Let's look back at what the CNO had to say about deploying LCS early.
"Deploying LCS now is a big step forward in getting this ship where it needs to be – operating in the increasingly important littoral regions," said Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations. "We must deliver this critical capability to the warfighter now."...and as I suspected - where is this "increasingly important littoral region" that the LCS will deliver its transformational ability to the "warfighter now?"
The littoral combat ship Freedom nosed away from the quay wall here Tuesday to begin a deployment that will take it on patrols for smugglers in the Caribbean and then, at last, to its homeport of San Diego.Beautiful. Counter Narcotics.
The CNO painted himself in a happy-talk corner, and that is unfortunate. A man in his position should not so easily fall into lingo-laden hype. Sad.
But wait, there's more.
“I want to recognize the hard work it took to get the ship to this point,” said Rear Adm. Vic Guillory, commander of 4th Fleet, who talked briefly with reporters on the pier before the Freedom’s crew took up lines.From two syllables to five syllables. How transformational.
Guillory addressed the crew in the ship’s hangar — or “airborne mission zone,” in LCS parlance
...
In addition to its core crew of 40 sailors, Freedom is carrying a detachment from Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 22, the Sea Knights; a module crew for its partial surface warfare package; and two Visit, Board Search and Seizure teams, including sailors from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command and a Coast Guard law enforcement detachment. Altogether, Garner said there were about 90 people on board for the sail-away from Mayport.
...and it is only a tailored, partial mission package.
We have been doing CN for how many decades? Where can LCS do the CN mission that we cannot now? Etc, etc. OPS NORMAL for this program though - razzle-dazzle with hype; consume unfathomable amounts of cash; and underperform.
Hey, I am glad they are going to send her out to see how things go - they just should not have sold it the way they did. It is transparently hype in the extreme and cheapens everyone.
I wish CO and crew well. It's a good time of the year for the Caribbean.
LCS: tomorrow's Medium Endurance Cutter today.
We have been doing CN for how many decades? Where can LCS do the CN mission that we cannot now? Etc, etc. OPS NORMAL for this program though - razzle-dazzle with hype; consume unfathomable amounts of cash; and underperform.
Hey, I am glad they are going to send her out to see how things go - they just should not have sold it the way they did. It is transparently hype in the extreme and cheapens everyone.
I wish CO and crew well. It's a good time of the year for the Caribbean.
LCS: tomorrow's Medium Endurance Cutter today.
As a side-bar - if you want some non-consultant speak from a 4-star: click here.
UPDATE: Sigh.
The Surface Community has once again made naval history! At 0956 EST yesterday morning, USS Freedom (LCS-1) took in all lines and got underway from Mayport to begin her maiden deployment-more than 2 years ahead of schedule. This is a moment that all Surface Warriors should feel a tremendous amount of pride, as it was a community-wide effort that made this happen. With FREEDOM now on deployment and INDEPENDENCE working hard on the early stages of trials and certification, now more than ever we must realize and celebrate the fact that LCS is our future. We have and will continue to learn many important force-wide lessons from the early stages of the LCS program. These lessons will help us become smarter and more prepared to man, train, equip and operate all of our ships into the future.Leadership is not spin. -1.
Please take the time to discuss this historic milestone with your Sailors so that they too understand the significance of the LCS program and what it means for our Surface Navy. I have attached a few photos and a link to video shot from the pier to help you spread the word and celebrate this momentous occasion. Thanks for all you do each day to make our Surface Force the greatest the world has ever known.
VADM Curtis
All Ahead Full!
63 comments:
Ah hell,
If they really want to hide from the bad guys, all they have to do is paint that thing white and hang some lights aloft. She looks like an over-sized yacht anyway.
Hope San Diego has a good stock of metric pipe fittings.....
Oh, and my money says she'll put back in Mayport before going through the Canal...
Rig for deceptive lighting. Lure the pirates in from their lair.
The extra syllables makes me think of Carlin's skit on Shell shock and PTSD
Glad she's deploying into the "least severe environment anticipated"...
And sure hope her (Really Cool!) wake doesn't cause an international incident...
BTW, she's been in 5 times for repairs that I know of.
We will be begging the Coast Guard to take them in 3 years....
Have we issued a recall on this model?
Paint it black, so they will think it's the yacht of the Hot Babe in the VISA Black ads.
