Littoral Combat Ships- End of an Error
Independence Class LCS
U.S. Navy Accepts Delivery of Final Independence-Variant Littoral Combat Ship, Pierre
MOBILE, Ala. – The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of the future USS Pierre (LCS 38) from Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, July 11.
Pierre is the 19th and final ship marking the completion of the Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS) construction phase—a sustained acquisition effort involving Navy personnel, industry partners, and program management teams for over two decades.
Pierre successfully completed acceptance trials?the week of June 9, achieving the highest measured quality score of any LCS in the past 15 years. This performance reflects the notable progress made over the course of the program and the expertise honed by the LCS shipbuilding and acquisition teams.
“The delivery of the final Independence-variant LCS marks the end of a chapter, but not the story,” said Capt. Matthew Lehmann, program manager of the LCS Program Office. “The LCS program, for all its complexities, has pushed the boundaries of naval design and operational concepts. The LCS represents a bold vision for a more agile and adaptable Navy. We are seeing the Fleet operating these ships with the advanced mission packages they were designed for and they are continuing to evolve those operational concepts as more unmanned technologies come online.”
The last Independence Class lipstick-slathered pig has left the shipyards. The ships have suffered from just about every self-inflicted wound possible. Integrating a bunch of novel technologies led to manufacturing problems that left the entire class in desperate need of post-acceptance reconstruction. The highly touted “modularity” supposedly built into the designs never panned out. Worse still requirements creep- the bane of Military Acquisition- reared its ugly head early on in the program as the class became a solution in search of a problem. Big Navy’s strategic concept shifted away from controlling the littoral- the very reason for the existence of the ship- towards broader warfighting missions never envisioned by developers. This is difficult to achieve when welded to the pier undergoing structural repairs and training crews to operate and maintain systems never fully tested under at-sea conditions.
Big Navy failed to learn the lessons taught by the A-12 stealth attack jet program, and now is stuck with this albatross. Small wonder the Navy has limited production and decommissioned the worst offenders. Out of 50 ships envisioned for the class only 21 will be in service- six Freedom class and 15 Independance class ships equipped with a new mine countermeasures capability. This technology has yet to actually deploy, and any ship can be a minesweeper. Once.
Category: Big Navy, Good Idea Fairy, Government Incompetence
They aren’t safe to deploy. Triply so now since the Navy pretended for two decades that drone threats weren’t a thing and now they are everywhere. They drop one of those in the Persian Gulf and it will sink within hours.
Even the Coast Guard doesn’t want them for free.
Station one LCS immediately offshore at both the east and west ends of the US/Mexican border. Equip them with boats (let’s call them Patrol Boat, River (PBR…hmm, sounds familiar), and then run those boats up and down the Rio Grande. Activate this force as RIVRON 1. Develop rules of engagement with wide latitude.
Develop and field a squadron of “Sea Apaches” and assign to RIVRON 1. Employ exactly as HAL-3, the Navy’s “Seawolves” Vietnam attack helo squadron.
Find the least woke captain in the navy and assign him to command RIVRON 1. Tell him if he wants to be an admiral, his job is to conduct joint and interagency clean up ops all along the border in conjunction with ICE and DEA. If he does a good job, promote ahead of peers to chief of naval operations.
Too late. The Coast Guard already patrols the Rio Grande and if they are smart they won’t want to have anything to do with LCS.
https://www.facebook.com/UScoastguard/videos/the-coast-guard-remains-vigilant-along-the-rio-grande-river-conducting-increased/508955405585597/
We will fold the Coasties into RIVRON 1. We need more of a “violence of action” mindset than one of maintaining law and order. It’s all about that joint and interagency force! Semper Paratwin-fiftiesonthebow.
According to the left this is how Trump builds.his.secret.navy.so.he.can.be.elected.King Hitler.
I read about a Navy Vet who joined either the VFW or American legion and the members were questioning him about his patch or DD 214 about the unit he was assigned to
over in the Viet of the Nam and he tried telling the members of what the unit did and no one believed him. One day, they had a guest speaker who was a Navy Seal and he was telling about what they did over there and as he was speaking to the members, he sees this guy in the audiance and yells to him, come on up here I want to talk to you. The guy gets up and he stands next to the former Seal and the Seal says, after looking at his patch, thank God for you guys that saved a number of our Seals. turns out that it was a unit that no one heard of. Navy had an old WW2 convoy ship that was fixed up as a helo repair tender, and anchored off shore.. Onboard crew had it easy with great chow and A/C onboard…
Seawolves
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HA(L)-3
I used to joke that LCS was a program created to give O-4s an opportunity to earn a Command at Sea ribbon. I don’t think any career-minded, self-respecting O-4 would touch a set of orders to an LCS.
A number of Officers jumped at the chance to serve on those LCS for advancement. Crew members were multi tasked in all the rates aboard. The Skipper was on the chow line with everyone else. I think the article mentioned that the crew members were all Petty Officers. The article could have been in my USNI hard copy magazine but I cannot remember.
Any self-respecting sailor worth his/her salt would hang their head in shame in admitting that they served time on a LCS.
“The LCS represents a bold vision for…”
There is a name for people who see visions—several names, actually. One of them is “delusional”, another is “psychotic”. In this case both are probably accurate.
