A ship class is a group of ships of a similar design. This is distinct from a ship type, which might reflect a similarity of tonnage or intended use. For example, USS Carl Vinson is a nuclear aircraft carrier (ship type) of the Nimitz class (ship class).
99-575: A littoral combat ship ( LCS ) is either of two classes of relatively small surface vessels designed for near-shore operations by the United States Navy . It was "envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in the littorals ", although their ability to perform these missions in practice has been called into question. Littoral combat ships are comparable to corvettes found in other navies. The Freedom class and
198-531: A NATO reporting name . In addition, the ships of the class would have a number prefixed by a letter indicating the role of that type of vessel. For example, Project 641 had no name, though NATO referred to its members as Foxtrot-class submarines . The ship classification does not completely correspond common designation, particularly for destroyers, frigates and corvettes. Russia has its own classification system for these ships: The British Royal Navy (RN) has used several methods of naming classes. In addition to
297-556: A Senate Armed Services Committee meeting that the Oliver Hazard Perry -class frigates and Avenger -class minesweepers were too worn out to cover the gap if the LCS suffered further delays. Retired Admiral James Lyons , USN called for a $ 220 million common design with the U.S. Coast Guard's National Security Cutter (NSC) program to save costs and meet "limited warfare requirements". A Huntington-Ingalls study found that
396-484: A 3:2:1 manning concept. That is three ship crews, and two hulls for each ship that is on station at any time. The other ship and other two crews who are not on deployment will either be preparing for deployment or in rotation in or out of theater. The result is a 50% reduction in ships and a 25% reduction in crews (and smaller crew sizes) than traditional deployment practices. The ships were predicted to fall short in manning. The Navy has deployed ships with berthing modules in
495-546: A cable towed behind the boat. Each LCS will carry two, and they will be used for both MCM and ASW. It will mimic the acoustic and magnetic signature of a ship to fool magnetic and influence mines into detonating; introduction is expected in 2017. The final increment will be the Knifefish unmanned underwater vehicle ( UUV ) to find and detect buried mines in 2019. In February 2016, the Navy announced they were halting procurement of
594-645: A contractual price of $ 437 million, Austal USA's contractual price for LCS-6 was $ 432 million. On 29 December 2010, Department of Navy Undersecretary Sean Stackley noted that the program was well within the Congressional cost cap of $ 480 million per ship. The average per-ship target price for Lockheed ships is $ 362 million, Stackley said, with a goal of $ 352 million for each Austal USA ships. Government-furnished equipment (GFE), such as weapons, add about $ 25 million per ship; another $ 20 million for change orders, and "management reserve"
693-409: A cost of $ 591 million for each ship. Navy acquisition chief Sean Stackley testified to a Senate panel that the actual price range was $ 440 to $ 460 million. A day before the offer's expiration, both Lockheed Martin and Austal USA received Navy contracts for an additional ten ships of their designs; two ships of each design being built each year between 2011 and 2015. Lockheed Martin's LCS-5 had
792-529: A fixed price contract in 2010 for up to ten ships, followed by an offer to build five additional ships of the same design as the first contract to the secondary builder. The Congress agreed with the Navy on this plan. On 23 August 2010, the U.S. Navy announced a delay in awarding the contract for 10 ships until the year's end. FY 2010 budget documents revealed that the total costs of the two lead ships had risen to $ 637 million for Freedom and $ 704 million for Independence . On 16 January 2010, Independence
891-529: A shallow draft . The first LCS, USS Freedom (LCS-1) , was commissioned on 8 November 2008 in Veteran's Park , Milwaukee , Wisconsin . The second ship, the trimaran USS Independence (LCS-2) , was commissioned on 16 January 2010, in Mobile, Alabama . In 2012, ADM Jonathan W. Greenert stated that the LCS would be deployed to Africa in place of destroyers and cruisers. In 2013 and 2014,
990-401: A small assault force with fighting vehicles to a roll-on/roll-off port facility. Standard armaments include Mk 110 57 mm guns and RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles . They are also equipped with autonomous air , surface , and underwater vehicles. Possessing lower air defense and surface warfare capabilities than destroyers , the LCS emphasizes speed, flexible mission modules, and
1089-437: A small Marine ground unit can be carried within an embarked mission module. In 2014, Marine Corps General John M. Paxton, Jr. claimed several deficiencies in using an LCS for amphibious operations as a substitute platform for an amphibious assault ship, including the ability to operate in difficult sea states, survivability in contested waters, limited flight deck and berthing space, and command and control limitations. In 2014,
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#17327720741921188-439: A traditional naming system for its ships. In addition, the ship's type and missions can be identified by the first number on the ship's three-digit hull number , which is placed on the front bows and the back of the stern. The naming convention is: Russian (and Soviet ) ship classes are formally named by the numbered project that designed them. That project sometimes, but not always, had a metaphorical name, and almost always had