To think, with the early DDGs made out of GEARINGs, 50 years ago, on a smaller hull, we had ships armed with 4 5"/38s, multiple 3"/50s, Terrir missles, hedghogs, depth charges, and all the sensors needed to operate the weapons. They also had enough crew to sail, the ship, fight the ship, and do DC at the same time. DC is very important in a GEARING size ship, as you never can tell when an American CV might decide to open fire on you with her Sea Sparrow launcher.
Concur, Scott. The complete lack of defensive armament for this "thing" in congested waters of a "hybrid war" will mean disaster. Unless the sensor suite can detect a pile of RPGs in the bilge of some rusty 300 ton fishing boat, or twin 12.7 MGs under a tarp on deck.
But I am sure with the 40+ knot speed, it can outrun the RPG warheads and MG bullets.....
FWIW, a friend of mine was involved in the investigation of that Sea Sparrow strike on the Turkish Gearing. He told me that if any sort of DC was done, that ship was still full-mission capable. So much for the "destructive power of modern naval weapons". A sturdily built steel warship is still the best solution.
the 'airborne mission zone" oh my GOD how f**king offended can I get over the floating pile of euphemisms and mealy-mouth BS wordage that is the 'Littoral' combat ship? F**KING CALL IT A HANGAR!!
Brought to you by Toyota??
ugh, pitiful words from a former XO of a Kidd Class Destroyer......
So, we're a few years away from deciding which one we're going to buy, huh?
This isn't a big deal because we don't yet know if we want any more of them. This is nothing more than expensive beta test. This ship still might NOT be our future. We still MIGHT want LCS-2.
When leadership is absent, no decisions are made.
I really don't want to talk about LCS any more. I don't know what else can be said.
Hell, we'll be begging to buy copies of the Coasties' National Security Cutter.
And get them within range of the 57mm pop gun for a good old fashioned slug fest between RPGs and the deck "gun."
Sticky accelerator? How will that read in the JAGMAN? Great pictures of a stealthy hull hard aground, I bet.
Don't forget the early ASW UAVs! DASH!
Sounds too much like a term for someone doing laundry...can't discuss that.....might make someone feel like they're being genderized.
I like whoever it was that said beat the piss out of them (with apologies for forgetting the name), may have been over on the USNI blog actually.
Get them out there, beat the hell out of them and then see which one is better suited.
And no, a Carribean cruise doesn't count.
Gives you top cover when the inevitable challange comes when it comes time to pick one too.
God save the young sailors crewing those aluminium cans if they ever go to shooting war, because the ships won't!
No offense, but did you read the inspirational speech from VADM Curtis? LCS is the future of the Navy, and the Navy is screwed, and the Nation is pocked.
Has LCS been in any sort of heavy weather yet? And no, she'll be out of the Caribbean long before the tropical storms hit. It's gonna be interesting to see how the ship stands up to some fast period and multi-path rollers
The Freedom is constructed from steel. The Independance is aluminum. If you wanted littoral ships, why not build low cost steel hulled PT sized vessels with high speed direct drive diesels. Arm them with 88 MM deck gun, 25 mm chain guns and TOW/Sea Sparrow type launchers. Add J-stars hook-ups with command and control for weapons guidance ala arsenal ship. Crew about 15 to 20 per unit with 4 to 5 extra to augment for crew down time. Use LPD/LHD mother ship to support floatilla of twenty to thirty of these units.
Y'all Just Don't get It!!
The LCS is Different from any ship type in the past!
No way you bunch of Old Farts can comprehend that.
Besides...
It looks Really Cool! when it (don't want to sully its "newness" by referring to it as "she") goes FAST!!!!
(not that its making the speed it was orginally intended to...and gotta wonder about the protent of those rust streaks in terms of its ultimate service life...)
<span>Y'all Just Don't get It!!
The LCS is Different from any ship type in the past!
No way you bunch of Old Farts can comprehend that.
Besides...
It looks Really Cool! when it (don't want to sully its "newness" by referring to it as "she") goes <span>FAST!!!!</span>
(not that its making the speed it was orginally intended to...and gotta wonder about the portent of those rust streaks in terms of its ultimate service life...)</span>
As one who has worked on the LCS program off and on over the past seven years, I can say that the the only reason Freedom is deploying is because of political reasons. It is not ready to deploy to anyplace that it might actually get shot at or attacked. This deployment is to get the people pushing this some feel good time.
