tortured and laborious path getting here.