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PARIS --- After spending billions of dollars, the US Navy has finally abandoned the Littoral Combat Ship concept, saying it will turn the first four LCSs into training ships and that all future vessels will be equipped for a single combat mission. Although deliberately worded to minimize its import, the US Navy statement below is a clear acknowledgement that the LCS concept has been an abysmal failure. But, even as it looks to mitigate the disastrous effects of having ordered a dozen LCS at once, before checking whether they performed as claimed (they have not), the Navy makes no mention...

BATH, Maine — The Navy spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to fulfill its need for speed with a new class of fast and agile warships capable of zipping along at highway speeds. It turns out speed is overrated. The Navy has learned lessons from the light-and-speedy littoral combat ships: Upcoming ships will trade some speed in favor of more weapons and heavier armor. Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, director of surface warfare, said the goal is to increase the offensive punch of all warships from the biggest to the smallest. For the littoral combat ship, that'll begin with the...

From its inception, the Littoral Combat Ship, or LCS, has been one of the Navy’s most controversial procurement programs. Questions have been continuously raised about its costs, survivability, lethality, and range limitations.

The Littoral Combat Ship program is poised to make big strides this year in its strike capability, both with over-the-horizon missiles and the shorter-range Longbow Hellfire missile. The Independence-variant USS Coronado (LCS-4) will deploy later this year with the Boeing-built Harpoon anti-ship missile, and engineering is underway to outfit USS Freedom (LCS-1) with the Naval Strike Missile (NSM), a partnership between Kongsberg Defence Systems and Raytheon. Program Executive Officer for Littoral Combat Ships Rear Adm. Brian Antonio told USNI News in a May 2 interview that the Harpoon system will be installed on Coronado within the next month, in time...

Lockheed Martin plans to use proven components from existing ships when it sets out to compete for the Navy's upcoming frigate program. Doing so will make its offering more affordable, a company executive said March 15. The frigate will be a follow-on vessel to the service’s littoral combat ship, which currently exists in two variants — the Freedom-class manufactured by Lockheed and the Independence-class built by Austal USA. In a December memorandum Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter directed the Navy to reduce its combined procurement of littoral combat ships — and the more heavily-armed frigates to follow — from 52...

Boeing Co. is recommending that new Littoral Combat Ships be mounted with Harpoon missile launchers this year before routine trials near Mayport, Florida, a company official said. In a recent interview with Military.com, Jeffrey "Scott" Jones, Boeing's global sales and marketing lead for the Harpoon and a retired Navy rear admiral, said a new upgrade kit that aims to double the missile's range makes it a strong candidate for mounting on the LCS and the frigate that will follow. The Navy's director of surface warfare, Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, called an over-the-horizon missile an "absolute requirement" for the ship in...

The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship struggled in drills at sea to fend off a swarm of small attacking vessels like the Iranian boats it could encounter in the Persian Gulf, according to the Pentagon's chief weapons tester.

At the Surface Navy Association's (SNA) National Symposium currently held near Washington DC, Lockheed Martin is showcasing for the first time a scale model representative of the MMSC (Multi-Mission Surface Combatant) being offered to the Royal Saudi Navy as part of a modernization program of the Saudi navy's eastern fleet called SNEP II (Saudi Naval Expansion Program) LCS Frigate / MMSC scale model in Royal Saudi Navy Configuration as showcased by Lockheed Martin during SNA 2016. Back in October 2015, the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) announced via press release that the U.S. State Department gave its green light...

According to Spanish daily newspaper La Voz de Galicia, Spanish shipyard Navantia is said to be in advanced negotiations with Saudi Arabia for five Avante 2200 corvettes. The newspaper talks about "final phase" of talks. It is likely that Navantia is competing against Lockheed Martin who is offering four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) Ships, an export variant of Lockheed Martin's Freedom class LCS currently in use with the U.S. Navy. We just revealed the design of the MMSC last week while attending the SNA 2016 show. Follow this link to see the pictures. The ships are being offered as part...

The Saudi Arabian government has rejected a $4 billion U.S. military offer to build state-of-the-art Lockheed Martin Littoral Combat warships, citing high costs and a long delivery time. The ruling royal family in Riyadh, which regularly spends heavily on U.S. defense products, has had to tighten its government budgets over the past year because of the plummeting price of oil, which is the country's main source of income. While the deal is not dead yet, Saudi officials are expected to ask for a cheaper price tag and a delivery time under the current seven years as quoted by primary manufacturer...

