SW boss: Productive year for LCS

Plagued for decades by cost overruns, design and maintenance issues, the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship program has stabilized, according to the Naval Surface Forces’ commander Vice Adm. Tom Rowden, and this year has proved to be a productive one. The NSF boss started a distributive warfare concept overhaul of LCS in late 2016 to change staff, maintenance, and deployments. Over the past year, the LCS program has stationed Gulf Coast-built trimaran-hulled ships USS Montgomery and USS Gabrielle Giffords in San Diego; and forward-deployed sister Independence-class USS Coronado to Singapore. Coronado was first LCS to operate the MQ-8B Fire Scout helicopter drone; and fired the first over-the-horizon Harpoon missile. The Navy will commission the LCS Omaha in San Diego in 2018. Vice Adm. Rowden has designated one of the new LCS squadrons to serve primarily as minesweepers. The mine-countermeasures warfare package has been under development at Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City, Fla. (Source: San Diego Union-Tribune 08/10/17) Gulf Coast Note: The Independence variant of LCS is built by Austal USA shipyards in Mobile, Ala.