Posted on 01/15/2015 3:36:40 PM PST by artichokegrower
U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus on Thursday said the Navy would rename the modified Littoral Combat Ships it plans to build in coming years as “frigates,” given their enhanced capabilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...
We’ll live to see the day when aircraft carriers, just like battleships before them, will be obsolete.
Oh,frigates. I though it said “forgets”,
Who the hell ever came up with that name in the first place? Some bureaucrat?
“We’ll live to see the day when aircraft carriers, just like battleships before them, will be obsolete.”
I believe we’re entering an era where any high value manned vehicle will be rendered obsolete by small and relatively intelligent, super fast unmanned vehicles. I suspect the next middle east war will be largely fought with drones, many of which will be semi autonomous. Incidentally, Israel has the most advanced and most prodigiously produced drones in the world right now.
My first ship in the Navy was USS Harry E. Yarnell DLG-17. My mother absolutely hated that term. She was upset that she had to tell people that I was on a guided missile frigate. She would have been quite pleased when they redesignated them guided missile cruisers and changed the hull number to CG-17.
Will having air superiority of large swaths of the ocean ever be obsolete?
Littoral = brown water Navy
I would hope our government has already developed
underwater drones/autonomous mine/torpedos which
can be spread and left for months before actively
seeking out enemy vessels.
Seanet.
Littoral... doesn’t that basically mean they stay close to the coast??
How does a frigate become a cruiser? Did it grow up? :)
I always thought these were based on size as much as function, I always thought cruisers were big since some countries put flat tops on them to carry aircraft.
There will be friggin’ in the riggin’ on the figates.
not navy PC to call offensive weapons systems (a.k.a. war ships) anything more threatening than “destroyers” or “guided missile frigates”
He was a product of the public school system. He couldn’t spell Literal.
No. But unmanned fighters might be able to gain the real edge sooner or later.
Frigates must be capable of independent action, able to hold their own against some unexpected foe, and able to complete their assigned mission. They must also be capable of operating as a part of the fleet and performing some critical task in the midst of a fleet action.
This definition is from the age of sail, but holds true today. the LCS should not be rated a frigate, for it is not and cannot be. In the Royal Navy of the 18th and 19th Century, it would be unrated: a ship sloop or a brig. Capable of performing critical tasks, including inshore tasks or cutting out actions, and capable of enforcing the command of seas against merchant vessels, pirates, and vessels of equal or lesser force. But, these most valuable ships are not frigates, for they cannot stand with the fleet and must avoid decisive engagement with superior ships.
The LCS is a ship sloop, but she costs a fortune which obviates all the advantages of an unrated vessel.
Only if empire becomes obsolete.
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