The Navy’s first Littoral Combat Ship (LCS 1) has been quick out of the slips to score some major public relations points by seizing a few tons of cocaine on its first operational deployment in the Caribbean. The new fast, maneuverable LCS will excel at such peacetime operations, often called “Phase O,” writes the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment’s Martin Murphy, in a new white paper (.pdf). Murphy has done some impressive work on the policy challenges of piracy and insurgents operating in littoral waters. In this paper, he turns his analytical focus towards one of the Navy’s highest...