1287-675: Is able to defend itself effectively against anti-ship cruise missiles, which are commonly employed in the littorals, although they can disperse in shallow waters better than larger warships. The LCS is reconfigured for various roles by changing mission packages, each of which includes mission module equipment (weapon systems, sensors, etc.), carried craft and mission crews. Modules include anti-submarine warfare (ASW), mine countermeasures (MCM), surface warfare (SUW), and special warfare missions. The MCM and SUW modules are planned to reach initial operating capability in Fiscal Year (FY) 2014, and
1386-404: Is also changed into a more simplified two-crew "blue/gold" model, like that used on submarines and minesweepers, where ships cycle to forward deployed locations with the two crews swapping roles every 4–5 months; aviation detachments will also deploy with the same LCS crew, creating an arrangement of a core 70-sailor crew to conduct the warfare mission and a 23-person air detachment. In addition to
1485-525: Is also included. Stackley declared the average cost to buy an LCS should be between $ 430 million and $ 440 million. In the fiscal year 2011, the unit cost was $ 1.8 billion and the program cost $ 3.7 billion. In May 2012, Robert Work said that the two designs may each be best suited to different theaters, the LCS-1 design being better suited for the enclosed waters of the Middle East, while
1584-478: Is increased by the combination of a destroyer's towed array and hull-mounted sonar and an LCS's VDS. In July 2015, the Navy awarded three contracts to reduce the weight of the package elements down to or below 105 metric tons total to meet mission package weight requirements. Since both elements are mature and fielded (the VDS on Royal Navy Type 23 frigates and MFTA on Arleigh Burke and Zumwalt -class destroyers ),
1683-619: Is jeopardized to perform missions like minesweeping while under the cover of a destroyer. The LCS's main purpose is to take up operations such as patrolling, port visits, anti-piracy, and partnership-building exercises to free up high-end surface combatants for increased combat availability. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus clarified that the ship could operate in combat areas while under the protection of other warships. The LCS's utility against high-tech enemies would be when working with and being covered by destroyers, like they do with aircraft carriers. With destroyers providing extended air and missile defense,
1782-446: Is part of a risk reduction effort to contribute to a layered laser defense effort and the LCS's lethality to counter fast-attack craft and UAS. The anti-submarine module had its focus changed from stationary to en-stride systems (while the ship is moving) that are useful in the open ocean as well as in coastal areas. One of the items to be added is a torpedo detection capability. Thales has sold one CAPTAS-4 low-frequency active sonar to
1881-504: Is preceded by post-detection mission analysis. The first increment of the MCM included three systems: the helicopter-deployed airborne laser mine detection system (ALMDS); the airborne mine neutralization system (AMNS); and the remote minehunting system (RMS) composed of the remote multi-mission vehicle (RMMV) paired with the AQS-20A sonar. The ALMDS detects mines near the top of the water, and
1980-521: Is refracted through the temperature, salinity, and pressure profile; a VDS can pierce layers better than hull-mounted sonars found on destroyers and cruisers. LCSs will also be fitted with a torpedo decoy system under development. To destroy submarines, an MH-60S helicopter will deploy the Mark 54 Lightweight Torpedo . A wargame held by the Naval War College demonstrated the possibility of using
2079-488: The Independence class are the two LCS variants. Each is slightly smaller than the U.S. Navy's earlier Oliver Hazard Perry -class frigate but larger than Cyclone -class patrol ships . Each has the capabilities of a small assault transport , including a flight deck and hangar for housing two SH-60 or MH-60 Seahawk helicopters, a stern ramp for operating small boats, and the cargo volume and payload to deliver
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#17327720741922178-837: The AN/AQS-20A underwater towed sonar, the remote minehunting system, the Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis system, and the Knifefish , a Surface mine countermeasure unmanned undersea vehicle. Canceled module features include the Organic Airborne and Surface Influence Sweep System, and the Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System. The final increment IV MCM will not have an EOD team or an in-stride capability to neutralize discovered mines; neutralization
2277-526: The Confederate States Navy . Generally accepted by military historians and widely used in the more recent books, webpages and papers on the subject matter (most notably the releases of Osprey Publishing ), these latter-day classifications are sometimes considered "semi-official" (although they are not). Contemporary records, such as the " Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in
2376-511: The DD(X) family of ships". The ship is easy to reconfigure for different roles, including anti-submarine warfare , mine countermeasures , anti-surface warfare , intelligence , surveillance and reconnaissance , homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations , and logistics . Due to its modular design, the LCS will be able to replace slower, more specialized ships such as minesweepers and larger amphibious-type assault ships. Most of
