Posted on 08/16/2023 6:22:39 AM PDT by artichokegrower
The U.S. Navy decommissioned the littoral combat ship (LCS) USS Sioux City (LCS 11) on Monday after less than five years in service.
The Freedom-variant LCS was built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette, Wisconsin, and commissioned November 17, 2018, at the Naval Academy in Annapolis.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
These Ships should have never left the drawing board, but politicians were convinced to fund these little crappy ships and then ordered the NAVY to find a mission for them! They are completely useless in a Carrier Strike Group, they are very limited range and payload and can’t operate independently for more than 2 weeks.
The NAVY convinced itself these little crappy ships could replace the Perrys, even rushed their decommissioning after they lost their single-arm missile launcher to give additional funds to this failure.
I say “Strip them of all useful components and sink them all as targets or reefs.”
Not everything needs to be in a carrier group.
What the USN needs now (in part) is a lot of new upgraded Perry class ships - a not too fast, fairly long ranged, fairly well armed patrol and escort vessel with excellent communications and sensors. The old Perry’s wont do as they are too old by now.
The Perry’s were quite popular abroad.
You wrote:
The story is that US Navy is cutting its losses on this class of vessels. They were poorly designed, and they performed poorly
Not only that, the maintenance costs were huge on it.
I think they’re doing the right thing. This is a classic case of when you were in a hole, stop digging
They are undoubtedly catching heat for doing so, and they are deserving of that, but it is a lemon that cannot be squeezed.
___________________________
And they are being replaced with Constellation Class frigates. Which is a much better design.
Some decades ago, when I worked for a state university, I was ordered to re-do a budget I had prepared in order to spend more money, quite a bit more, actually. We needed to spend as much as the previous fiscal.
It didn't matter what I bought, it just needed to cost a lot and then of course a fictional justification.
Must have needed to upgrade Windoze.
"According to a Defense Department fact sheet, Constellation-class frigates are intended to conduct anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine, electromagnetic warfare and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations."
Bkmk
Retrofitting ships is another matter. The costs may not be worth it.
I don’t know why they didn’t think of this before.
Just imagine the money that could be saved if the Navy got rid of all of their ships.
Brilliant!
last i read, the engine transmissions for these boats were faulty AND unfixable ...
I read they suck so it may be better to send to Ukraine to let Russian navy decommission it for us.
“I can only guess that it’s a test ship to see how it performs. They are finished testing it, so they are now decommissioning it. They should give it to the Coast Guard, so it is designed for to patrol the US coast.”
your guess is wrong ... if you had read the article you’d know they’re decommissioning nine of them ... furthermore, this whole class has been a boondoogle and disaster from day one ... the two-engine transmissions are faulty and apparently unfixable ... these boats basically don’t work, and the cost to TRY to operate them is astronomical, which is why the navy is dumping them and also why no other service is ever going to want to try to operate them ...
The town of Sioux City didn’t need Navy protection anymore so the ship is gone.
The waters of the Missouri are safe now.
The Little Crappy Ships were a bad idea from the start. They’re too small to be effective.
Be that as it may be, the LIttoral ships are rusting piles of crap. They aren’t worth the cost and upkeep.
This sounds like a win for everybody. Admiral level kind of thinking.
I have been following it...it seems like a good design.
Literally, and littorally.
There done. Total waste if the anti sub intent is abandoned.
“but you’ve got to get it home that day”
Just go to the local pub and offer a 1/64th share of the booty to any able-bodied seaman who will join your piratical endeavors. That works in the movies.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.