Missing off Yemen
The Telegraph points out something very interesting. In the relatively shallow coastal waters off Yemen (think they describe that as a “littoral” area), there is one class of Navy ship not heard from.
Multiple ships of various categories have been leading the way. Shooting down Houthi missiles and drones, blowing their little attack boats out of the water, flying escorts, etc…our guys are doing a bang-up job given the silly-ass rules of engagement we always seem to get stuck with. So, if it’s a coastal/littoral area… where are the Littoral Combat Ships?
But there’s one ship type the American fleet isn’t surging into the region. The troubled Littoral Combat Ship. Farcically, the LCS is one of the more numerous ship types in the fleet. But it’s totally unsuitable for hard fighting.
An American-led fleet is trying to contain the crisis. It’s a powerful force organised around the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and reinforced by eight other large American warships: four destroyers, two amphibious assault ships, a cruiser and a cruise-missile-armed submarine.
Allied forces have shot down around 20 Houthi ballistic and cruise missiles and around 80 drones and destroyed three Houthis boats. And in a series of air strikes and cruise-missile raids beginning on Jan. 11, these same forces have targeted dozens of Houthi missile launch sites and a radar installation.
Despite representing a fifth of the US surface combatant fleet, which also includes the destroyers and cruisers, no LCSs have joined the campaign.
The Pentagon’s $37-billion commitment to the LCS was a profound misreading of the future security environment. With no long-range air-defenses, the 3,000-ton LCSs can’t protect themselves from the Houthis’ Iranian-made missiles and drones – to say nothing of protecting commercial ships that might be spread out across thousands of square miles.
And with no long-range land-attack weapons, the LCSs can’t strike back at the Houthis, either. If the LCSs are unsuitable for defense and offense against a regional militant group, how would they fare against a much bigger and more sophisticated foe like China?
Not well. Telegraph
So we spent close to $40 billion and 20% of our fleet on the naval equivalent of trying to substitute a school bus for an armored personnel carrier.
They say a military typically prepares to fight the last enemy it engaged. I know in the ’70s every lesson learned and taught in training dated from Vietnam, despite the most probable opponent at the time being Russia and all the smaller SSRs. It almost prescient to train troops in some pretty dry locations like the Mojave and Chihuahua deserts well before Desert Shield/Storm (although there was a company of Czechoslovakian linguists at Ft. Bliss, I guess so they could train to fight in the Great Czech Desert? It wasn’t perfect.)
Guess this time the Navy was preparing to take on the Afghan Navy.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", Navy
Time for the Pegasus, or is that to cost effective?
^^^THIS^^^
Damn fine craft she was… Imagine a 21st century version!
Lots of guns, missiles, drones and tie-ins to fleet and satcomm C2ISR… The sweet fleet of these we could have built to flood the area with instead of those LCS flops.
CDR Sal has lots of content on the LilCrappyShip:
https://cdrsalamander.substack.com/?sort=search&search=LCS
https://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/search/label/LCS
Jerry
The Sergeant York of the Navy.
The gift from Ray Mabus and has congressional ally dims that keeps corn holing us. At least he was able to travel around the country throwing out first pitches and getting cheered by the largess crowd.
As I noted before, for $100B they could have built 45 fully outfitted Arleigh-Burkes instead of that POS. That all by itself would have been the 5th largest Navy in the World (larger than that of the UK) by tonnage and probably by fire power as well.
No long-range air defense, no long-range land attack weapons, sooo… what was the intended purpose of this boat? Other than jobs in certain congressional districts.
Graft and votes.
Legislature Collects Simoleons
And we get screwed with a boat that Literally Can’t Shift/Steam/Serve/Sustain/Strike.
As always, follow the money unfortunately.
It was designed with 57 separate heads to accommodate the current number of recognized genders.
Sadly, the core crew is only 43 crew “members”. The “ship” cannot fulfill that DEI quota, which is probably why it is unable to do anything useful.
If one of the crew is multi-racial and gender-fluid, they can fulfill multiple roles and improve those numbers.
Right. I forgot that the crew was small because the members had all been cross-trained.
Provide fire support to nearby on-shore counterinsurgency missions where the enemy can’t fire back at a ship, truth be told.
“Litorral warfare” as they said. McNamara couldn’t have f*cked it up better.
How?
True– either way, clusterf*ckery knows no bounds.
