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The Navy Now Wants To Retire The First Four Of Its Troublesome Littoral Combat Ships
The Drive ^ | February 10, 2020 | Tyler Rogoway

Posted on 02/12/2020 4:34:09 AM PST by mowowie

It was something many of us saw as a near-certain eventuality, the Navy has formally announced that it wants to retire its first four Littoral Combat Ships. Split evenly across both the Freedom and Independence classes of the failed Littoral Combat Ship concept, the oldest of the vessels was commissioned just 12 years ago, the youngest a mere six years ago. Yes, you read that right—six years ago! The troublesome fleet within a fleet has been serving as a training and test force, a dubious role from the start that the Navy says isn't even needed anymore. Giving up on the vessels as front line ships began a few years ago as part of a restructuring plan that was initiated as the program became increasingly mired in technological and logistical turmoil.

(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Miscellaneous
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To: mowowie
...serving as a training and test force...

Well, in that regard they were a success. If the intent was to learn from them then we did. We learned we don't want to build ships like that. An expensive lesson to be sure. The real question is, have we learned that lesson now? Or are we going to continue to build out the rest of the planned fleet? I would think maybe they should apply those $$$ toward getting the next/replacement class of ship into service sooner rather than later and not build any more.

21 posted on 02/12/2020 4:54:11 AM PST by ThunderSleeps ( Be ready!)
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To: mowowie

A galactic waste of funds, as many here said at the time.


22 posted on 02/12/2020 4:56:02 AM PST by VTenigma (The Democrat party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
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To: TokarevM57
the defense contractors

and the politicians that line their pockets with kick backs.

I have got an idea. Strip them of any or our most sensitive equipment and sell them to Iran.

Then we can use them for target practice. Win win.....

23 posted on 02/12/2020 4:58:34 AM PST by eartick (Stupidity is expecting the government that broke itself to go out and fix itself. Texan for TEXIT!)
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To: Texas Fossil

I thought the Belknap fire already proved the hazard of using aluminum in ship construction.


24 posted on 02/12/2020 4:59:27 AM PST by meatloaf
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To: mowowie

Call Glen Beck. He’ll find out which congressmen and senators had their pockets packed to push the pig through the pokie.


25 posted on 02/12/2020 5:01:44 AM PST by Torahman (Remember the Maccabees)
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To: meatloaf

flammable ships make no sense?
nor do escort F-35 that cannot go 3x
the distance to the current missile gouting targets?
unless planned for failure by obola?


26 posted on 02/12/2020 5:04:30 AM PST by Diogenesis ( WWG1WGA)
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To: mowowie

Give them to the Canadians.


27 posted on 02/12/2020 5:04:34 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: lurk

[A very expensive experiment. There must be a balance between innovation and real world function.]


Even the dead ends are beneficial in thrashing out issues that are difficult to isolate in the abstract. If you start out with a zero defect mentality, you will achieve zero defects, but also end up with zero breakthroughs. Commercial innovation is shot through with failures. Why should defense procurement be any different? On the bright side, nothing like this incident involving the Sergeant York system ever occurred with the LCS (that we know of):

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/M247_Sergeant_York
[In February 1982 the prototype was demonstrated for a group of US and British officers at Fort Bliss, along with members of Congress and other VIPs. When the computer was activated, it immediately started aiming the guns at the review stands, causing several minor injuries as members of the group jumped for cover. ]


28 posted on 02/12/2020 5:07:08 AM PST by Zhang Fei (My dad had a Delta 88. That was a car. It was like driving your living room.)
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To: wastoute
I thought we were still at 11 overall? A quick search shows 19 delivered, 11 being constructed. Putting it together, the four designated as test ships are the ones being retired.

From the Navy, "A total of 35 LCS have been awarded to date: 19 ships have been delivered (LCS 1-18 and 20); 11 additional LCSs are under various stages of construction and five are in the pre-construction phase."

Lots of detail by the Navy at https://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4200&tid=1650&ct=4

29 posted on 02/12/2020 5:08:16 AM PST by Reno89519 (No Amnesty! No Catch-and-Release! Just Say No to All Illegal Aliens! Arrest & Deport!)
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To: TokarevM57

“... the defense contractors make out like the bandits that they are,...”

As with everything, the real truth is much more complicated and messy than a breezy label suggests. I spent an entire career in military contracting and even had a fifty-four million dollar project that was ruined by putting it aboard these floating turkeys. (The small helicopter they use could not safely tow my equipment so, (and with other reasons) the project was cancelled.)

In every case I dealt with that ended up being a huge drain on assets, the engineers tried to warn management and the customer about what problems they foresaw. And, in each case politics and money (pork) prevailed and political decisions, not engineering decisions, caused the projects to miserable, expensively, fail.

