The LCS 'Little Crappy Ship' Is a Complete Failure
In a stunning revelation that has sent shockwaves throughout the naval community, the Navy's much-touted project, the Littoral combat ship or maybe the 'Little Crappy Ship', has been declared a resounding failure. The ambitious endeavor, aimed at developing a versatile and cost-effective vessel, has fallen short of expectations in every conceivable aspect. The implications of this failure are far-reaching and demand immediate attention. the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to be cheap, fast, flexible, and easy to build.
The LCS program once hailed as a potential game-changer for the Navy, has faced a barrage of setbacks and design flaws since its inception. From propulsion system malfunctions to structural integrity issues, the LCS has proven itself incapable of meeting the rigorous demands and standards set by the Navy. The vessel's combat capabilities have been called into question, jeopardizing its effectiveness in safeguarding the nation's interests.
But after spending $30 billion over a period of around two decades, the U.S. Navy has managed to acquire just 35 of the 3,000-ton-displacement vessels.
Sixteen were in service as of late 2018. Of those 16, four are test ships. Six are training ships. In 2019 just six LCSs, in theory, are deployable. While that number should increase as the remaining ships in the class finally commission into service, the LCS’s low readiness rate calls into question the wisdom of the Navy’s investment in the type. Indeed, the Navy in 2018 didn’t deploy a single LCS, USNI News reported. “The service was supposed to push forward three ships in Fiscal Year 2018, after a 2016 overhaul of LCS homeporting, command and control, and manning constructs.”
“However, USNI News first reported in April 2018 that zero LCSs would deploy in 2018. Since then, the Navy had not talked publicly about progress made towards getting ready to deploy its first LCSs since ships from a block-buy contract started delivering to the fleet at about four a year.”
Navy officials in early 2019 claimed at least three LCSs would deploy before the end of the current fiscal year in September 2019. “We’re deploying LCS this year, it’s happening,” Commander of Naval Surface Forces Vice Adm. Richard Brown told reporters. “Two ships are going on the West Coast; one ship is going on the East Coast, followed shortly in the beginning of ‘20. And that marks the deployment of LCS; there will always be LCS forward-deployed now, just like we designed the program.”
Brown said the LCSs USS Montgomery and USS Gabrielle Giffords would deploy from San Diego to the Western Pacific while USS Detroit deployed from Florida. USS Little Rock in early 2020 also would deploy from Florida.
U.S. Southern Command in February 2019 announced that Detroit would conduct counterdrug operations. "We expect to have a littoral combat ship this year, and that will be a big benefit for our exercise program for our engagement with partners and because of the flexibility it brings for counter-narcotics interdiction," SOUTHCOM commander Adm. Craig Faller said.
When the Navy in the 1990s first began shaping the LCS program, the idea was for the ships to be small, fast, inexpensive and lightly-manned “trucks” into which the sailing branch could plug a wide array of “modules” carrying equipment for specific missions including surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and minesweeping.
In a bid to speed up the production of as many as 55 LCSs, the Navy selected two shipyards -- Lockheed Martin’s facility in Wisconsin and an Austal yard in Alabama -- each to build their own variant of the class. Complications and cost compounded.
“The Littoral Combat Ship program has been unnecessarily complicated from the beginning,” the Project on Government Oversight explained in 2016. “Initially the Navy aimed for each ship to cost $220 million, but the Government Accountability Office estimates procurement costs for the first 32 ships is currently about $21 billion, or about $655 million per ship—nearly triple what they were supposed to cost.”
“The program’s three mission packages, according to the latest select acquisition report, add about $7.6 billion.” It took the Navy nearly two decades to realize the LCS program had failed.
however, in the Department of Defense's Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal, The nine Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships currently in Navy service – the youngest of which was commissioned in 2020 have been marked for disposal.
The Ships – USS Fort Worth (LCS-3), USS Milwaukee (LCS-5), USS Detroit (LCS-7), USS Little Rock (LCS-9), USS Sioux City (LCS-11), USS Wichita (LCS-13), USS Billings (LCS-15), USS Indianapolis (LCS-17), and USS St.Louis (LCS-19).
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