Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)

Jura said:

only now I noticed (the article's dated June 25)
U.S. Navy Littoral Ship Found Vulnerable to Attack

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Jeff Head said:

This article may just be realizing this...but this is a story that has been discussed for years, and recently (in the last few months) been all over the news to the point that the Navy is doing something about it.

That's the whole reason for the Small Surface combatant (DSSC) program and associated upgrades the LCS will also receive many of the new capabilities that will be built into the new SSC vessels.

This article is just catching up with things that are already known and the Navy is re-verifying.

The LCS did not receive the armament to contest a high threat environment form other well armed adversaries.

Many of us dried and raise cane about this for years. Now it is being once again pointed out...but this time after some efforts are being made to address it.

I for one believe they need to do a little more.

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when a medium-range surface-to-surface missile was added to the LCS, “the results were notable” in terms of both commanders’ behavior, he said Thursday at an event cohosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the U.S. Naval Institute.

“The friendly commander immediately began to employ the LCS differently in the scenarios, moving from a niche presence role to an offensive warfighting role,” he said. This change “added stress and complexity to the red force commander, who had to spend precious ISR resources trying to find these upgunned ships, ships that now represented a far more serious threat to his own fleet.”

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Jura said:

Navy Studying Implications of Distributed Lethality in Wargames Series

"...when a medium-range surface-to-surface missile was added to the LCS, “the results were notable” in terms of both commanders’ .

“The friendly commander immediately began to employ the LCS differently in the scenarios, moving from a niche presence role to an offensive warfighting role,” he said. This change “added stress and complexity to the red force commander, who had to spend precious ISR resources trying to find these upgunned ships, ships that now represented a far more serious threat to his own fleet.”

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Jeff Head said:

Exactly. As a number of us have been emphasizing for several years.

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Pacific Sentinel said:

SOUTH CHINA SEA - The littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) partnered with the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) to complete their first combined South China Sea presence operations July 9.

"Our presence operations with USS Lassen demonstrates the U.S Navy's commitment to the Indo-Asia-Pacific region and emphasizes our ability to conduct maritime operations freely on the high seas," said Cmdr. Rich Jarrett, commanding officer of Fort Worth. "The 16-month deployment rotation for littoral combat ships like USS Fort Worth provides persistent presence that contributes to maritime stability throughout the region."

"LCSs are accustomed to independent steaming so sailing with Lassen was a welcomed change to our daily routine at sea," said Cmdr. Christopher Brown, prospective commanding officer of Fort Worth. "The operating picture shared between both ships proved invaluable in increasing our situational awareness."

Presence operations also provide U.S. Navy ships the opportunity to practice the Code for Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES) with other nations' ships operating in the region. Since the CUES agreement was established in April 2014, Fort Worth, Lassen and other U.S. Navy ships have been using CUES to formally communicate maneuvering intentions with ships from other navies to minimize the risk of miscalculations at sea.

"Codified formal communications really do help eliminate miscommunications and clarify intentions between units," said Brown. "We use both CUES and plain voice on the marine VHF (very high frequency) radio to communicate with other ships operating in this region."
The U.S. 7th Fleet conducts forward-deployed naval operations in support of U.S. national interests in the Indo-Asia-Pacific area of operations. As the U.S. Navy's largest numbered fleet, U.S. 7th Fleet interacts with 35 other maritime nations to build partnerships that foster maritime security, promote stability and prevent conflict.

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Brumby said:

I don't think a war game is needed to make it obvious that a military vessel without the appropriate offensive capability is basically just a military grade yacht.

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Jura said:

Brumby, I'm a land-locked country opponent of the USN LCS but even to me, this:

sounds like too strong a statement ... even without medium-range missiles, those ships can be useful in mine-hunting, constabling, showing-the-flag etc. activities ... but I know they (and mission packages for them) have numerous issues, yet the ships are being built by dozens -- did you notice the Independence-variant hasn't been deployed yet?

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Jura said:

deadly threat to basically any LCS: being hit from a close range by an anti-"tank" missile from the shore -- attackers can start leaving immediately (am saying this as this is what might happen today in Egypt:

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Brumby said:

... I was just being facetious. ...

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