Naval capabilities
The modular
ccording to former US secretary of the navy, Gordon R England, the original idea behind the littoral combat ship (LCS) was to “create a small, fast, manoeuvrable and relatively inexpensive member of the DD(X) family of ships”. Pivotally, the LCS was conceived as a modular vessel, capable of reconfiguring for various roles by changing mission packages, from anti-submarine warfare (ASW); mine countermeasures (MCM); intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); and more.
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When it was approved as part of the US Department of Defense’s 2003 budget, the LCS was seen as the answer to all of the challenges facing the US Navy. And even as the programme faced cost overruns, delays, mechanical failures and questions over the ships’ survivability in high-intensity combat, any attempts to cut the LCS’s budget were shot down by politicians and navy leaders. Now, with the ships facing potential decommissioning – and indeed, the USS Freedom, Independence and Coronada have already come to the end of their service – it’s apparent that the approximately $500m spent on each of the 23 LCSs might have been better used elsewhere. That original
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sea change
For modern navies, modularity can enhance persistence, sustainability and effectiveness while improving effi ciency, cost and integration. Nicholas Kenny speaks with Emma Salisbury, US
military-industrial complex expert and PhD candidate at Birkbeck College, University of London, and retired Rear Admiral Nils Wang, director of Naval Team Denmark and former chief of the Royal Danish Navy, to learn more about the benefi ts offered by such an approach.
concept of a “relatively inexpensive” vessel, at least, was clearly lost at some point along the way.
The cost of everything So why, then, were the LCS’s supporters so eager to keep the programme going? “The LCS’s problems were really to do with the interplay between Congress and the defence industrial base,” notes Emma Salisbury, US military-industrial complex expert and PhD candidate at Birkbeck College, University of London. “The way in which modularity played into this was that it was very much touted as a reason why the LCS should not be cancelled, [even] when the armed services committee wanted to.”
Not only was modularity held up as a solution to all of the challenges faced by a modern navy, but pivotally it would also help to minimise costs – enabling navies to do more with less. “When you’re trying to plan a naval fleet structure 30, 40 or 50 years into the future, and you have to plan it with such specificity, that becomes a lot more difficult if you have restricted budgets,” Salisbury adds. For example, having a single hull that can have its mission packages swapped out not only saves money – as you only have to design
Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
US Navy - Mineman 2nd Class Justin Hovarter
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