Cali lawmaker raps LCS

In a session of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee on May 17, U.S. Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) criticized the Littoral Combat Ship program and Navy efforts to develop 40 of total ships among two variants with three plug-in mission-module warfare packages. “The fundamental argument made by the Navy and by the defense industry was, ‘Well, we gotta continue to produce another 20 of these ships that serve really no good purpose and, by the way, will probably be sunk at the very first shot that’ll be fired and don’t have much utility, but we need to do it because we need to keep the defense base working’,” Garamendi said. Other lawmakers have called for expanding the LCS program. The Navy plans to double-down on the concept of modularity in part to expand its fleet to 355 ships, and with plans for a future frigate, possibly from one of the current LCS designs. (Source: DOD Buzz 05/18/17) Gulf Coast Note: Austal USA of Mobile, Ala., builds the Independence Class variant of LCS. The shipbuilder recently showed off a model of its future frigate design at the Navy Leagues Sea-Air-Space Conference. The from-the-LCS design changes include a shorter flight deck for eight more anti-ship missiles (total 16). Reports indicate Navy’s attention in the design is the option of adding a vertical launch missile system that can fire a wide range of missiles that would increase its lethality at longer ranges. The Navy has pushed back plans to award a $9B frigate contract to 2019 for further study.