Lawmakers: Slow LCS deployments

A pair of bi-partisan U.S. senators on the Armed Services Committee is urging Navy leadership to “reevaluate the deployment strategy” of new Littoral Combat Ships until more successful testing of its plug-in warfare packages. Six LCS, of a planned 40 to be delivered, have “practically no LCS mission capabilities proven” on any of its three warfare packages, Sens. John McClain and Jack Reed wrote in a Feb. 5 letter to the Navy Secretary and Chief of Naval Operations. In the Obama administration’s “pivot to the Pacific,” the Navy has deployed one LCS to Singapore, and plans to have two there by December - four by 2018. The deployed USS Fort Worth has been sidelined since a major crew-caused maintenance failure in January. There’s no timeline for declaring the LCS combat-ready for its top mission of mine-clearing, the senators wrote, and are “still years away from an LCS anti-submarine warfare” initial capability. In December, SECDEF Ash Carter directed the Navy to cut 12 ships from an initial 52-ship buy mix of original LCS and better-armed and upgraded variants. Twenty-six are under contract. The ships’ surface warfare system has “significant unresolved deficiencies,” the senators wrote, and lacks the ability to take out enemies from long range. (Source: Bloomberg News 02/08/16) Gulf Coast Shipbuilding and Maritime Note: Austal USA Shipyard at Mobile, Ala., builds the Independence class variant of LCS. The mine counter-measures (MCM) warfare package is currently being tested with USS Independence in the Gulf of Mexico. Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, Fla., works with the LCS program office in development and testing of the MCM package.