What you need to know: The U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program is widely viewed in retrospect as a failure due to persistent maintenance problems, cost overruns, and an unclear mission profile. Designed as a versatile multi-role ship for littoral operations, the LCS was designed to perform a variety of missions, from anti-submarine warfare to mine sweeping.
However, the ships faced propulsion system failures, contractor maintenance, and difficulties changing mission configurations.
– 52 ships were originally planned to be built, but only 31 were built or were under construction, and some were taken out of service prematurely – some after only five years of service. The LCS, criticized for being under-armed and unable to survive in a hostile combat environment, will likely be phased out and remembered as a costly failure.
Littoral warship: how high hopes turned into disappointment
Was there US Navy Littoral Combat Ship Program a error?
In retrospect, yes, the program appears to have been a mistake; The once much-touted ship of the future is less than two decades old but is already being retired. Problem: Constant maintenance problems, unclear goals and cost overruns.
What is/was a littoral combat ship or LCS?
Littoral Combat Ship is a surface vessel built for littoral operations that can do a little bit of everything, like a Swiss Army knife or the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. On paper, the littoral combat ship was designed to perform everything from anti-submarine warfare to surface warfare, reconnaissance, interception, minesweeping and more.
All.
The littoral combat ship even carried helicopters, drones, and assault teams that could further expand the ship’s capabilities.
The only thing the Littoral Battleship wasn’t developed for open combat.
The Navy initially focused its efforts on the battleship Litoral and planned to purchase fifty-two vessels. But the original plans were scaled back, leaving only thirty-one littoral combat ships either built or under construction.
How did the program go?
The Littoral Combat Ship program was a failure. Costing billions and billions of dollars, come back investment was limited. Underscoring the failure of the program, several littoral combat ships have already been taken out of service. I write “already” because the Littoral Combat Ship was designed to have a shelf life of twenty-five years.
But the USS Freedom lasted only thirteen years. The aircraft carrier USS Independence lasted only eleven years. The USS Detroit served only seven years before being decommissioned last September. USS Sioux City five years. The USS Sioux City cost taxpayers $362 million. Five years for $362 million is a bad investment.
The program is just a complete mess, especially regarding the propulsion system. “The high speed required a complex propulsion system that, two decades later, breaks down so frequently…the type is struggling to complete deployment,” Forbes reports.
Another problem: Ship maintenance relies heavily on contractors, meaning the Navy itself is often unable to perform frequently needed maintenance.
And while the coastal warship was developed To be a jack of all trades capable of performing many different roles, changing role configurations has proven so problematic that the Navy simply sticks to one configuration per ship.
“Perhaps worst of all, to keep the hulls’ roughly $500 million-per-ship cost down, the Navy decided to arm them only with light weapons, cannons and short-range self-defense missiles,” Forbes reports. The light weapons configuration is likely to be an issue in a direct conflict with China. Indeed, as one 2010 Pentagon report put it: the littoral combat ship cannot survive in a hostile combat environment, but it is too large and too expensive to fulfill a reconnaissance role.
Although the Navy still has several brand new littoral combat ships, the vessel will likely be phased out and remembered as a failure.
About the Author: Harrison Kass
Harrison Cass is a defense and national security writer who has written a total of more than 1,000 articles on issues related to global affairs. A lawyer, pilot, guitarist and minor professional hockey player, Harrison enlisted in the United States Air Force as a trainee pilot but was discharged due to health reasons. Harrison received a bachelor’s degree from Lake Forest College, a J.D. from the University of Oregon, and a master’s degree from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
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