2475-583: The Independence class with 18 NSMs. In July 2014, the Navy confirmed that it would test-launch the NSM from Coronado to evaluate feasibility, the first time an LCS fired a surface-to-surface missile. The NSM has a range of 100 nmi (120 mi; 190 km), greater than the Harpoon anti-ship missile, but LCSs lack long-range fire control systems to detect targets at this distance. On 24 September 2014,
2574-585: The Oliver Hazard Perry , Osprey , and Avenger classes were reaching the end of their lives, the U.S. Navy released the LCS requirement. In 2004, Lockheed Martin , General Dynamics and Raytheon submitted design proposals. It was decided to produce two vessels each (Flight 0) of the Lockheed Martin design (LCS-1 and LCS-3) and of the General Dynamics design (LCS-2 and LCS-4). After these are brought into service, and experience gathered on
2673-607: The U.S. Coast Guard began advocating the LCS as a tailor-made platform for drug interdiction missions. Under pressure from Navy vessels retiring, the Coast Guard will suffer a surface vessel shortage for intercepting smuggling ships in the Caribbean area, forcing the Navy to examine other platforms for drug interdiction. The Coast Guard noted that the LCS has previously performed this task, and pointed towards its high speed and embarked helicopters to run down fast smuggling boats;
2772-578: The Weapon rather than Tomahawk class. In European navies, a class is named after the first ship commissioned regardless of when it was ordered or laid down. In some cases this has resulted in different class names being used in European and U.S. references; for example, European sources record the Colorado -class battleships of the United States Navy as the " Maryland class", as USS Maryland
2871-593: The 1960s support this claim. As more littoral combat ships are built and enter service, Mabus said operational costs will decline to acceptable limits. On 2 November 2016 the Pentagon blocked publication of cost overruns on both designs. On 2 December 2016, it was reported that the GAO was critical of the LCS's ability to complete a navy requirement of 30 consecutive days underway without a critical failure of one or more essential subsystems. DOT&E Michael Gilmore states that
2970-414: The 57 mm main gun was more suitable to a patrol boat than a frigate. Austal's vice president for sales, Craig Hooper, suggested that the ships should instead be used for UAV operations. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus has called the lack of identified missions for the LCS "one of its greatest strengths". The various modules all use the same Internet Protocol formats. In 2013 Congressional auditors found that
3069-633: The ASW module in FY 2016. Module changes were envisioned to allow a single LCS to change roles in a matter of hours at any commercial port, allowing it to rapidly optimize effectiveness against a threat. A report from the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) on a January 2012 sustainment wargame reportedly stated that, possibly for logistics reasons, the mission module changes may take as long as weeks, and that in
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3168-553: The DD-21 and replaced it with a "family" of ships, including the littoral combat ship, being motivated to produce ships cheaper and faster to increase fleet size. Clark declared the LCS was his "most transformational effort" and number-one budget priority in 2003. The Navy committed to the $ 15 billion (2003) program in advance of rigorous analysis or clearly defined purpose, appearance, or survivability. Proponents typically pointed to its speed, asymmetric littoral threats, and impact on
3267-513: The Hellfire gives access to the U.S. Army's existing stockpile of 10,000 missiles. The Hellfire is an interim decision; the Navy is interested in developing a longer-range version. An LCS can carry 24 Hellfire missiles in its SSMM, using M299 vertical launchers mounted within a gas containment system; the SSMM design does not facilitate at-sea reloading. The Hellfire was slated to be operational aboard
3366-472: The LCS by 2017. A longer-range missile with an over-the-horizon (OTH) engagement capability was planned to defend against fast attack craft, ships, and patrol boats by 2020 as part of the surface warfare package Increment 4. Norwegian company Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace proposed equipping LCSs with their radar-evading Naval Strike Missile , presenting scale models of the Freedom class with 12 NSMs and
3465-414: The LCS in open water operations to assist carrier strike groups and guided-missile destroyers. The LCS was found to be more useful in open water operations than previously considered. The wargame found that an LCS operating the ASW package could perform the mission, which freed up a destroyer that would normally perform the mission to contribute to the lethality of the strike group. Submarine hunting ability
3564-624: The LCS using a variable depth sonar (VDS) and the TB-37 MFTA. Both can passively listen or actively emit to analyze the returns. The VDS was originally planned to be the Raytheon AN/SQS-62, but the Navy canceled it in 2022 due to high risk, instead choosing the Thales CAPTAS-4 in 2023. The VDS will allow the LCS to detect diesel-electric submarines while on the move. Submarines can hide behind water layers based on how sound
3663-415: The LCS was designed to pull out of combat upon sustaining damage. The baseline LCS seaframe designs, however, boast a better air and missile defense capability than the partially disarmed and now retired Perry class, which somewhat counters claims that LCS is "unsurvivable". Other observers suggest that the ships' lifecycle costs and resilience challenges result from the optimal-manning concept, which increases