Virtually every military and civilian contractor I spoke with about the littoral ship knew it was a failure in the making. This was years before we had four of them. I gathered the littoral concept was backed by some admiral with a lot of pull.

I noticed as engineers and professionals rose in power and their jobs increased in scope, they still applied the solutions that had worked before, but were now outdated. I think as (some) people rise in power and prestige they become isolated and stop developing technical skills because they are now developing political skills. They also stop listening to, or are isolated from, those who have the skills and advice that would make the project a success.


30 posted on 02/12/2020 5:11:24 AM PST by Gen.Blather
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To: ealgeone

Well, that was a waste of money.

Make that a lot of money. Money available is not a bottomless pool. Between this and retrofitting ships and subs for diverse crews is money just plain blown to hell.
So, rather than say developing a new ICBM (The Minuteman was designed in the 60s), we spend money on fantasy.

But, not only that, it pushes back the timeline for having ships that actually work. A few corporations hired enough former DoD personnel as lobbyists and the rest is a sad history. The bunch of suckers living off the DC swamp is beyond what our nation can stand IMO. The satire movie “Pentagon Wars” is a commentary on how this stuff happens.


31 posted on 02/12/2020 5:13:41 AM PST by Mouton (The media is the enemy of the people.)
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To: Texas Fossil
Seeing what real weaponry does to either of the designs could be beneficial

That could be their ultimate contribution to the Navy. Anchor those things off shore and put a harpoon into each one of them, and let the results be a lesson for future builders.

32 posted on 02/12/2020 5:23:13 AM PST by grobdriver (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
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To: wastoute

Ummm, no. HMS Sheffield was made of steel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Sheffield_(D80)

The sinking of Sheffield is sometimes blamed on a superstructure made wholly or partially from aluminium, the melting point and ignition temperature of which are significantly lower than those of steel. However, this is incorrect as Sheffield’s superstructure was made entirely of steel.[30] The confusion is related to the US and British navies abandoning aluminium after several fires in the 1970s involving USS Belknap and HMS Amazon and other ships that had aluminium superstructures.[30][a] The sinking of the Type 21 frigates Antelope and Ardent, both of which had aluminium superstructures, probably also had an effect on this belief, though these cases are again incorrect and the presence of aluminium had nothing to do with their loss.[31][32][33]


33 posted on 02/12/2020 5:28:26 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Reno89519
"A total of 35 LCS have been awarded to date: 19 ships have been delivered (LCS 1-18 and 20); 11 additional LCSs are under various stages of construction..."

Please - MAKE IT STOP!!

34 posted on 02/12/2020 5:29:43 AM PST by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again".)
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To: Mr Ramsbotham

Nobody wants the LCS in the US Navy configurations. The Saudis are the only people that have ordered some; they dumped the stupid modular mission system and significantly upgunned them with the space and weight savings.


35 posted on 02/12/2020 5:30:50 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: meatloaf

Yes it did.


36 posted on 02/12/2020 5:32:32 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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To: wastoute

>>>thank god we only bought 4. You know there was at least one congressman who wanted a thousand

Two Congressmen perhaps. The shipyards building these ships are in Green Bay and Mobile.


37 posted on 02/12/2020 5:34:49 AM PST by oincobx
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To: mowowie
the oldest of the vessels was commissioned just 12 years ago

And how many billions of dollars were spent on the R&D for these things, along with the actual construction and operating costs, to say nothing of the cost to decommission these failed ships? Who will be held responsible for this monumental screw-up and this colossal waste of taxpayer money? Aside from the taxpayer, who always ends up being held responsible for the idiotic things the idiots in our government and military do.
38 posted on 02/12/2020 5:36:17 AM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: TokarevM57

To be fair, in this case it was the government that kept stacking missions and capabilities on top of the LCS designs. As originally envisioned, on their original mission, they probably would have been just fine (think Persian Gulf shipping escorts), but (among others) the Obama Navy decided to make them replace multimission frigates instead of keeping them to brownish-water oversized patrol craft.

I’m sure the defense contractors didn’t say no, but all the reports I’ve read have said the contractors were not pushing the government to expand the mission of the craft.


39 posted on 02/12/2020 5:36:23 AM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: meatloaf; grobdriver

When The Guided Missile Cruiser USS Belknap Collided with the Aircraft Carrier USS John F. Kennedy

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/uss-belknap-collided-aircraft-carrier.html

I remembered the event, but needed some refreshing. In military equipment, there is no room for forgiveness and what works, Works.


40 posted on 02/12/2020 5:42:14 AM PST by Texas Fossil ((Texas is not where you were born, but a Free State of Heart, Mind & Attitude!))
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