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U.S. Navy’s LCS Struggles to Fend Off Swarm Attacks, Tests Show
gcaptain.com ^ | 01/29/16 | Tony Capaccio

Posted on 01/30/2016 1:55:08 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER

The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship struggled in drills at sea to fend off a swarm of small attacking vessels like the Iranian boats it could encounter in the Persian Gulf, according to the Pentagon's chief weapons tester.


(Excerpt) Read more at gcaptain.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: defect; lcs; navy
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To: Little Ray
Thanks for your post.

Agree, we should repudiate the Geneva Convention, IMO specific to dealing with terrorists who (obviously) don't adhere to any rules of war.

The rest of my post, expressed in some frustration, obviously has no military background to it as I was not able to serve (vision issues.) When I see threads like this one I read them with a sense of fascination at the knowledge on them, and wish I had a clue as to what all the different terms mean. Some I can figure out if I read long enough, others I can't. Clearly many on this thread (and others I read ...) have a ton of military service, experience and common sense, just wish our "leadership" had same.

Thank you for your service!

21 posted on 01/30/2016 6:52:29 AM PST by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

This doesn’t seem to be too huge a problem, for which there could be a simple or complex solution.

The complex solution is the development of a new cluster munition like the CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon, which dropped 10 munitions, each of which had their own parachute and guidance system, looking for the tops of tanks on the battlefield and steering to it. It then used a shaped charge to blow a hole through the lid on the turret.

Its munitions were far larger and armor piercing, than what you would need to blow a hole a few feet across through the hull of a small boat. So you could put a lot more such munitions in a single cluster bomb.

A much easier technique is to use an airburst propane bomb.

At altitude over the target, it spins and sprays a big cloud of propane, then ignites it. This causes an implosion that changes the air pressure in about a half square mile area from 1 atmosphere, to near vacuum, to a dozen atmospheres in a second or two. This is harmful to people, and would likely knock out every boat in that half square mile area all at once.


22 posted on 01/30/2016 7:16:11 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Seeing dozens of those things being fired from then detonating 2000 yards away from a ship would be impressive.


23 posted on 01/30/2016 7:32:49 AM PST by Rebelbase (A new batch of harpies has hatched in time for the 2016 election.)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

shouldn’t this information be classified ..??
amazing how information of troop/ship/carrier movements and intentions grets publicized....
loose lips sink ships.....


24 posted on 01/30/2016 8:22:31 AM PST by zzwhale (acts of treason)
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To: Little Ray; r_barton

I honestly hate the Geneva Convention. War should not be made “civilized”. With the exception of handling war prisoners, the combat weapons should be as horrible as possible so that nobody wants to go to war.

Lasers would be a good solution for the little Iranian idiot boats.


25 posted on 01/30/2016 9:08:34 AM PST by FreeAtlanta (Restore Liberty!)
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To: Rebelbase

There are some neat distance videos of cluster bombs detonating on ground targets, but I’ve never seen any over water, likely being much less effective because most are unguided. So using the parachute and guidance system would make them much more efficient.

A propane bomb over water would be staggering. The blast effects might even bounce off the surface of the water, multiplying them. They definitely need to do some experiments with that to discover its dynamics.


26 posted on 01/31/2016 5:21:20 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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To: zzwhale
shouldn’t this information be classified ..??

That an undergunned, undermanned ship is vulnerable to being swarmed is not a great military secret

27 posted on 01/31/2016 5:47:43 PM PST by Oztrich Boy ('Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel' - Horace Walpole)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER

You mean the under-armed Little Crappy Ships can’t fight back?


28 posted on 02/16/2016 4:40:06 PM PST by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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To: rmlew
Worse, they might break before getting to the fight.

Follow the money trail!

29 posted on 02/16/2016 5:04:50 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, a Matter of Fact, Not A Matter of Opinion)
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