Posted on 07/29/2014 7:20:54 AM PDT by pabianice
Stealth destroyers, littoral combat ships headed to Pacific, Mabus says
With $3.3 billion Zumwalt, Navy trying for smallest blip on radar
Sometime next year, the USS Zumwalt will begin testing the Tomahawk missiles, GPS-guided munitions and "total ship" computing systems that will make the $3.3 billion vessel the most advanced destroyer in Navy history.
Scope of Navy's LCS program uncertain, despite no clear replacement
The lighter, faster surface fleet of the future may get heavier than Navy leaders have planned, as high-ranking skeptics at the Pentagon try to convince lawmakers that the service is relying too much on a new coastal warfare ship.
Hagel orders cut to LCS plans; reduced operations for carriers
The Navy will not contract for any more than 32 littoral combat ships, 20 less than the Navy planned for, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday in Washington. Stars and Stripes coverage of the Pacific pivot YOKOSUKA NAVAL BASE, Japan — The Navy will send new stealth destroyers, littoral combat ships and an amphibious ready group to the Pacific, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus said Monday, reiterating the U.S. commitment to its military “pivot” to the region.
“The rebalance to the Pacific is real,” Mabus told sailors gathered at Yokosuka’s Fleet Theater for an all-hands call.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
The Navy’s been carrying on about “littoral combat ships” for at least thirty years.
What have we got to show for it?
In Elmo’s SyFy Navy. I remember Elmo’s Navy in the early 70s. Bell bottoms, long hair and sideburns all at a time when soldiers used Dippity Doo to keep their long hair slicked back to conform. Elmo’s sailors didn’t have to worry about all that.
From what the media says....the ships are undermanned and would only work in wartime if everyone onboard pulled a twenty-four shift....for weeks at a time. They’d all be zombies after five days.
Jobs in Democrat precincts and mucho dollars for unions I’d expect,
Mabus. A name found prominently in Nostradamus...
Maybe this is the precedent for the current “Last Ship” series featuring the USS Nathan James.
What have we got to show for it?
Littoral nothing?
You’re looking at it the wrong way!
These destroyers are so “stealthy” that no one has EVER seen one!
Reminds me of something Rumsfiled said i think it was him mining a harbor is as easy as saying you did in a press release
Obama: Ships for the navy are not as important as obama phones for the Amish...
I don’t think radar is the big concern for the Navy. This is nothing but lining the pockets of big campaign contributors in Congress.
Many countries have space-based ship tracking capabilities that do not rely on radar, so stealth ships are a waste of taxpayer monies.
Ski-Doo up Anacostia Creek. You’ll see plenty.
The first DDG-1000 is 90% complete, and should join the fleet on schedule; units two and three are still building at Bath. The capabilities of these vessels are tremendous, but they’re just too darned expensive. Meanwhile, we had existing DDG and cruiser designs that could be updated—and remain mission ready—for years to come.
LCS was a good idea, but poorly executed. Biggest weakness, as I understand it, is a weak anti-air capability. So, if you have an adversary with even a rudimentary anti-ship/cruise missile capability, you’ll still need a cruiser or destroyer to protect the LCS. The idea of building 50 was preposterous, and you can make the case we don’t need the 30 or so that are planned. Meanwhile, we’re going to lay-up almost two dozen cruisers and destroyers so we can can maintain our carrier force (a good idea) while funding the DDG-1000 science project and trying to get something out of the LCS project.
Not built? The Zumwalt was launched last October.
You realize these ships are not the ONLY ones the Navy will have in the pacific... right?
And the LCS may have some flaws, even big ones, but that is not the same as “doesn’t work”. Do the engines run? Can it float? Do the weapons function? Then it ‘works’. How effective it is remains to be seen but you can’t argue that it “doesn’t work”
At least they weren't joined by gays and women.
Yes. Regrettably, that is a very small consolation, though. :o(
At three years to complete one, all three hulls should have been launched and mission-ready by 2021-2026. Nice of the Chinese to wait that long for us to field three DDGs. Perhaps the eleven CG-47s we will have removed from service by then can come back to the fleet. ??
>>LCS was a good idea, but poorly executed. Biggest weakness, as I understand it, is a weak anti-air capability. So, if you have an adversary with even a rudimentary anti-ship/cruise missile capability, you’ll still need a cruiser or destroyer to protect the LCS. The idea of building 50 was preposterous, and you can make the case we don’t need the 30 or so that are planned. Meanwhile, we’re going to lay-up almost two dozen cruisers and destroyers so we can can maintain our carrier force (a good idea) while funding the DDG-1000 science project and trying to get something out of the LCS project.
The mission modules for the LCS can be removed/installed in three weeks, and only at a major shipyard. Tell me how that can be done during a war and make any sense. More than one admiral has called them "little crappy ships." They are going to O-5s instead of O-4s because we have so few ships left. They cannot survive one cruise missile hit and they keep breaking-down with an inadequate crew walking like zombies because of exhaustion. I realize that the Navy has to live within its budget, but this is the wrong way to do it. The ASW module still doesn't work, and the 5th gen AIP subs will run rings around them.
Mission ready... when?
>>And the LCS may have some flaws, even big ones, but that is not the same as “doesn’t work”. Do the engines run?
Not reliably.
>>Can it float?
The hulls are cracking.
>>Do the weapons function? Then it ‘works’.
The mission modules do not work to spec.
>>How effective it is remains to be seen but you can’t argue that it “doesn’t work”
True. The P-3 has been followed by the P-8. Word is that it can't do ASW, which is its primary mission. Again, 5th gen AIP subs will make a shambles of our fleet once the shooting starts. I can only imagine the horrified reaction from the country as they watch several of our carriers burn on live TV.
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