In an unusually scathing memo to Secretary of the Navy Ray Maybus, Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter has demanded severe changes to the troubled Littoral Combat Ship program. It includes instructions to cut the number of Littoral Combat Ships to be built, and as well as focusing on building one variant, from one shipyard and general contractor. arter has specifically directed Maybus to cut the number of hulls for the LCS program from 52 to 40, and to select a single LCS design-shipbuilder team, instead of the current plan for two completely separate designs and shipbuilders, according to the letter...

(Bloomberg) — The U.S. Navy’s new Littoral Combat Ship would be ineffective at hunting for mines because an underwater drone made by Lockheed Martin Corp. that’s supposed to find them often fails to work, the Pentagon’s weapons-testing office found.

It was announced yesterday that Saudi Arabia wants to purchase four extremely up-gunned Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). The deal will be worth $11.25 billion including weapons and support. This will also be the first export sale for the troubled LCS program, and these Saudi ships will be far more capable than any version of the LCS the Navy plans on procuring. This fact may present an incredible opportunity for the Navy to get the version of the Littoral Combat Ship they really need, and possibly at an awesome price. Saudi Arabia’s highly upgraded variants of the Freedom-class Littoral Combat...

Saudi Arabia will buy up to four Littoral Combat Ships from the US in a deal that could be worth $11.25bn as the kingdom seeks to modernise its navy, Bloomberg has reported. The agency quoted an unnamed American official as saying that the US State Department has approved the sale under the Foreign Military Sales program, which will allow the Saudis to negotiate contracts for the ships. The Littoral Combat Ship is designed in two versions by defence manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Austal. According to Bloomberg, the US is offering a version of the ship called the ‘Multi-Mission Surface Combatant’,...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Whereas a high sprint speed was a driving factor in designing the Littoral Combat Ship, the follow-on frigate will instead be optimized for lethality and survivability, the Navy’s frigate program manager said Thursday. As the LCS program transitions to a multimission frigate, the 40-knot sprint speed requirement will go away to allow for more armor, more weapons, an over-the-horizon missile and full-time anti-torpedo protection, Capt. Dan Brintzinghoffer said at an American Society for Naval Engineers event. This change, he said, is a recognition of simple physics. “If we don’t change anything [in the hull design] and add...

WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia is in advanced discussions with the US government about buying two frigates based on a coastal warship that Lockheed Martin Corp is building for the US Navy, and could reach agreement by the end of the year, according to sources familiar with the talks. The frigate sale, valued at well over $1bn, will be the cornerstone of a long-delayed multibillion dollar modernisation of the Royal Saudi Navy’s Gulf-patroling eastern fleet of ageing US warships and would include smaller patrol boats. It underscores the strong business and military ties between the two countries, despite tensions over the US-led...

Giffords on Hand as Navy Christens Namesake Vessel. The USS Gabrielle Giffords, christened in June 2015, a 419-foot ship built in Alabama, is the Navy’s 10th littoral combat ship, designed to operate in shallow waters near the coast. “The Democrat left Congress and later founded an organization that supports gun control,” according to the Navy Times. The ship was named after her because of “characteristics she exemplified after the attack,” according to unnamed officials, per the Navy Times.In an affront to every American who cherishes the Second Amendment, former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been used to name a new...

Terrorism and Middle East insurgencies are not going away. Yet in the 21st century, the United States must understand it faces a return of a serious national-security concern that shaped the last century: the risk of great-power conflict. The Defense Department’s new military strategy acknowledges this by noting the implications of the renewed rivalry with China and Russia. The possibility of a major war with great powers, like World Wars One and Two, is “growing,” according to the U.S. National Military Strategy released this month. Consider, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is back on high alert after Russia’s land grab...

Russia's "Zelenodolsk Design Bureau" (ZPKB) developped a trimaran vessel concept that Russian Navy is ready to test as "proof of concept" in a scale model. The concept is based on a civilian vessel designed by ZPKB, the "RUSICH-2.2". Zelenodolsk Design Bureau (ZPKB) Trimaran Vessel Concept (SAR) could be Russia's future Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) This military concept is being considered as a possible patrol vessel by the Russian Navy, and for some potential foreign customers. For this reason, in April this year, Russian MoD awarded a contract for proof of concept: The contract and allocated funds are for "Design, construction...

An artist’s representation of a Harpoon Anti-Ship Missile. Boeing Image Hoping to build off of the Navy’s extensive inventory of existing anti-surface missiles, Boeing plans to compete a modified version of the Harpoon RGM-84 anti-ship missile (ASM) for the over the horizon ASM capability for the Littoral Combat Ship and the modified LCS Frigate program, the company announced on Tuesday during the Navy League’s Sea-Air-Space Exposition 2015. Boeing’s bid would add a new warhead and a reconstituted engine for a range of more than 130 nautical miles — up from the about 70 nautical mile range of the current Block...