Wednesday, September 01, 2010

The GAO owes us beer

Ah .... LCS, the gift that keeps on giving.

Remember this
hyperbole?
The Navy announced today the decision to deploy the USS Freedom (LCS 1) in early 2010 to the Southern Command and Pacific Command areas ahead of her originally scheduled 2012 maiden deployment. According to Navy leaders, Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) are needed now to close urgent warfighting gaps.

"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."
As we discussed in detail here from the start, this was not a good idea, and the premise was silly at best.

From our buddy
Phil at NavyTimes,
This year’s “early deployment” of the littoral combat ship Freedom, praised by commanders as proof of the ships’ potential, actually hurt the overall progress of the full LCS program, according to a congressional report issued Tuesday, which also found that LCS will not help the Navy hunt submarines as well as originally advertised.

Freedom’s extended homeport change from Norfolk, Va., to San Diego, and its participation in this year’s Rim of the Pacific exercises, meant the ship was not available to test the interchangeable “mission modules” that are key to the LCS concept, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office, and that caused delays.

“Mission package delays have also disrupted program test schedules — a situation exacerbated by decisions to deploy initial ships early, which limit their availability for operational testing,” the report said. “In addition, these delays could disrupt program plans for simultaneously acquiring seaframes and mission packages. Until mission package performance is proven, the Navy risks investing in a fleet of ships that does not deliver promised capability.”
Read CDRSalamander today - and be six-months ahead of everyone else, maybe more.

Remember the ASW MOD video I
linked to in JAN? Ahem.
GAO found that sub-hunting systems planned for LCS “do not contribute significantly to the anti-submarine warfare mission.”
They are being kind. It is all sad, in a way. It is being done better - look at the Dutch and Danish shipbuilding programs for starters.

7 comments:

LT B said...

Harumph!  The Dutch are doing it better.  I'd like to match metrics that matter here.  I mean, how many follow on jobs for admirals have the Dutch gotten?  Huh?  How much money did THEY spend?  We are clearly better we spent more money and have gotten more booty for the pirates, er retired admirals from DC.  And besides, we are diverse and transformational and $h!t!

Curtis said...

I'm not sure many get it.   As a guy on a little ship 173 feet LOA, shooting at high speed maneuvering 55 gallon drums we dumped over the side and engaging them with 50 cal, at 500 yards, 200 yards, 40 yards.  I'm not really sure that folks really understand the dynamics of sea based engagements.  One can imagine it if one watches video of the total effort against kamikaze by entire battle groups using every single weapon system at their disposal.  Somebody has wished that all away and replaced 10 score guns with 1.

Using 2 5 inch cannon with VT Frag was totally iffy and as proved was not realistic.  Replacing that with a 57mm gun.....  Seriously, what drugs were the TERP on?  Who wrote the damned spec and can we gut them for malfeasance?

cdrsalamander said...

We've been wargaming LCS on this blog for years.  None of this is new to us - but we don't have a FITREP or money in the game ... well .... some of my listeners do, but here they can be themselves.

Reverb said...

Sucks for CNO when his speeches come back to nip him on the fantail.  Perhaps sweeping pronouncements are no longer desired/required.  Perhaps, instead, Navy could ACTUALLY sit down and figure out what the heck we need to do, and in which direction we want to go, rather than posturing about unproven ships and endless self-loathing diversity stuff.

Just sayin'.

Salty Gator said...

Floats?  Check.
Fairly consistent power?  Check.

OPTEST SAT!

Granpa Bluewater said...

Well, they're consistent.

Cheer up, maybe we can get them all to ride for the first full up live round test of the MIW module. Give the regular crew the day off.

BOOM!  Project management problem solved.  For a few days.

The rot is really advanced, isn't it.

Popcorn?

SCOTTtheBADGER said...

Let us not forget the Norskies, and thier luvverly NANSEN class DDGs, that would make us fine DEGs, to do the maid of all work jobs, so the BURKEs can run with the carriers.