I think that when the first LCS came out, things were okay untill things started going south with the construction and parts breakdowns.. Maybe the ship wasn’t held together with Permatex like The old Iwo Jima Class LPH’s. As a young Snipe Squid, I didn’t think of buying stocks from the Permatex company.
Little Crappy Ship (LCS)…
Literal Comedy Ship
Those boats (I refuse to call them SHIPS) always look like they’re lifting their skirts to get through the water.
They’ll make great SINKEX targets.
Too bad fire ships are no longer a thing
Aluminum, baby!
What the future crew of USS Pierre is seeing right now…
That is nightmare inducing. My cast only gets boiling water and a stiff brush when absolutely necessary. Then it gets a thin coat of bacon grease
Best way to season a cast iron skillet? Forget those instructions, just cook up a batch of Southern fried chicken. Win-win!
I’ll never forget walking into the house a couple of years after getting married and yelled to my wife on my way to the kitchen “damn, that smells good”!!
She just laughed at me, when I figured out that she was just boiling her cast iron skillets.
Heartbroken, I ate a bowl of cereal.
When I was young and even stupider, I decided to cook some fried potatoes in an iron skillet. I sliced some potatoes and onions and put the raw potatoes & onions in the skillet. About two hours later the top layer of potatoes were still not done, but I had a rock-solid 3/4 inch coating of petrified potato on the skillet. It took me over a week to clean.
I also used to make soup by throwing things into a pot of water and boiling them for a while. Eventually I did learn why my “soups” were tasteless and bland.
The down side of learning how to cook is that you gain weight when your food is edible.
There is definitely a learning curve to cooking. I started working in kitchens when I was 15, so I had to learn fast!
It was great for dating as most teen boys couldn’t boil water
Really people?? REALLY?? 13 comments in and *I* have to be the one????
OK FINE…..Jebus….
shakes my damn head….I’m thinking about losing respect for your meming capabilities.
🤣🤣
Is that a reference to the obviously excellent stealth characteristics of LCS?
You couldn’t design a better radar target.
At the risk of sounding like a retard (ok, I always sound like a retard) what’s the problem with the LCS?
Can’t they blow shit up, like iranian gun boats and drones?
I would have thought operating in the Red Sea would have been their natural assignment.
In a nutshell they weren’t deployable as delivered.
They might be good in the Red Sea. If they could make it there.
They never got the “modular” ASW & MCM systems to work. The original armament for the “surface warfare” variant was pathetic. The crews (three of them) were too small, thus inefficient and overworked. Then there were the mechanical problems.
LCS, just like Jeffrey Epstein, killed itself.
A feature, not a bug!
Sounds like we could have instead spent the money on a fleet of WW2 design Destroyer Escort ships. With a few modern tweaks, they would wreck most of the bit players that annoy us.
Two five inch mounts and a triple mk 48 launcher is still quite a punch. Three Harpoons would be an option. And I believe we can shoot Tomahawks out a large torp tube, yes? So in theory one DDE could launch up to three nukes.
Hmmmmmm……
Anyone ever build a PT boat carrier?
When I did the math on total program cost it was (68) A-B Destroyers. The capabilities of that vessel is several magnitudes greater.
I never was Navy and never “got-it” till conversation with a son of my friend over the 4th that was home on leave. I did understand that each sailor had a job, but didn’t fully understand that EVERYTHING is for the ship! He was talking about how the “good guys” volunteer for everything “because it’s for the ship, or because the ship needs it” I find that very cool.
As a 37+ year Soldier, I can say that most Soldiers don’t volunteer for anything just cause the Army, unit, equipment, etc. “need it”. Loyalty to your battle buddies, is a different story. I have seen a lot of guys volunteer to help their buddies out.
The LCS program was one of the biggest pieces of shit the Navy ever did. Under gunned, damn near guaranteed to break down as soon as it got underway. It was criminal what happened. And the Navy continues to f up ship building. Constellation class frigate is becoming a cluster and also the upcoming USS John F Kennedy is going to be 2 years delayed coming into the fleet.
I have been involved in an LCS-ajacent project since they were first introduced. In my office they have always been known as Little Crappy Ships.
I wish the Navy had leaned more into modularity, and made a solid base hull that could be used for mounting different weapon systems. That way you could build drone carriers, gunfire support boats, etc. Not every ship needs to be able to wreck the PLAN single-handed.
The guiding principle behind the design of LCS was modularity. But, like any other good idea, it needs to be implemented correctly and with competence.
The original LCS intent was they would be built to a certain minimal standard and then could be fitted out with interchangable modules depending on where/what type mission they were to be deployed on.
Reality has shown that if a hull is to be designated an ASW platform, that hull will remain an ASW platform for its service life. Same with littoral strike platform, mine sweeping, etc. For some reason the Navy dropped the interchangability (because connecting and removing modules that were intended to be installed and removed fairly easily is just too hard for a crew half the size of any other supporting warship) and decided they get stuck as whatever their fitting out decrees based on need at time of commissioning.
My guess is that, aside from incompetence, the hull design people neglected to consult with the ASW and MCM technical and operational specialists to figure out what requirements the mission equipment required, and the result was that the mission equipments could not be stuffed into the designed module space and still function.
The Danes didn’t seem to have any problems building modularity into their ships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StanFlex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absalon-class_frigate