3762-606: The LCS-2 design for the Pacific Ocean's open waters. In order to increase commonality, the Navy will force both types to use the same combat system electronics. The handoff from General Dynamics to Austal of management for the Independence class led to a 13-month schedule slip as the company struggled with building the JHSV ships at the same facilities. In May 2013, the GAO called for a pause in ship construction until issues with
3861-544: The LCS. The Mine Countermeasure Module (MCM) is designed to provide minesweeping; remotely detecting and bypassing mines; and minehunting, detecting, and disabling. It was envisioned to perform "influence" minehunting via acoustic and magnetic signatures rather than contact or mechanical minehunting. The MCM includes the Airborne Laser Mine Detection system, the Airborne mine neutralization system,
3960-716: The NSC would be a better match for the listed mission set while lacking the LCS's mission modules to perform many missions. In May 2012, Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems released a study that showed seven LCS can more efficiently perform anti-piracy patrols in the Western Indian Ocean than a fleet of 20 conventional ships for a quarter of the cost. To help reduce cost of each ships, in September 2009, Navy Acquisition Chief Sean Stackley and Vice Admiral Barry McCullough indicated that only one contractor would be offered
4059-471: The NSM was successfully fired at a mobile target. The LCS's modular design makes it possible to add weapons and sensors as part of the warfare suite. This could mitigate lethality criticism of the LCS, which is oriented toward asymmetric swarm boat threats rather than comparable surface combatants. In September 2015, the Navy issued a directive to install an OTH missile on Freedom and Coronado for their next deployments in early and mid-2016. The exact missile
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4158-706: The Navy John Lehman called for fixed-price contracts to be adopted. Pressure mounted in Congress for the Navy to control the cost: in June 2009, during a hearing of the House Armed Services Seapower Subcommittee , Subcommittee Chairman Gene Taylor , D-Miss, said that other contractors would be keen to build LCS as the subcommittee added language requiring the Navy to open bidding if either lead contractor walked away from
4257-492: The Navy announced a new bidding process for the next three ships, the winner building two ships and the loser building one. In the 26 September 2008 U.S. presidential debate , Senator John McCain (R-AZ) cited the LCS as an example of botched contracting driving up costs unnecessarily. In March 2009, then-Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter announced that LCS-3 would be named Fort Worth after Fort Worth, Texas , and
4356-507: The Navy plans to base 10 Freedom -class ships at Naval Station Mayport, Florida which could be tasked to conduct interdiction missions. In the late 1990s, the U.S. Navy realized its Cold War -era cruisers and destroyers had been designed for open-ocean warfare and would be vulnerable in shallow coastal waters, where they would face dangers from high-speed boats, missile-firing fast-attack craft, small submarines, sea mines, and land and air-launched anti-ship missiles. The Navy's official solution
4455-433: The Navy to reduce planned LCS and FF procurement from 52 to 40 and downselect to one variant by FY 2019. In July 2017, the Navy released a request for information for a new multi-mission guided-missile frigate that can perform the same roles as the LCS while having better offensive and defensive capabilities. Almost any existing design that can be adapted to FFG(X) requirements can be considered, extending beyond versions of
4554-563: The Navy's dependence on contractors and diminishes opportunities to monitor and repair engineering systems during operations. The deployment of USS Freedom was seen by the Navy as an opportunity to test the ship and operational concepts in the real-world. The Navy was about to conclude a war game at the Naval War College to examine ways of exploiting LCS capabilities in Western Pacific and other scenarios. Hunt added that
4653-431: The Navy's requirement for LCSs was progressively cut from 55 to 32 vessels in favor of a newly proposed frigate more capable of high-intensity combat. In late 2014, the Navy proceeded with a procurement plan for enhanced versions of the LCS and upgraded older ships to meet the program's 52-ship requirement; the modified LCS will be redesignated as FF, or frigate. In December 2015, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter ordered
4752-557: The Navy's survivability standards, and that the LCS would be used during the initial phase in the theatre and sense the environment before hostilities occur. Detractors claim the LCS is not survivable enough for long-range threats that China possesses; LCSs are built to the Navy's survivability category Level I+, higher than Level I patrol craft and mine warfare ships, but lower than the Level II Oliver Hazard Perry -class frigate they are replacing. The Navy has said
4851-493: The Pacific alone, embark a helicopter, have a minimum 40 knot top speed, and cost $ 220 million. The Navy was only willing to build one type of ship; the ship's task force, realizing that it would be virtually impossible for one vessel to fill all roles, advocated for a larger hull to cover the mission range through modularity, organic combat power, and unmanned systems. Empty space was left for weapon and sensor mission modules. When
