Posted on 09/13/2023 10:22:23 AM PDT by FarCenter
How do you build a ship without a mission? The littoral combat ship (LCS) is how.
It could not carry out its original mission because the ship is not survivable in combat. The billions wasted on the US Navy’s so-called “urban street fighter” ship could have been used to build additional missile defense AEGIS destroyers or give the Navy more firepower or finance a new generation of robotic surface and subsurface vessels.
Instead, the Navy chose to build ships it did not need and could not use. Even when they were deployed, they often broke down, deeply embarrassing the Navy and harming US prestige. Worse yet, the Navy worked hard to salvage the ships – to no avail – by improving their firepower without making them more reliable.
Neither version of the littoral combat ship (one of them is a steel-hulled ship with an aluminum superstructure; the other is an all-aluminum trimaran design) can perform the original mission, which was “envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals.”
...
On September 8, the US Navy decommissioned the USS Milwaukee, LCS-5. The Milwaukee entered service in 2015 meaning that it was in use for only eight years. It was used primarily for intercepting drug traffickers.
The 2023 fiscal year budget calls for decommissioning nine Freedom-class LCS ships. Fourteen of the 16 completed Independence-class ships, along with the remaining Freedom class, remain in service. For how long is anyone’s guess.
Why the Navy keeps pouring money and manpower into these ships remains an open question.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
At least they found out.
Thank you Obama
I have a mental vision of haze gray and underway up a Detroit boulevard here. Could be a little tough to maneuver but the liberty would be awesome.
I served a bit on the USS Coral Sea (CV-43) and had a chance while teaching up at one of the shipyards to tour one of these littoral ships in Wisconsin. I recall the multi-feet thick doors in rudder area on the Coral Sea versus the paper thin construction of the littoral ship. Just not comparable. These littoral ships were not built to even withstand a 50 caliber bullet.
Too often, political concerns override physics and the state of the art.
Most likely, some well-connected shlubs made big money on a ship the Navy never wanted or needed. Zumwalt, in the 70’s was big on the “high/low mix” and look where it left us.
Maybe the people making stupid Navy decisions got their jobs based on sexual kink, color, or ‘daddy’ pull... rather than on being capable. Like most of DC...
Zumwalt Destroyers — swell idea but cost too much, could not perform it’s primary mission, was a failed program.
LCS— not needed, hard to maintain, pointless ship, failed program.
Meanwhile, over on the Air Force side, the USAF would dearly love to cancel the A-10 because it is a proven workhorse, marvelous in its critical role, and loved by the Army. The air force hasn’t managed to kill it yet but they sure want to.
We think we are militarily strong, but I have my doubts.
Some rich cats are going to picking these ships up for song and make them into Yachts.
In the Foreword to a 65-page 2014 report, "The Littoral Combat Ship: How Got Here, and Why" by Robert O. Work, Robert C. (Barney) Rubel (Dean, Center for Naval Warfare Studies) stated: "[E]very Chief of Naval Operations since Admiral Vern Clark has supported the program."
.......went on the Coral Sea many times in Sasebo delivering registered mail.
That ship was awesome. On the go constantly.
All of the LCS’s should have a new class designation.
The OBAMA/BIDEN class. They were responsible, they own this disaster, and the mention of every one of these ships should bring up the Administration and decisions that made them.
“It’s like going into Wisconsin.”
Why the Navy keeps pouring money and manpower into these ships remains an open question.
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To buoy the ship count, else Congress would have a fit.
I think we waste 51% of our national defense budget and use 45% productively and 4% is stolen.
Why couldn't they give it to the Coast Guard and use it for the same purpose?
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