Admiral: Excited for 2018 & LCS

SAN DIEGO - The Navy’s surface fleet has had a difficult 2017: Collisions of destroyers USS John S. McCain and USS Fitzgerald claimed 17 sailors’ lives, and produced a pair of scathing reviews of the Navy’s decision-making. But the surface force has also chipped away at long-standing issues, like fixing the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program by revamping training for those sailors and putting more lethal weapons on more ships. The focus now for the LCS is on how to get crews trained, ships deployed, and to be sure the Navy can materially support them. The best part, according to Vice Adm. Thomas Rowden, commander of the Naval Surface Force Pacific's HQ, is getting those LCS into the hands of sailors “in order to really wring out everything they are going to be able to deliver to the combatant commanders.” USS Coronado (LCS 4) recently returned to San Diego from an LCS trimaran-hull’s first deployment. The Navy “learned a lot about what it could do, learned a lot about what we needed to do to support its operations forward,” Rowden said. LCS 4 performed “very, very well” for the 7th Fleet. Rowden has also been pleased with the LCS’ surface warfare and anti-submarine packages. But there have been challenges with the mine-countermeasures (MCM) warfare system. Still, Rowden says he’s “really excited” about 2018 and for LCS (Source: Defense News 01/04/18) Gulf Coast Note: Trimaran hulls are Independence class LCS and built along the Gulf Coast by Austal USA shipyards in Mobile, Ala. Repairs to the USS Fitzgerald will be handled at HII-Pascagoula, Miss.