Admiral says Navy needs 45 to 50 Littoral ships

Sea Power, Sep 2003

Speaking at the Potomac Institute of Policy Studies on 6 August, Rear Adm. Mark J. Edwards, deputy director of the Surface Warfare Division in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, said that 45 to 50 Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) are needed by the Navy. He stressed that he does not regard the LCS as a "spinoff of DD(X)," the Navy's next-generation destroyer, but as a ship that will "fill a capability gap" in the fleet and free up more capable multimission ships for strike and other roles.

The Littoral Combat Ship will be a high-speed vessel designed for operations in coastal or littoral areas. Accordingly, it will feature an advanced, shallow-draft hull form capable of moving at speeds of up to 40 or 50 knots. The ship will feature modular mission systems that will tailor it to meet threats likely to be encountered in littoral areas, such as fast attack craft, diesel-electric submarines, and mines.

At the team selection announcement on 17 July, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Vern Clark spoke of the need to dominate the near-land battlespace. "Our enemies will continue to develop asymmetric means to stop us. LCS will be the asymmetric advantage that will allow us to dominate in this critical area. We need this capability as quickly as we can get it to the fleet."

Edwards noted that the introduction of LCS to the fleet might require a "culture change" for crews. One notion being considered is assigning mission crews with interchangeable mission modules, a practice that may result in the ship's commanding officer becoming the "driver" with the mission specialist as the mission commander, similar to the concept used in some multicrew Navy aircraft.

Three industry teams-led by General Dynamics' Bath Iron Works, Lockheed Martin Naval Electronics & Surveillance Systems, and Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems-were selected on 17 July from a field of six competitors. One or two designs from the three lead teams will be selected by May 2004 to be built as Flight 0 LCSs.

Edwards said the construction will begin in January 2005 for the first hull and in early 2006 for the second. Current Navy planning envisions building three more in 2008 and four in 2009.

Sea Service Notes

The Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier USS Constellation-which returned from combat operations off Iraq in June-has been decommissioned after 21 deployments-including seven off Vietnam-in 41 years of active service. The Constellation-which was commissioned in 1961-was retired on 7 August 2003 and will be stored at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. The carrier will be replaced in the Pacific Fleet next year by the newly commissioned Nimitz-class carrier USS Ronald Reagan.

The Maritime Administration has awarded a $14.8 million contract to Post-Service Remediation Partners (PRP) for the disposal of 15 obsolete transport ships from the James River Reserve Fleet in Virginia. AbleUK will dismantle 13 of the ships in Teeside, England. Two other ships will be sold to PRP.