Oh yeah...it has a nice thermal signature I'll bet.
Instead of going off...you should embrace the change! I vote we call the berthing: "Crew Rest and Play Room (CRAPR)".
I think the Admiral needed pictures of her before she sailed and she was at sea and anchor to prove for a short while, she is sea worthy ICO Court of Inquiry....
ding ding ding we have a winner! Thats what I have been saying....
dont forget Significant Other Pods.... their next... oh yea...
What I really want to know is how are they going to pass a zone inspection with a 40 man crew, I am predicting material condition will degrade at 2 to 3 times the rate of the rest of the fleet, and I still don't understand how they are going to man fire parties????????????? Maybe just let it burn to the water line?????????
<span>dont forget Significant Other Pods (SOP) .... they're next... oh yea...</span>
To be fair though...With the Terriers aboard, the Gyatt was little more than a technology demonstrator...
Talk about 10 lbs in a 5 lb sack!!
The Forrest Sherman DDG conversions were not particulalry sucessful either...
Good thing that the same mentality in ship acquisition that exists today was not around then though.
"We HAVE to build it because its all we have!!!!!"
Bravo-Sierra...
Of course, things won't get better as long as this crowd is driving the money train...
(while the USN is absorbed with its NCAA standing....)
YNSN...Problem is, the downselect is going to happen before LCS-2 reaches even the current limited operational status of LCS-1.
And prior to any but the most rudimentary modules are up and running so they can be fully evaluated on both hulls.
Instead of focusing on these very poor examplles of, "boxes"...The USN would do better -with our taxpayer money- by focusing on what goes in said empty space....
The Navy recently experienced sticker shock when estimates for a robotic mine-hunting vehicle came in at more than $12 million apiece, or 51 percent higher than expected.
The troubled “remote mine-hunting system” once again has drawn attention to the Navy’s difficulties in developing and deploying robotic systems from ships. Several programs during the past two decades were launched and then sputtered as a result of either unaffordable prices or simply inadequate technologies that weren’t suited to the demands of the fleet.
Not that the USN really ever took the trouble to tap into existing knowledge.....
How about MK76 Oto Melera 3 inchers? We have those in stock already. I didn't know we had an 88.
The wake DID look awful cool, when she left Duluth on her Great Lakes shakedown tour. They stomped on the gas just past the end of the canal heading out intyo the lake, and from behind, it looked like the world's biggest bass boat. I admit, half of Duluth was washed into the lake by the waves hitting the shore, but I'm a Badger, what do i care what happens to Gophers. Minnesota Point protected Superior, that's all that matters. They should still have pictures in the archives at the Duluth Shipping news.
<span>The wake DID look awful cool, when she left Duluth on her Great Lakes shakedown tour. They stomped on the gas just past the end of the canal heading out intyo the lake, and from behind, it looked like the world's biggest bass boat.</span>
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<span>Scott, the way I was raised around boats; a good seaman is always mindful of his wakes. A skipper of the Coral Sea almost got canned for throwing a wake ashore at Catalina.</span>
<span></span>
<span>Can't say that mindset was in place aboard LCS-1 during trials...</span>
<span></span>
<span>Three men stranded on Pilot Island by Freedom ship
<span>8/11 - Washington Island, WI - Three Washington Island men were stranded on nearby Pilot Island, Sunday, when their small boat was put on the rocks, cracking her hull, by the wake from the USS Freedom.
Eric Greenfeldt, Mike Carr and Butch Jess, members of the Friends of Plum and Pilot Island, were on Pilot Island checking the buildings Sunday, when the new USS Freedom went by on her sea trials. The 22-foot boat that the men had used to reach the island, broke three <span>lines</span> that had held the small boat fast, and the boat was washed up on the rocky shore by the wake created by the new vessel.
Fortunately the owner, who was aboard, was unharmed, although shaken up. The boat was later removed and taken to Washington Island, where it is believed to be a total loss. The men had a cell phone and were able to contact someone to come pick them up.
Washington Island residents have reported a wake as high as eight-feet when the vessel passes. One other story circulating on Washington Island is that several fisherman have been swamped off Rock Island by the same wake.
