The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) has failed. I believe it was a good concept as a reconfigurable ship. But the execution failed. The ships don't have the mission modules while the basic ship is prone to breakdowns and too expensive even without the added modules. What to do? I say have them move the Marines around the Pacific.
It's time to let the LCS go as a warship:
Surface navy leaders are turning to fleet commanders for ideas about how they want to use littoral combat ships, as the U.S. Navy tries to refine its operational concepts for these ships.
As the LCS is pushed aside, the Navy has proposed a Light Amphibious Warship (LAW) to move around small Marine teams armed with anti-ship missiles and other capabilities to battle the Chinese navy.
I'm not happy with the LAW concept:
I'm really not happy with how the proposed LAW ship class is unfolding. How is it possible to think a slow and unarmed vessel can survive, let alone complete their missions? If the threat environment is low enough to do both, the Navy (and Air Force) has already won control of the seas--or it is peacetime still.
So this proposal from the initial article is welcome:
Kitchener said he envisions a scenario where Marines might be moving about the First Island Chain in the Pacific in their future light amphibious warships (LAW), a platform still in the concept design phase, using their organic sensors and Naval Strike Missiles to take out enemy targets and then hurrying to a new location before they can be found.
This mission has been raised before. But now the Marines are getting farther along in being moved around.
I've long advocated an armed amphibious transport (APD) converted from warships. I modeled the proposal on the World War II use of old destroyers and destroyer escorts converted on a large scale to move company-sized ground elements around the Pacific. In Proceedings I advocated using old Perry-class frigates to test the concept prior to building purpose-built ships. But since then, we lost our supply of retired frigates, if memory serves me.
But the demise of the LCS is an opportunity not to completely waste the money already plowed into the ship class. Rather than simply mothball or scrap them, why not equip them to move the Marines around?
And supplement APDs with amphibious planes, while I'm at it.
The LCS failed as a warship. Let's make it an APD to excel for sea control in a completely different fashion.
UPDATE: LOL!
The Marine Corps needs both the new Light Amphibious Warship and larger amphibious ships to achieve the future missions outlined in its new vision of expeditionary warfare, the Marine Corps Commandant said today.
It is just delusional to think there is enough money for that.
