Opportunity Comes Knocking for the Marines

The theory for modular design of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was sound (if not the original intent of sailing in "green" and "brown" waters close to shore), but it was screwed up with cost overruns and delays. Now the Navy wants to rid itself of that troublesome ship. Or at least some. Is this an opportunity to test a new (old) type of ship for the Marines?

The Navy will no longer be needing your service:

It was something many of us saw as a near-certain eventuality, the Navy has formally announced that it wants to retire its first four Littoral Combat Ships. Split evenly across both the Freedom and Independence classes of the failed Littoral Combat Ship concept, the oldest of the vessels was commissioned just 12 years ago, the youngest a mere six years ago.

The Marines want to see if using units smaller than battalion task forces (the MEU) in order to directly support the fleet rather than storm the beaches is the proper response to lots of enemy missiles tied to effective surveillance assets.

I had hoped to use decommissioned Perry frigates to recreate the old armed assault transport (APD) used in World War II that hauled around companies of troops on old converted destroyers and destroyer escorts (USNI membership required for access to my article in Proceedings). But the remaining Perry vessels were disposed of, eliminating that option.

I'd mentioned in the article the possibility of the LCS for a conversion to an APD given their interior space and weakness for sea control missions (and I'm not the only one), and now that four will be retired can't we use these still new hulls as experimental test beds?

Austin Bay has thoughts on the ship.

Are those first four LCS really too crappy for even test beds?