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 ...
Here’s better article showing how the bloated defense procurement process can go awfully wrong
https://www.propublica.org/article/how-navy-spent-billions-littoral-combat-ship
Did someone explain that hydrofoils only work when the engine actually gets the boat up to enough speed to cause “lift”...but in combat, Americans don’t RUN AWAY at top speed!
We maneuver and counter-attack, with precision. This means we never have a need to hydrofoil in a Naval Combat Ship, except to RUSH TOWARDS a combat mission, but then again, by the time you get there, the enemy would already know you were approaching!! And would be ready to attack before we could respond! DUH!
Follow that money and it will lead to major campaign donors.
Only if we are lucky.
When foreign governments confiscate it then it can drain their budget dry.
Not even addressing the posse comitatus aspect of military involved in law enforcement activities.
And BTW, what's with ships being painted battleship gray? That wasted money could have been used to paint the fleet a nice hot pink and lavender.
Why the Army and Marines don’t get A-10’s is beyond me.
How do you build a ship without a mission?
By lining the pockets of a bunch of Admirals, defense contractors and Pentagon bigwigs.
“Who needs the A-10 when the B-1 bomber can handle close-in ground support?”
- USAF morons
Good idea, but the Navy really screwed up the requirements.
Get it?
Hey, get it? Getttt iiittt?
It's also about subsidies to keep the shipbuilding industry from leaving the U.S. completely. If not for continuous shipbuilding contracts, the U.S. would quickly find itself dependent on foreign nations to build warships for us. That's not good for a country that's number 10 in the world for total shipping by tonnage but isn't even among the top 15 countries for ship building.
Percentage of Global Ships Built In 2021
1. People’s Republic of China - 44.2%
2. Republic of Korea - 32.4%
3. Japan - 17.6%
4. Republic of the Philippines - 1.06%
5. Italian Republic - 0.82%
6. Federal Republic of Germany - 0.63%
7. Socialist Republic of Vietnam - 0.61%
8. Republic of Finland - 0.36%
9. Taiwan - 0.30%
10. French Republic - 0.29%
11. Kingdom of Norway - 0.24%
12. Russian Federation - 0.22%
13. Republic of Turkiye - 0.22%
14. Netherlands - 0.19%
15. Republic of India - 0.12%
“I got the **** kicked out of me in Wisconsin once.”
L
while it is true that the littoral ships sucked at being warships, I will bet that they will be awesome party barges.
It seems that only the LCS Ships built by Lockheed are being put out of service.
P.S. -- There are more than 87,000 ocean-going vessels registered in the world today. The Navy has about 500 ships in service and our reserve fleet (combined). Do the math. U.S. Navy contracts represent a tiny fraction of the shipbuilding capacity in the world today.
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