U.S. Navy misleads Congress over the Littoral Combat Ship

Well, I should not be surprised about this.

Our flag ranks mislead Congress on so my things. Here, some of our top admirals flat out lie about the Littoral Combat Ship. Claiming lethality and survivability when there is no such thing.

And meeting requirements. You mean like all those mission modules YOUR peer group blue-sky marketed to Congress years ago to get them to hand over the money?

"There's no doubt we're continually learning more about how we can best employ the ship as part of the integrated force, but the bottom line is that it meets the mission it was intended to do," said Rowden. "We have to remember that the overarching question when looking at survivability is 'how are we going to operate these ships?' LCS has a validated set of requirements - and it meets them."


When I think of small ships and survivability--well at least enough to make sure that a large number of crew can get off of the ship--I think of the Samuel B. Roberts.

The frigate deployed from its home port in Newport, Rhode Island in January 1988, heading for the Persian Gulf to participate in Operation Earnest Will, the escort of reflagged Kuwaiti tankers during the Iran–Iraq War.

The Roberts had arrived in the Persian Gulf and was heading for a refueling rendezvous on 14 April when the ship struck an M-08 naval mine in the central Persian Gulf, an area it had safely transited a few days previously. The mine blew a 15-foot (5 m) hole in the hull, flooded the engine room, and knocked the two gas turbines from their mounts.

The blast also broke the keel of the ship; such structural damage is almost always fatal to most vessels. The crew fought fire and flooding for five hours and saved the ship. Among other steps, sailors cinched cables on the cracked superstructure in an effort to stabilize it. She used her auxiliary thrusters to get out of the mine field at 5kts.

She never lost combat capability with her radars and Mk13 missile launcher. Ten sailors were medevaced for injuries sustained in the blast, six returned to the Roberts in a day or so. Four burn victims were sent for treatment to a military hospital in Germany, and eventually to medical facilities in the United States.

Mines can be had by many. We are seriously under-resourced at finding them. When one of our ships does hit one, it would be nice to know that its design provides enough to let the crew get off of it safely.

I do not have that confidence with the Littoral Combat Ship. The whole program is based on a series of lies.

Much like some of the careers of flag ranks in the U.S. DOD.