The Iwo Jima class LPH’S were supposed to be 100 feet longer with 2 screws (propellers) but due to McNamaras budget cut, they were 100 feet shorter with one 22 ft diameter screw.
They might make a pretty good artificial reef.
Navy Achievement Medals, Legions of Merit, promotions, etc. for the ossifers running the program.
Sounds like a John boat duck blind might have better armaments.
or Make Punt Guns Standard Equipment Again?
Hell yeah.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qg0RdhFnTd0
Or a couple of these
Heh. At first I thought you wrote “Spud Gun”. Then again….
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spud_gun
Do they have buckshot loads for the MK19?
An autoloading punt gun.
Don’t forget cutlasse, muzzle loading cannon and Cap’n Morgan (not Errol Flynn, please) too:
The Red is the size of California, and apparently topography to match.
Out on that sea, the missiles have a’many mountains to hide behind.
S’why we can’t shoot’m down good!
(btws, meme-not-meme. you know the line)
I was shocked to learn we can’t reload the ” verticle launch system” combatants except in port.
How widespread is that problem?
It’s not a problem with you never deploy to a combat zone.
Perfect for virtual signaling and achieving DEI “firsts,” you know.
Like everything else on that hunk of junk it underwent several revisions. First they had a unique system built that never worked and was cancelled. Then they were going to build a launcher big enough for SM2s and 6s. But that would have made it much larger and more capable like a destroyer so that idea was nixed. So then they went with a light platform.
The boat is too small and defenseless to be of much use. It is often compared unfavorably to the disastrous tiny gunboat navy that Thomas Jefferson built. That navy was the one that got us into the War of 1812 by being essentially useless as anything other than a small Coast Guard and a complete non-threat to the UK. Good for pirate suppression, target practice for a real navy.
If you think are adversaries aren’t looking the wake up call is probably coming this summer.
When the LCS’s ( Lost Can’t See) came out, Carreer Sailors were drawn to it like a magnet because of the small crew, everyone was crossed trained in the different Navy ratings. The Skipper stood on the same chow line as everone else. This was from hard copy Navy Times or hard copy United States Naval Institute. Can’t remember which. Cannot remember a lot of stuff, last week I forgot the Alamo, “REMEMBER THE ALAMO”
Small boats worked on the BriSH on Lake Champlain.
Nope.
While smaller gunboats were also used, The Navy built the Corvette Saratoga and the Brig Eagle after the war kicked off, launching them in 1814. However, the battle took place in sight of the shore, where the smaller boats never closed with the enemy or even moved but rather hid in the shallows.
They also had the advantage of being able to pick the place of the battle and it was essentially an ambush. Were they in open blue water without the larger warship it likely would have been a slaughter. Even so it was a close thing.
But if you are saying the LCS would make a good Coast Guard craft… maybe. If wasn’t so expensive to maintain. If it could actually do 50 knots. It would instantly be the second largest craft in their inventory. They would just have to give them billions a year to maintain and refit. This is an agency with an annual budget under $14B. If they had the option of getting the “LCS and billions” or just “billions” they would take the money.
You are assuming they will last long enough to need to reload. I think the program managers were inspired by “They Were Expendable” and took it literally.
Should change the name from Littoral Warefare to literally worthless.
Give them an All Lesbian and Transman crews
Call them Clittoral Warfare Ships
This debacle isn’t all the Navy’s fault. They wanted to cancel the entire program after 4 were built because they all failed expectations rather badly. It is the congress critters in the southern state where they are built who keeps the production going.
I looked at the bare specs for the hull and draft of the littorals. It seems to me that bringing back the old WW2 Fletcher class hull and upgrading the equipment including propulsion would fulfill the littoral class requirements. Seems that would be a cheaper solution using a proven hull design.
“…congress critters…” Nailed it, Old Tanker. Gotta keep them votes and campaign contributions flowing. No, what we gotta do is quit throwing good money after bad. And quit re(s)electing those that do business in the same old way. Scrap the damn things and build something that works. Or maybe the Puddle Pirates can find useful work for them.
Last I checked Wisconsin wasn’t in the South.
Yes, many were also built in Mobile. But this was a team effort.
