The U.S. Navy, which has just announced the retirement of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers, has received another piece of bad news.
According to US media reports, the new generation of American frigates, the Constellation-class frigates, is likely to be delayed for three years before they can enter service. Why is the postponement of the commissioning of a frigate a bad news for the US Navy? Because the Constellation class has a very special place in the US Navy.
First of all, before the Constellation class entered service, the US Navy did not have frigates, yes, you heard it right, there is not a single frigate in the active ships of the US Navy. Why is this happening? This has to start with a strategic transformation of the US Navy 20 years ago.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States became the world's only superpower, and the enemy of the huge fleet of the US Navy also changed from the invincible fleet of the Soviet Union to the slipper army of the Middle East. In this case, the original frigates are becoming less and less useful in the U.S. Navy because they do not have ground combat capabilities, so in 2015, after the last Perry-class frigate was decommissioned, the U.S. Navy has not launched a single frigate so far.
As a substitute for frigates, the U.S. Navy has taken a fancy to littoral combat ships with strong coastal combat capabilities, which are used for coastal operations and cover the landing of troops.
This project was established in 2001, and just two years after development began in 2004, the first littoral combat ship, the USS Liberty, was launched in 2006 and began its first mission in 2010.
Just when the US Navy was complacent about its "genius" ideas, problems arose.
In order to meet the needs of the U.S. Navy for Littoral Combat Ships to have many combat missions such as anti-surface, anti-mine, and anti-submarine, designers and manufacturers have given Littoral Combat Ships the ability to replace "modular mission packages".
But there is a good saying, anything will be, it means that nothing is fine, although the Littoral Combat Ship has a variety of combat capabilities, but the level can only be said to be very average, and most importantly, it does not have air defense capabilities, which means that in the face of anti-ship ballistic missiles, it is no different from a fishing boat, if you insist on saying that there is a difference, it may only be that in order to reduce weight, the aluminum alloy used is easier to burn. And all kinds of designs also have a fatal drawback: the cost is high!
The Littoral Combat Ship Program, which took 20 years, cost the United States 30 billion US dollars, and finally added the planned construction, but only 35 ships, one nearly 900 million US dollars, do you know how much does a mainland 056A frigate cost if it has similar capabilities to a Littoral Combat Ship? 700 million yuan, and a 054A is only 300 million US dollars.
The most important thing is that the rapid rise of the Chinese Navy has taken the United States by surprise and has no choice but to return to the idea of a decisive battle in the oceans.
Therefore, in 2021, the United States identified Everett Naval Base as the home port of the next generation of Constellation-class frigates in the United States, marking the complete failure of the Littoral Combat Ship program.
In other words, the Constellation-class frigate will be the core of the future anti-submarine power of the US Navy, and at the same time, it can also supplement the air defense loopholes caused by the retirement of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers. The most important thing is that the relatively low-cost constellation class can quickly fill the power gap caused by the retirement of a large number of warships, so that the US Navy will not be overstretched in the face of the PLA's "dumpling" fleet.
But now, because of design and construction problems, it has to be postponed for 3 years before it can be launched, these three years are enough for the PLA to launch a batch of four 055 large drive and a batch of four 054 series frigates, even if there is no aircraft carrier, such 8 warships go out, it is also an invincible ocean-going fleet.
The United States, what will it do to fight a decisive battle in the oceans?