With the Chinese fleet posing a threat to our presence and allies in the western Pacific, the Navy can't afford to have anything that floats out of the ship-killing business. The Littoral Combat Ship is going to be rapidly upgraded in lethality.
The Littoral Combat Ship lives!
The LCS class has struggled to find a place in the fleet after its original mission modules — designed to be moved on and off ships given whatever mission they were performing — failed to develop as planned. But Adm. Mike Gilday told the committee today, “we’re very bullish on LCS” moving forward, a departure from previous comments where he portrayed the class as a problem to be surmounted.
Almost all LCS will have deck-mounted over-the-horizon anti-ship missiles. Half will also have anti-submarine modules while the other half will also have counter-mine modules. I hope that means the ability to lay mines, too.
I guess this will be permanent, abandoning the original idea of rapidly swapped modules for different missions. The LCS has not been the best implemented ship program. Although I think the module concept was good.
And the ludicrous idea of using those vulnerable ships close to shore in the littorals was mercifully abandoned.
The ships will make good forward presence ships in the western Pacific that can show the flag in peace time. And in crisis their forward presence won't tempt a potential enemy to strike first because the LCS aren't that vital. And if the enemy does strike first, better to lose an LCS than a capital ship like our destroyers, amphibs, or carriers.
The Navy just needs to change the L in LCS. Maybe Light Combat Ship? They really do seem like light frigates in this configuration.