That what I thought, 5Guy, but didn’t Google it til a few minutes ago. Maybe it’s cause Lockheed was the contractor. DaHell an Aircraft manufacturer doing building ships, anyhow? Yeah, I know, global, corporate, diverse defense contractors. And we all know how Lockheed fornicated Fido when they mounted wings and engines all catty whompus on a certain Naval Aviation Asset. WI has long been known for producing iron ore and top quality cheese. Didn’t dig deep to see the Mobile connection.
https://www.military.com/equipment/littoral-combat-ship-lcs
Ten major shipbuilding yards…
https://www.marineinsight.com/naval-architecture/major-u-s-shipyards/
Hey KOB, Wisconsin is also known for the following things:
Cheap, macro-brewed beer
Johnsonville brats
German food
Hefty women
Hmmm, the first 3 probably lead to the fourth. I keed, I keed!🤣🍺🧀🥨🌭🍻🍻🍻🍻
Didn’t you just list the four (4) major food groups?
To be fair, most men have difficulty locating the Littoral Zone.
You have won the internet award today. Well done 👏👏👏👏
“Bring me a sandwich.”
And wash your hands first.
It’s okay. It’s tuna.
Or Red Snapper?
The LCS program was a perfect storm of Dr. Larry Lightbulb meeting the Good Idea Fairy. Add undefined requirements to mission creep with curtailed testing to Better Support The Fleet, and this is what we get.
The flags and SES’ers who pushed for this should be keel hauled.
Mostly it was Ray Mabus doling out largess. He was Sec Navy for the entire Obama administration.
You might also recall him as the guy who started naming Naval Craft after people that had zilch to do with the Navy, war fighting or anything else relevant.
I vividly recall the Mabus disgrace, and the snake-oil salesmen at Lockheed for pushing untried technology.
You mean like the USS Harvey Milk?
Yep, that was one of his many babies. Let’s not forget the Gabbie Giffords and the Caesar Chavez. Although at least Chavez served in the navy even if it was undistinguished.
He washed the vegetables….
Mobius? (Might explain things… )
Not so much mission “creep” as too many missions; mine warfare, anti-submarine warfare, surface warfare,
Can do everything and nothing!
The LCS was a gift to the shipbuilding contractors. I clearly remember ads on WTOP and billboards in the Metro for LMC’s version.
Must be a few “Pueblo” class ships lurking around.
The type North Korea is holding on to for us?
We should go get that back, or have a World
RespectedRenown NYC(hitty) Real Estate Tycoon negotiate for it.Just destroy in place. 20 megaton should do it.
Some Defense Contractors took the Taxpayers for a ride that would make Phildo jealous!
Angry breaking down the latest propaganda from the WhoThese.
3:17 my favorite part. Mortarman Twinkletoes goes for a skip.
My B. I didn’t think for a second that vid would be age-restricted and limited distro.
He may changed it also. Dunno.
Richard Hy reposted it. Youtube, the bastion of reasonableness it is, nuked the last one… for reasons I’d image.
assholes.
Sounds like a 25 mm cannon could take out an LCS.
I think a “board with a nail in it” can take out an LCS.
https://youtu.be/zGEiK9StSfQ?si=QZiCz2SgeKjQFt3n
Get ‘im, Moe! 🤣
Pretty much. LCS isn’t safe from a bunch of goatf*ckers with no navy. That’s sad.
Afghanistan is land-locked thou-oh, I see what you did there.
You want a ship that can throw a punch, but also take a punch if thrown and then keep on going. Sadly, little crappy ship can do neither.
This vid gives the size and complexity of the tankers transiting the Red, also some firefighting clips for you hose runners.
This could have been much worse.
Key take away for me: “War insurance” coverage bumps the rate by a flat 1%, meaning an additional million on top for doin’ bid’ness
I could make a tasteless joke about the fact that LCS’s seem to be more TARGETS than anything else, and the USS Gabrielle Giffords was named after someone who got shot….
But I won’t.
Well, seeing as her husband exploited that shit into a Senate seat, I have no beef with that.
Gabby was my representative. Well liked by everyone from both parties, did a good job. Her fuckstick husband, on the other hand…
Gabby took a bullet through her head and survived. She should be offended at something not nearly as tough being named after her.
Drove past the shipyard in Bremerton on Friday, one of the LCS’s is sitting alongside the other ships in mothballs. It’s one of the Giffords type with the catamaran hull.
Sad.
This’ll cheer you up:
https://youtu.be/9IRTqrXhukc?si=Xjsx_RMjh-ScVxjX