Righting the LCS program

ABOARD USS CORONADO – The Littoral Combat Ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) sailed back to its homeport of San Diego last week after its maiden deployment to the Far East. The LCS program, which has been maligned for a decade, has been mired in dysfunction before departing for Singapore in June 2016. The Coronado broke down five weeks later and spent a month in Hawaii undergoing repairs. Five of eight LCS delivered to the Navy already had suffered “engineering casualties” or expensive mechanical breakdowns at sea that had often been tied to its design and poorly-trained crews. But with the return of LCS 4 following a “boring” tour may have proved critics – like Sen. John McCain - wrong, according to Capt. Jordy M. Harrison, once a bitter critic and now champion as commander of San Diego’s Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 1. Naval Surface Forces reforms to LCS last year have improved the program. Between April and December, the LCS conducted training drills with the navies of 16 nations. In August, during the Pacific Griffin war-games with Singapore’s navy, LCS 4 launched an MQ-8B Fire Scout to find a target over the horizon using a Harpoon anti-ship missile to kill it. Coronado has a light-weight aluminum hull, and water jets instead of propellers. Once armed, the Navy hopes it will become the world’s most lethal jet ski. I'm actually beginning to think that there might be value in continuing to build LCS even as the (frigate) acquisition is underway,” said Bryan McGrath, a retired destroyer commander who directs the Ferry Bridge Group of consultants in Maryland. (Source: San Diego Union-Tribune 12/11/17) Gulf Coast Note: The even-numbered LCS hulls or Independence variant are being homeported in San Diego. They are built by Austal USA’s shipyard in Mobile, Ala.