(MENAFN- Asia Times) How do you build a ship without a mission? The littoral combat ship (LCS) is how.
It could not carry out its original mission because the ship is not survivable in combat. The billions wasted on theNavy's so-called“urban street fighter” ship could have been used to build additional missile defense AEGIS destroyers or give the Navy more firepower or finance a new generation of robotic surface and subsurface vessels.
Instead, the Navy chose to build ships it did not need and could not use. Even when they were deployed, they often broke down, deeply embarrassing the Navy and harmingprestige. Worse yet, the Navy worked hard to salvage the ships – to no avail – by improving their firepower without making them more reliable.
An all-aluminum trimaran-hulled Independence-class littoral combat ship. Photo:Naval Institute
Neither version of the littoral combat ship (one of them is a steel-hulled ship with an aluminum superstructure; the other is an all-aluminum trimaran
design) can perform the original mission, which was
“envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable of defeating
anti-access
and
asymmetric threats
in the
littorals.”
Achieving a stealthy design on a big, high-speed ship is a non-trivial idea, particularly where the ship is supposed to operate in littoral areas that is close to harbors and close to enemy bases and infrastructure. Any half-competent lookout station can see them coming with the naked eye.
The Israeli corvette Hanit in port after the 2006 attack. Photo: Wikipedia
Along the coast, LCS ships would be vulnerable to enemy anti-ship missiles – such as
old Chinese models including the C-802
(now rebadged as the YJ-82), which struck the Israeli Sa'ar V-class corvette INS Hanit, killing four sailors and partially disabling the ship.
The Hanit
was operating 10 nautical miles from Beirut.
The Hanit was a victim of a slow missile fired by the terrorist group Hezbollah.
But against China or Russia, with supersonic and hypersonic missiles, the LCS would not survive.
The
Pentagon said
the LCS was“not survivable in a combat environment” – although the Navy disagreed.
China and Russia both have developed highly effective anti-ship missiles that can be launched from land or sea.
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