10 February 2016

Editorial: Can the Littoral Combat Ship Really Put an ‘Enemy Fleet on the Bottom of the Ocean’?

By Franz-Stefan Gady

Two U.S. senators think that the US Navy is overstating the capabilities of the Littoral Combat Ship.

In a letter to the secretary of the navy, Ray Mabus, and the U.S. Navy’s chief of naval operations, Admiral John Richardson, the senior leaders of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee—Senators John McCain and Jack Reed—question the warfighting capabilities of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) and the “Pentagon’s ability to develop and procure weapon systems in an effective, timely, and affordable manner.”

“We seldom hear from Navy leaders about these challenges and the path to achieving full operational capability. Instead, Navy leaders seem to be promoting the warfighting capabilities of the LCS,” the letter reads.

McCain and Reed take especially issue with remarks delivered by Ray Mabus at last month’s Surface Navy Association (SNA) symposium, where he said that:

[b]ecause [LCS] can deploy with a carrier strike group, because they have such robust anti-mine and anti-submarine capabilities we’re redesignating them as frigates… a group of small surface ships like LCS is still capable of putting the enemy fleet on the bottom of the ocean. Now that’s the success story.

However, the letter notes that this statement and other similar statements “do not appear to reflect the reality of the LCS program.” The senators go on to list a number of shortcomings and delays in the LCS program. Among other things, the letter questions the operational range of the LCS and whether it could be deployed along with a carrier strike groups.

Read the full story at The Diplomat