Second US Navy LCS gains its ‘Independence’

Jan. 28, 2010 - PRLog -- Having passed acceptance trials at the end of last year, the vessel, designed and built under a joint effort by General Dynamics Corporation and Austal, was ushered into active duty this month to begin assessment of its capabilities.

Much is at stake for both the LCS-2 and the preceding USS Freedom LCS-1 from Lockheed Martin. Evaluation of the ships over the coming months will determine which of the rival contractors will secure contracts worth over $25 billion to manufacture a 55-strong fleet to patrol the littorals.

Independence has a low resistance trimaran hull form which will allow it to reach a speed of 44 knots. She can carry multiple armoured vehicles, including the new EFV, and has a roll-on/roll-off access ramp. Meanwhile, the flight deck can support two Seahawk helicopters, multiple UAVs or a single Sea Stallion helicopter.

The ship may soon be manned by a crew of just 75, in response to the recent need of financial restraint.

High-profile criticism has followed the LCS programme since its inception ten years ago. In a recent interview with Defence IQ, renowned naval consultant and author Professor Norman Freidman stated that the initial concept was a good idea, but that in the process of bringing the plan to fruition, the original intentions were lost to make way for other needs:

“One misfortune is that as it was being designed, the concept of what modularity meant changed radically. So what you have is something that starts out as a fairly tight thing – frigate-sized – and as it’s going, the ability to launch vehicles becomes more important and has to be grafted on, helicopter flight decks become more important…all of this distorts the idea very badly.

And on top of that, someone thought it would be terribly clever to make it very fast. That tends to be attractive to people but probably not a good idea. High-speed tends to be very expensive.”

Charles W. Robinson, former US Deputy Secretary of State and current president of M Ship Co. took up the same line. “While the LCS is faster than our current destroyers and frigates, excessive power is required to push past the inherent hull speed limit of about 40 knots for these displacement vessels,” he said.

“This results in a voracious appetite for fuel with unsustainable operating costs at high speed, thereby partially negating its speed advantage. This also limits its ability to counter asymmetric threats such as piracy, drug submarines and terrorists in small boats. In addition, it is not sufficiently shallow-draft to support our forces near and on shore, and is vulnerable to radar-controlled enemy weaponry.”

US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Gary Roughead defended the programme, highlighting that the Freedom is currently being used to deploy aid to Haiti, and that were further ships available, the operation would be far more efficient. The crux, he says, is in preserving assets to keep the budget down. “The stuff that we buy is going to be around for a long time, so we need to get as much flexibility out of it [as possible]."

He insisted: “I would walk on hot coals to commission another ship…I need numbers. We have a capability gap over our adversaries, but I need numbers.”

The Navy is expected to procure two LCS vessels a year for the next five years, along with offering an opportunity to develop the electronics system for several other ships.

The latest technological developments strategies and design methods for littoral ship and harbour protection will be on the agenda at the Littoral Ship Defence 2010 event being held in London between March 22 - 23. For more information, visit www.littoralshipdefence.com, email enquire@iqpc.co.uk, or call +44 (0)20 7368 9301.

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