Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)

Jura said:

dtulsa where are you when I need you LOL! here it comes (I noticed seconds ago):
Guided Missile Frigate (FFG(X)) Conceptual Design

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OK doesn't say much LOL

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Jura said:

Aug 11, 2017

... and the story goes on:

"But looking forward to the Navy’s stated goal of increasing its fleet size to 355 ships, Spencer said part of his planning will include considering recommissioning the seven Perrys (FFG-7)."

SECNAV Spencer: Oliver Hazard Perry Frigates Could be Low-Cost Drug Interdiction Platforms
September 20, 2017

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...

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A move gaining traction in the upper echelons of the Navy to bring back mothballed Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates would cost billions, cut into modernization accounts for other ships and add little to the Navy’s capabilities, according to documents obtained by Defense News.


The Navy estimates that bringing back 10 of the Perry-class frigates would cost in excess of $4.32 billion over 10 years, and take away from money needed to modernize the Navy’s existing cruisers and destroyers. In return, the Navy would get a relatively toothless ship only suitable for very low-end missions such as counter-drug operations.

“With obsolete combat systems and aging hulls, these vessels would require significant upgrades to remain warfighting relevant for another decade,” the document reads. “Any potential return on investment would be offset by high reactivation and life-cycle costs, a small ship inventory, limited service life, and substantial capability gaps.

“Furthermore, absent any external source of funding, these costs would likely come at the expense of other readiness, modernization or shipbuilding programs.”

Both the chief of naval operations and the secretary of the Navy have mentioned they are considering recommissioning the frigates as a way of boosting fleet numbers as they pursue a goal of 355 ships. But some experts have pushed back on the idea, saying that the money is better spent on more capable ships and investing in the future.

A single-page internal memo, which was circulated in the Chief of Naval Operations office in October, estimated the Navy would have to spend at least $432 million per ship over the decade of service, a figure that well exceeds the cost of one brand new littoral combat ship.

A second October memo described to Defense News said that of the 10 frigates left for recommissioning, two are reserved for foreign sales, one isn’t seaworthy, and the remaining seven would still cost more than $3 billion to bring back.

The paper instead recommends putting the money toward destroyer and cruiser modernization, as well as littoral combat ship procurement and development of the next-generation guided-missile frigate now in development.

“Funding for [frigate] reactivation should not come at the expense of Cruiser and Destroyer modernization, Littoral Combat Ship procurement, and FFG(X) procurement,” the memo reads. “If additional funding were made available, recommend funding the service life extension of Cruisers before funding FFG-7 reactivation as Cruisers would not require additional combat systems modernization and would provide much greater warfighting capability.”

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer told reporters in September that he was considering bringing the frigates out of retirement and mentioned using them for counter-drug patrols off of South America.

“One of the things we might look at is bringing the Perry-class to do a limited drug interdiction mode,” Spencer said,

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.

But that idea rubs some observers the wrong way, saying that reactivating the frigates would be throwing good money after bad.

“The idea that we would spend several billion dollars over ten years on bringing corroded ships out of the boneyard to service a tertiary mission in an era of renewed great power competition is nonsense,” said Bryan McGrath, a retired destroyer captain and consultant with The Ferrybridge Group. “How many [Ticonderoga-class] cruiser upgrades or [destroyer] modernizations will be deferred in pursuit of this unwise idea? The president said he wanted a 350 ship Navy; he didn’t say he wanted it tomorrow.”

In October, Defense News reported that the remaining 22 so-called Tico cruisers will start leaving the fleet in 2020 at a rate of two per year. The cruisers, which boast 122 vertical-launch missile cells and two five-inch guns, are the largest surface combatants in the fleet.

In response to the report, Rep. Rob Wittman, chairman of the House Seapower subcommittee, called on the Navy to modernize its oldest cruisers and keep them in the fleet.

“Instead of discussing the decommissioning of cruisers, we need to spend more time discussing the maintenance, modernization and service-life extension of all twenty-two cruisers,” Wittman said.

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Jura said:

I've been following here OHPs coming back or not coming back; the last one was:

Sep 21, 2017

... now Don't reactivate the old frigates, internal US Navy memo recommends

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Jeff Head said:

The fact is that the last of the Perry's did drug interdiction for several years once they were "defanged."

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Jeff Head said:

They need to hurry up and build the new class of Coast Guard cutters in numbers to do this job and let the Navy be the Navy with true FFGs....that's what the Navy needs to do. Get the new FFX design solid and then start building those FFGs so they can do an FFG job with escorting carriers, PhibRons, doing SAGs and show the flag exercises around the world.

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Jura said:

DOES THE USN WANT A FFG(X)?

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Jura said:

I've been following here OHPs coming back or not coming back; the last one was:

Sep 21, 2017

... now Don't reactivate the old frigates, internal US Navy memo recommends

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The Navy has not made a final determination if it will reactivate decommissioned Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates in its push to expand to a 355 ship fleet despite an internal report that said reactivating the ships could cost in the billions.