The USS Freedom, which was built in Marinette, (<span>USS Freedom Commisioning - Home</span>) has been conducting sea trials in Lake Michigan, and steaming through the Door to get there. </span>
I know that if that had happened to me, I would be quite pissed off ...and the proud new owner of a Bristol example of one of these...at taxpayer expense.
</span>
Then I guess you already have a fair idea as to how fragile this ship is...
Au contraire, Mr. Son: Freedoms hull is steel, with an aluminum deckhouse. That'd be the same maintainence mess we decided to get away from when we built the all-steel Burkes. And Mr. Son, in that PT boat with the "88mm" the 25 mm chain guns, and all the rest, where do you plan to put the electrical generators and switch boards it'll take to power all this crap?
Modern Naval Shipbuilding rule #1: NEVER FORGET THAT ALL THOSE COOL WEAPONS AND ELECTRONICS ALL NEED LOTS OF ELECTRONS THAT YOUR SHIP WILL HAVE TO MAKE ON-BOARD
This reminds me of why I disliked the majority of Admirals that I encountered during my time. Something gets implanted when they get their star that makes them all sound the same. Occasionally, you encounter one that managed to slip by without getting the surgery.
Stop building these ridiculous ships and start building L-class ships with welldecks, so I can go kill people.
Love,
United States Marine Corps
Unfortunately so...
Big Money Talks ...
Marine, you still need a sheepdog to keep the coyotes away from your weld deck. You just don't need a nervous poodle of French breeding that's constantly in heat and is always hungry.
Yes, I quite agree. Stompng on the gas just out of the canal was showboating at it's worst, but the LCS seems to be nothing but appearance over ability. The Coast Critters must have cleared the area off the piers, because there is usually a flock of small sailboats just off of them.
But Byron...You Just Don't Get It!!
The LCS can be all things to all 'customers"!
its the ultimate, "Field of Dreams!"
What part of "L" in LCS didn't you notice? As Sid says, YOU JUST DON'T GET IT! Not only will this replace the Figs, it's the next big deck amphib!
Guess it's time to dig out the 10 pd clue bat out....
Good points about both classes. To be fair, a big problem with the FORREST SHERMAN AAW conversions is that they put most of the conversion funds into electronics and combat systems and not enough into their engineering plants. The ASW conversions had a much better reputation, in part, because the funds were distributed more evenly.
Tom, hate to break it to you but I don't think they do zone inspections (or at least serious ones) any more. The flail regarding INSURV results over the past year or so seems to bear me out on this.
Then I just pray that those who sail aboard her will survive the first heavy weather.
I'll have everyone know that I did NOT write that, but I wish I had.
Take a guess at how much Developmental Test and Evaluation she did before deploying. That's right, the same as the amount of Operational Test and Evaluation:
Zilch.
I hope you are kidding.
Doubtful. LHA/D, LPD, and LSDs still exist as the most capabile ships in the Navy. Large seabasing platforms to hang off coasts and if necessary project violent embarked Marines ashore or hand out lollipops to war torn countries.
One of the problems w/ some of the underwater sensors is the batteries used for extended life. Pretty explosive when things go wrong. That said, Fugro has a system that I would love to use for some unmanned surveys. Long legs, lots of data.
I know some of those Chance folks from my old seis days....
Been collecting data for decades in some of the places you might just be interested in....
<span>And get them within range of the 57mm pop gun for a good old fashioned slug fest between RPGs and the deck "gun."</span>
<span>Note the RPG hit on a less than Level I Survivability standard electrical system with the damaged electircal junction box against the hull exterior, which took out the main battery of the USS Crocket ...</span>
<span>See the relatively small impact hole just at the gunwale abeam the bulwark forward of the mount?</span>
<span>Here is a closer view.
Now...Take a gander at the entrails of the Freedom here and here ....
</span>
<span>Oh, and those barrels of lube oil are a nice touch. </span>
Just what you want in a littoral knifefight is leaking lube oil in internal spaces ...along with hot fragments.
<span>You make the call on how well those systems will fare from a hit from a projectile the size of an RPG, or from splinter damage from a larger weapon.
And this ship is built for Littoral Combat?!?!?!
Good thing it goes FAST!!!!!
</span>
I'm impressed.
Quite in-depth
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