4950-465: The Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E) found that neither design was expected to "be survivable in a hostile combat environment" and that neither ship could withstand the Navy's full ship shock trials. The Navy responded that the LCS is built to a Level 1+ survivability standard and that the ships will rely on warnings from networks and speed to avoid being hit, or if hit be able to limp to safety. ADM Jonathan Greenert said that
5049-565: The RMMV due to reliability issues, with the existing ten RMMVs to be upgraded to increase reliability. The upgraded RMMVs will be fielded in 2018, and testing will be conducted to see if the Fleet class common unmanned surface vessel (CUSV) can tow the AQS-20A, and if successful will be used for minehunting by 2020. If the Knifefish UUV can have its endurance increased, the vessel will take over
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#17327720741925148-644: The RMS will detect them below the waterline. To destroy mines, the AMNS is lowered by the helicopter and guided by an operator on board to neutralize it. Increment two will be the coastal battlefield reconnaissance and analysis system (COBRA) mounted on the MQ-8B to search beaches and surf zones. Increment three will involve adding the Fleet-class unmanned surface vessel (USV) with the unmanned surface sweep system (USSS),
5247-606: The Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM) for the first time. In January 2011, the U.S. Navy recommended the selection of Raytheon 's Griffin missile to replace the NLOS-LS missile, lowering the LCS's missile range from 25 miles (40 km) to 3.5 miles (5.6 km). The packages were to be deployed in sets of three, with 15 per set for a total of 45 missiles. Initial deployment of the Griffin
5346-578: The U.S. Navy to be towed behind the LCS, with a potential order of 25 units. The USN tested combination of this unit, derived from the Sonar 2087 on British Type 23 frigates , with the TB-37 Multi-Function Towed Array (MFTA) found on U.S. warships. As of September 2013, deployment of the ASW module was planned for 2016, with the 2013 sequestration cuts potentially pushing it back to 2017. Submarine detection will be achieved on
5445-671: The U.S. shipbuilding industry. The LCS suffered from requirements creep, adding more missions and equipment, potentially rendering it too complex and expensive to use. When it was decided the ship would not be expendable, the original concept of a small, cheap, simple coastal warship became bigger, more expensive, and more complicated, with a smaller crew due to automation. The new design was assigned six different missions which had been previously performed by individual ships: submarine and mine hunting; combating small boats; intelligence gathering; transporting special forces; and counter-drug and piracy patrols. Each ship would be big enough to sail across
5544-586: The War of the Rebellion " (Series 2, Volume 1, Part 1), show that the modern nomenclature was not in use at the time. The unofficial retro-applying of ship classes can occasionally lead to confusion. For example, while American works consistently adhere to the City - and Columbia -class monikers, works of British origin refer to the same classes as Cairo class and Tennessee class respectively, in compliance with
5643-582: The accepted European convention, some classes have been named after a common theme in the included ships' names, e.g., Tribal-class destroyers , and some classes were implemented as an organizational tool, making traditional methods of naming inefficient. For instance, the Amphion class is also known as the A class. Most destroyer classes were known by the initial letter used in naming the vessels, e.g., V and W-class destroyers . Classification by letter also helped to conflate similar smaller classes of ships as in
5742-406: The anti-submarine warfare (ASW) mission package would play an important role in protecting aircraft carriers and amphibious ships, and the mine countermeasures (MCMs) mission package would also provide necessary port security and waterway patrol capability following combat operations. Ship class In the course of building a class of ships, design changes might be implemented. In such a case,
5841-631: The cancellation of the XM501 Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System . The Independence variant reportedly has better helicopter facilities and more internal space while the Freedom variant is said to be better able to launch and recover boats in high seas. Admiral Gary Roughead said that a mix of both types would be "operationally advantageous". In April 2012, Chief of Naval Operations Greenert said, "You won't send it into an anti-access area"; rather, groups of two or three ships are intended to be sent into areas where access
5940-525: The case of the A-class destroyers of 1913 whose names spread across the alphabet. Since the end of the Second World War , Royal Navy ship classes have also been known by their type number (e.g. Type 45 destroyer .) For the United States Navy , the first ship in a class to be authorized by Congress is the designated class leader and gives the name to the class, regardless of the order in which
6039-423: The cheaper (one-fourth the cost of a destroyer) and more numerous LCS can sweep for mines and deploy more sophisticated submarine-detecting sonar. Following the decision to arm the LCS with anti-ship missiles , Navy wargames showed the adversary's risk calculus was radically changed, devoting more reconnaissance assets to trying to locate the smaller ships and sustaining heavier losses. The ships are planned to have
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#17327720741926138-414: The crew would "conduct an orderly abandon ship" if their ship was struck by enemy fire, an action that might not be necessary on other vessels in the same circumstances. The ships were designed to minimize vulnerability with modern automated damage control systems to perform its mission, then withdraw from the area under its own power. The combat abilities of the LCS were said to be "very modest" even before
