The US "Forbes" website published an article on October 25, saying that the US Navy hopes to keep four troubled coastal combat ships (LCS) near China, and has already deployed three.
【Independence-class littoral combat ship】
The U.S. Navy has finally deployed a sizable number of controversial coastal combat ships in the crowded waters of the western Pacific, providing them with some of the weapons they need to survive the conflict with the Chinese fleet. But the deployment of LCS in waters near China has not stopped the U.S. Navy from trying to retire some long-developed LCSs, even though they have only been in service for a few years.
In mid-October, the U.S. Seventh Fleet deployed three LCSs in the western Pacific, all of which belong to the Independence class. On October 21, Tulsa and Jackson conducted exercises with the German Navy frigate Bayern in the waters off Guam. Four days ago, the Charleston visited Subic Bay in the Philippines.
Photos of the battleships show that all three LCSs carry naval strike missiles (NSMs) with a range of 100 miles. As early as the late 1990s, the U.S. Navy designed the LCS, which was extremely rudimentary in its armament, with only a 57mm gun, short-range self-defense missiles, an MH-60 helicopter and an MQ-8 drone. The idea was that the 3,000-ton displacement, shallow draft ship would act as a high-speed "truck" carrying plug-and-play modules for a variety of missions, including anti-submarine, mine-clearing, and defense enemy dinghy equipment.
[NSM missile launcher installed on the "Independence" class littoral combat ship】
But the modules have all had problems developing, and when China deploys a large number of heavily armed warships, each $600 million worth of LCS is almost useless. Adding NSM missiles to the LCS will benefit them. Such shallow-water ships still lack long-range anti-aircraft missiles, but can at least sink enemy ships at a distance. The U.S. Navy insists that within a few years, all deployed LCS will have NSM missiles.
At the same time, the U.S. Navy cut its module development program. The U.S. Navy intends to permanently install one module, rather than replacing various modules on the LCS. Half of the LCS will receive anti-submarine equipment, and the other half will be equipped with mine-hunting equipment. However, it is unclear how many LCs the U.S. Navy will retain for the long term. In addition to being inadequately weaponized, the LCS is also mechanically unreliable, especially the Freedom class, which is a single hull. The "Freedom" class's high-power diesel-fuel power unit can push it up to about 40 knots, but the gear set keeps failing. The U.S. Navy plans to eventually replace the gears at a cost of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, the U.S. Navy has stopped accepting the new Freedom class, resulting in a backlog of several LCS ships at the Marinett Naval Shipyard in Wisconsin.
The Independence-class trimaran, built in Alabama by the Austal Shipyard, is in better condition than the Liberty class. The U.S. Navy has ordered 35 LCSs, 19 Independence class and 16 Freedom class, and should deliver the last Independence class in the coming years.
But the U.S. Navy's surface fleet is desperate to phase out the latest LCs, claiming that they don't fully meet production standards, and that Navy officials insist the cost of upgrading is too high. Liberty and Independence retired this summer and fall after serving a little more than a decade ago. Now the U.S. Navy wants to phase out three more monolithic LCs and one three-body LCS as part of the U.S. Navy's 2022 budget proposal. Unless Congress steps in, four LCs could leave the fleet in March.
【Freedom-class coastal combat ship】
In this case, the U.S. Navy has only 29 LCs left at most, provided of course that the last few Freedom class can leave the shipyard. That's only half the amount of LCS the U.S. Navy once planned to buy. Even so, such nearshore warships would still occupy nearly a tenth of the U.S. Navy's front-line fleet.
Therefore, the U.S. Navy has no choice but to let the LCS work. The good news is that the "independent" level has finally made a meaningful contribution. The U.S. Navy stationed all trisolaran LCS at the San Diego base, from where it set out to support the Seventh Fleet. The Florida-based monolithic LCS will sail in the waters of the Southern United States.
The U.S. Navy has established a new destroyer maintenance squadron in Singapore with the task of maintaining Independence-class patrols. The U.S. Navy will also regularly deploy trisolaran LCS to Okinawa and Guam to provide additional support.
Author: Slightly fat
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