The program for government oversight (POGO), has obtained U.S. Navy documents that show all is not well with the Lockheed Martin variant of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) also known as LCS-1 or Freedom-class LCS.
I know what you may be thinking. This is not news. Most reasonable people know that the LCS is faulty and has no place in the Navy mission.
Some of the problems noted by POGO have been reported in the past. Of special interest though is this letter (backed up by this issues brief showing design problems) from the project manager which gives the impression that the Navy will have to lower expectations when operating the LCS-1 to make up for poor contractor performance.
Seems to be a lot of that behaviour going around lately; and not just with Navy ships.
The LCS is a waste of money. The LCS is not survivable against any threat. The U.S. Navy appears to be misleading our elected officials about the value of Littoral Combat Gyp.
6 comments:
Keep in mind an LCS which now cost 700 million per boat has no weapons, what a shame. For this amount of money one could buy lethal U212 submarines from Germany. We could refurbish our cruisers. When does this madness stop? Are Republican legislators, the President and the Pentagon and LMT all conspiring to wreck the nation's navy?
I'm going to throw out for discussion an alternative mix to the LCS acquisition.
1) an admittedly slower speed Fridtjof Nansen-class Frigate (Norway), with a bigger draft by about 3m and only 1 helo vs the LCS... but this $750m ship actually includes a hull-mounted sonar, a towed passive/active sonar, an AN/SPY-1 F 3D radar, an option for a 127mm gun (capable of firing a long-range acoustic buoy), 32 ESSM (only a dream for the LCS) and 8x actual SSMs!
2) For raw speed and special littoral requirements... look no more than the M80 Stiletto, of which a couple could launch out of the back of an LHD mother ship!
Say perhaps 30x Fridtjof Nansen-class frigates + 30x M80 Stiletto, specially equipped for CMW role, special missions and UAV operation.
Call it a day.
an edit for above post...
8-10 Frigates could be built in Norway and remaining ships split-license-build between LM and NG. Bonus paid to most successful builder at the end, and penalty to a builder grossly under-achieving Norway's build cost. 30 ships delivered within 8 years.
End LCS build at 6 hulls. Sunk costs. 3 hulls could operate in the Caribbean as anti-smuggling ops and as natural disaster rapid response. 3 hulls could support anti-pirating mission off African coast.
Oops... make that split-license-build including 'Austal', not NG.
Re that document you linked: So this means LCS-1 is not safe for open water operations. Down to 15kts already in SS5, structurally endangered in SS8. Can't believe that! Scrap it! What a scam.
Ah, the LCS --- the world's worst Gunboat!
And if you think it isn't, compare it to vessels that ARE recognized as Gunboats;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albatros_class_fast_attack_craft
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osprey_55_class_gunboat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_class_offshore_patrol_vessels
Hell, it's bigger and heavier than what most nations consider *Corvettes*, but doesn't have even a fraction of the sensors or weaponry!;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%27ar_5-class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minerva_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohang_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laksamana_Class_Corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PR-72P_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steregushchy_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buyan_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visby_class_corvette
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgem
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baynunah_class
This isn't simply a case where you can point-out a few examples of how we could done a bit better and saved a few dollars in the process --- what the US Navy has done is build one of the weakest, worst-equipped, and most short-sighted warships of it's size category in decades. And this, while the most of the world's navies are already better-armed with vessels only a fraction of the LCS' size, weight, and cost.
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