6237-471: The current LCS fleet "have a near-zero chance" of meeting this requirement. Instead of declaring a winner out of the two competing designs, the U.S. Navy in November 2010 asked the Congress to allow for the order of ten of each design. U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) said that the change was made because both bids were under the Congressional price cap. Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said that unlike
6336-673: The current convention to historical naval vessels sharing similarities, such as those of the American Civil War , where the Union Navy built several vessels in series, which can be termed "classes" as presently understood. Common examples include the Passaic -class monitor and the City-class ironclad , among many others, for the Union side, and Columbia class or Richmond class , for those ironclads in service with
6435-463: The design's usability and efficiency, the future design for the class would be chosen (Flight I). The ultimate decision was to fund both designs as two variants of the class. On 9 May 2005, Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England announced that the first LCS would be named USS Freedom . Her keel was laid down on 2 June 2005 at Marinette Marine , Marinette, Wisconsin . The contract to build
6534-441: The excessive beam (width) of the trimaran Independence -class ships may pose a "navigational challenge in narrow waterways and tight harbors". The report also found that the contractor-based maintenance scheme for the ships had led to poorly supervised and unaccountable contractors leaving problems unresolved. As contract workers are required to be American, they must be flown out to any foreign ports visited by an LCS. A special panel
6633-451: The first production contracts were awarded in 2004, no mission module worked outside of a laboratory. Fast, cheap construction was emphasized, solving problems with technology. In 2003, the Navy launched its first experimental LCS, Sea Fighter , designated as fast sea frame or FSF-1. In 2005, the SWATH -hulled Sea Fighter entered service as an experimental vessel using mission modules. As
6732-464: The forefront much sooner than under the original schedule, some of which would not have been learnt until two years on." In 2013, Under Secretary of the Navy Robert O. Work explained that cost overruns were partly due to the shipbuilders' bidding to American Bureau of Shipping commercial standards, the Navy changed this to Level I survivability standards for greater crew survivability, although
6831-414: The fourth ship would be named Coronado after Coronado, California . The contracts for LCS-3 and LCS-4 were renewed in early 2009. In April 2009, the Navy announced its revised procurement plan that three ships be funded in the FY 2010 budget; officials also hinted that the Navy may not down-select to one design for further orders, pointing out complementary features of the two designs. Former Secretary of
6930-448: The future, the Navy plans to use LCSs with a single module, with module changes being a rare occurrence. In 2014, Independence switched from mine to surface warfare modes in 96 hours on short notice. In an announcement on 8 September 2016, the Navy revealed a radical change in operations and organization plans for the LCS. Of the 28 Flight 0 ships built or on order, the first four, two of each class, will be turned into training ships, and
7029-525: The gap in amphibious shipping. In August 2014, USS Coronado demonstrated the ability to rapidly stage and deploy Marine Corps ground units, including operations by two Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadrons (HMLA) that conducted day and night deck-landing qualifications. The Independence -class LCS's features of high speed, a large flight deck to support UH-1Y Venom and AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, and reconfigurable mission bay can support air and small-boat employment and delivery of ground and air forces;
7128-490: The lack of comprehensive risk assessment. On 13 December 2010, both production teams extended their contract offers until 30 December in order to give more time for the Navy to push through the plan. The Navy would be forced to award the contract to only one team if it failed to secure Congressional approval. The Navy budgeted $ 490 million for each ship while the Congressional Budget Office projected
7227-429: The missile missed the target, the test validated the ability to launch Harpoon missiles from the forward deck of an LCS. In May 2018, the Navy selected the NSM as the LCS's OTH missile. In January 2020, the Navy reported that Lockheed Martin's 150 kW High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance (HELIOS) would be put on USS Little Rock (LCS-9) for her upcoming deployment. The laser
7326-593: The mission bays in order to carry the crew required for operations. However, the ships are designed with sufficient headroom to change from 2-high bunking to 3-high bunking, which would allow crew sizes of 100 if needed. The LCS is the first USN surface combatant class in a generation to not use the Aegis Combat System , though Aegis-equipped variants have been offered to foreign customers. They have suffered from problems in their communications and radars and will require refits in these areas. Neither LCS class
7425-473: The mission from both systems. The Navy included an irregular warfare package in its 2012 budget request to Congress. Californian congressman Duncan D. Hunter wrote that the purchase of 55 LCS units was made at the cost of 10 fewer amphibious vessels. Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps , General Joseph Dunford said in 2011 that the LCS is one of the platforms under consideration to help close