Earlier this year both Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson and Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer said the service was examining bringing back as many as seven Perry frigates from mothballs to fill in gaps in small surface combatants, particularly in low-intensity theaters like U.S. Southern Command.

“No decisions have been made regarding the Perry-class frigates. The Navy is exploring all options to increase the size of the fleet, but we are still early in that process,” according to a statement provided to USNI News today.
“While it’s worth considering the Perry class as a potential capability match for low-end missions, at present, the Navy is simply exploring the possibility and measuring the costs.”

However, the service found that the cost of bringing back ten ships to a minimum operational standard would cost about $432 million a hull, or about $4.3 billion, according to a one-page early October draft memo prepared for Richardson. USNI News understands the draft has expanded beyond a single page, but the fundamental financials are still the same.

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first reported on the memo on Sunday.

Instead of investing in the Perrys, the draft memo instead recommends putting money into modernizing the service’s Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers and the new guided-missile frigate (FFG(X)) that is set to supersede the Littoral Combat Ship as the service’s next small surface combatant.

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, Naval Sea Systems Command released the final request for proposal for the future frigate design. NAVSEA has revealed few details on the requirement of the new frigate, but in a request for information released earlier this year the service stated it is looking for the future ship to increase its anti-air warfare capability by adding either Evolved SeaSparrow Missiles (ESSM)

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.

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Jura said:

Q: What’s in the near future for LCS? Is that the only deployment scheduled for 2017?

A: That is correct.

Q: You don’t have another LCS deployment scheduled for 2017?

A: No, I don’t think so.

says who?! Vice Admiral Thomas S. Rowden
Commander Naval Surface Force

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in January 8, 2017 Interview: Vice Adm. Tom Rowden, Commander, US Naval Forces

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Jura said:

Yesterday at 8:02 AM

and Navy: ‘No Decisions Have Been Made’ In Reactivating Perry Frigates

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In the

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‘s push to build its fleet to 355 ships as quickly as possible, leaders have publicly discussed the possibility of pulling moldering

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frigates out of mothballs and revamping them for the current mission.

But an internal memo for the chief of naval operations warns such a move could cost upward of $4 billion and still leave the Navy wanting in terms of capability.

According to the Oct. 6 memo, reviewed by

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, restoring the 10 available Perry-class frigates to the fleet would be at best a temporary fix, and could detract from other long-term shipbuilding programs.

Instead, the memo recommended, the Navy should lean into its new frigate acquisition program and continue to modernize the existing fleet. The contents of the memo were first reported by

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.

In all, the Navy built 51 Perry-class frigates in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were decommissioned between 1997 and 2015 as newer, more capable platforms entered service.

Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson first mentioned the

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in June.

In an address to the Naval War College, he said the service was “taking a hard look” at restoring the Perrys. He acknowledged, however, the challenges inherent in restoring what some have called “the ghetto fleet.”

“We’ve got to be thoughtful about this,” he said. ” … Those are some old ships and the technology on those ships is old. And in this exponential type of environment, a lot has changed since we last modernized those. So it will be a cost-benefit analysis in terms of how we do that.”

Since Richardson’s remarks, other proposals regarding the Perry class have surfaced.

Rep. Rob. Wittman, head of the House Seapower and Projection Forces subcommittee, told

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on Oct. 17 that he wants to

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.

While the move would not directly contribute to the Navy’s fleet size, the Virginia Republican said it would expand the service’s network around the world and prove a “helpful force multiplier.”

In a September brief with reporters, Navy Secretary Richard Spencer said the ships might be a good fit for drug interdiction missions in the Caribbean, according to a report by

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.

Few Navy ships tend to operate in that region of the world; drug interdictions there are typically undertaken now by

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vessels.

The October memo acknowledges that reality.

“Adding ships to an unfilled mission offers little operational respite to the fleet,” it states.

According to the single-page memo, bringing 10 frigates back from the ghost fleet would cost more than $423 million per ship. An additional expenditure of nearly $40 million would be required to re-establish training support for the ships, plus a $4 million annual cost for instructors. Other “unknown costs” are likely, the memo found.

“With obsolete combat systems and aging hulls, these vessels would require significant upgrades to remain warfighting relevant for another decade,” the memo states. “Any potential return on investment would be offset by high reactivation and lifecycle costs, a small ship inventory, limited service life, and substantial capability gaps.”

And all this work and expense might be for a relatively short-term gain. The memo calculates an additional 10-year service life for the 10 Perry-class frigates. That means the ships would be back in retirement by 2050, when the Navy hopes to realize its 355-ship vision.

“Prioritizing resources toward acquisition of a multi-mission platform such as [the Navy’s future frigate program, FFG(X)] and enhanced training and maintenance would increase operational flexibility and lethality across all theaters and missions,” the memo’s authors write.

The Navy is soliciting design proposals for its new frigate and is expected to pick a design by 2020.

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