7524-466: The mission modules' functions are performed by carried vehicles such as helicopters or unmanned vehicles such as the Spartan Scout , AN/WLD-1 RMS Remote Minehunting System and MQ-8B Fire Scout as part of the Navy's goal to "unman the front lines". Performing functions such as sonar sweeps for mines or submarines as well as launching torpedoes against hostile submarines at a distance from
7623-661: The modern Royal Navy naming conventions. By the time the United States entered World War II, the current naming convention was in place, though it remains unclear as to exactly how and when the practice originated. Merchant ships are almost always classed by a classification society . These vessels are said to be in class when their hull, structures, machinery, and equipment conform to International Maritime Organization and MARPOL standards. Vessels out of class may be uninsurable and/or not permitted to sail by other agencies. A vessel's class may include endorsements for
7722-479: The offered $ 460 million fixed price contracts. In response, the Naval Sea Systems Command conducted a study on whether reducing the top speed requirement from 40 knots to 30 could help keep the ships under the price cap. The Congress asked the Navy to study improvement programs on existing ships in place of the LCS program. In June 2009, Vice Admiral Barry McCullough , USN testified in
7821-630: The possibility of splitting orders for projects like KC-X or the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136 , the Pentagon had already paid the development cost for both designs so there was no further development required for both designs and have them compete for future orders. In December 2010, the Government Accountability Office identified some problems with the designs including extremely long crew training time, unrealistic maintenance plans, and
7920-427: The remaining 24 will be divided into six divisions of four ships each: three divisions of the Freedom class based at Naval Station Mayport , Florida, and three divisions of the Independence class based at Naval Station San Diego , California. The new organization does away with the LCS's signature interchangeable mission module concept, with each division being tasked to fulfill one of the three mission sets. Crewing
8019-399: The same class may be referred to as sister ships . The name of a naval ship class is most commonly the name of the lead ship , the first ship commissioned or built of its design. However, other systems can be used without confusion or conflict. A descriptive name may be used; for example it was decided to group destroyers made to the same design as HMS Tomahawk , all named after weapons, as
8118-506: The sea frames and modules were resolved. In August 2013, the USN revealed plans to reduce the procurement rate in 2016. A 2012 report by Rear Admiral Samuel Perez , USN, found that the ships lacked the manpower and firepower to complete the missions required by regional combatant commanders. The report found that the LCS is "ill-suited for combat operations against anything but" small, fast boats not armed with anti-ship missiles. It also found that
8217-448: The ship is less risky. Placing sensors on remote vehicles allows the LCS to exploit concepts such as bistatic sonar . DARPA 's Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node (TERN) program aims to build a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (MALE UAV) that can operate from LCS-2 and can carry a payload of 600 pounds (270 kg) out to an operational radius of 600–900 nautical miles (1,100–1,700 km). A 2010 report by
8316-741: The ship was managed by Lockheed's Maritime Systems and Sensors (MS2) division, directed by Fred Moosally . On 23 September 2006, LCS-1 was christened and launched at the Marinette Marine shipyard. On 19 January 2006, the keel for the General Dynamics trimaran, USS Independence , was laid at the Austal USA shipyards in Mobile, Alabama. LCS-2 was launched 30 April 2008. In 2007, the U.S. Navy canceled contracts to build LCS-3 of Lockheed Martin and LCS-4 of General Dynamics and Austal USA, citing failure to control cost overruns . Subsequently,
8415-424: The ship, made possible by its low cost. The concept of a manned expendable warship was contentious and the idea was not picked up. When Donald Rumsfeld was made Secretary of Defense in early 2001, he promised transformational approaches and doing jobs with fewer people. In October 2001, Cebrowski was assigned to head the Pentagon's new Office of Force Transformation, shortly after which Admiral Vernon Clark canceled
8514-519: The ships lacked robust communications systems and a USN review "uncovered classified deficiencies" in the ship's cyberdefenses . At a hearing on 25 July 2013, the House Armed Services Committee's seapower subcommittee argued with Vice Admiral Richard W. Hunt on how the LCS would be employed if tensions with North Korea or China led to a confrontation in the Western Pacific. Hunt said the ships are designed in accordance with
8613-615: The ships of different design might not be considered of the same class; each variation would either be its own class, or a subclass of the original class (see County-class cruiser for an example). If ships are built of a class whose production had been discontinued, a similar distinction might be made. Ships in a class often have names linked by a common factor: e.g. Trafalgar -class submarines ' names all begin with T ( Turbulent , Tireless , Torbay ); and Ticonderoga -class cruisers are named after American battles ( Yorktown , Bunker Hill , Gettysburg , Anzio ). Ships of
8712-459: The ships of that class are laid down, launched or commissioned. Due to numbering conventions, the lead ship often has the lowest hull number of its class. (During World War II , the award of construction contracts was not always congruent with completion, so several ships had higher hull numbers than later ships.) Before the 1920s, naval vessels were classified according to shared characteristics. However, naval historians and scholars retro-apply
8811-668: The ships were not expected to operate after being hit. The Navy acknowledged that their failure to communicate clearly that the experimental and developmental nature of the first two ships caused a perception that the overall LCS program was in worse shape. A GAO report in July 2014 found that the annual cost to operate an LCS was $ 79 million, compared to $ 54 million to operate a larger frigate. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus pointed out that new vessels traditionally start off costing more to operate because of difficulties with building and testing ships simultaneously; GAO reports of new warships since
8910-539: The ships' organic weapons systems, the surface warfare package includes two 30 mm gun systems, a counter-boat missile system, two 11-meter rigid hull inflatable boats (RHIBs), and weapons deployed from MH-60 helicopters and MQ-8 Fire Scout UAVs. The surface warfare mission module is intended to deal with small boats and is called the "best swarm killer in the surface fleet". It includes two 30 mm gun mission modules manufactured by Teledyne Brown Engineering, Inc. The Navy's proposed budget for FY 2015 includes funding for
9009-499: The systems cannot be overhauled, and other weight reduction ideas need to be implemented, such as lightening sensors and using composites in the handling system. Plans for the package shifted dramatically in 2011 when it was decided not to use the RMMV, used in the MCM package, in favor of an "in stride" capability. The ASW elements were chosen as cost-effective COTS sensors, so weight reduction needs by between 15 and 25 percent have been planned for since their selection for integration onto
9108-551: The two LCS hulls. In April 2020, it was announced that Fincantieri Marinette Marine had won the contract with its FREMM multi-purpose frigate -based design, which would be eventually adopted as the Constellation -class frigate . The concept behind the littoral combat ship, as described by former Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England , is to "create a small, fast, maneuverable and relatively inexpensive member of
9207-529: The type of cargo such as "oil carrier", "bulk carrier", "mixed carrier" etc. It may also include class notations denoting special abilities of the vessel. Examples of this include an ice class , fire fighting capability, oil recovery capability, automated machinery space capability, or other special ability. Mine countermeasures Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include
9306-533: Was appointed to investigate "challenges identified". Twenty more bunks were installed to allow for a larger crew. In 2013, Captain Kenneth Coleman, the U.S. Navy's requirements officer for the program, identified the LCS as being especially vulnerable to tactical aircraft armed with standoff anti-ship missiles. Vice Admiral Thomas H. Copeman III is reported to be considering an upsized "Super" LCS, with space to install needed firepower, because he noted that
9405-491: Was commissioned before USS Colorado . The West German Navy ( Bundesmarine ) used a three-digit type number for every class in service or in advanced project state. Modified versions were identified by a single letter suffix. After the reunification of Germany the German Navy ( Deutsche Marine ) kept the system. Informally, classes are also traditionally named after their lead ships. The Indonesian Navy has
9504-407: Was commissioned in Mobile, Alabama. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that deploying the first two ships will delay the overall program because these two ships were not available for testing and development so changes may have to be made in the second pair of ships during construction instead of in advance. The U.S. Navy responded that "Early deployment brought LCS operational issues to
9603-471: Was not specified, but sources say it will be both the Harpoon and NSM, each ship equipped with only one model of missile. The directive calls for up to eight missiles, likely in two quad packs, to be installed on box launchers as a standalone system without requiring full integration into the LCS combat system. On 19 July 2016, Coronado conducted a live-fire missile test of a Block 1C Harpoon missile; although
9702-515: Was set for 2015, with a longer-ranged version to enter service around 2017; however, procurement was canceled after the missiles were judged as "too lightweight". An enhanced Griffin and the Sea Spear were considered likely competitors for the increment 2 missile. The Navy chose to integrate the millimeter wave radar-guided AGM-114L Hellfire missile to increase the LCS's standoff firepower and defense against swarming fast attack craft. Navy use of
9801-632: Was the DD-21 , a large coastal warship that could absorb hits. Two Navy strategists, retired Captain Wayne Hughes and Vice Admiral Art Cebrowski, refined an opposing Streetfighter concept for a 1,000-ton small, specialized, and heavily armed vessel costing just $ 90 million (2001 dollars). Being small, light and numerous, the Streetfighter was envisioned as a "single-serving" ship to be abandoned once it suffered battle damage deemed "fatal" to
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