Thursday, August 04, 2011

Actual Littoral Combat


This great picture comes to us via the good people at gCaptain;
29 July 2011 (Royal Navy) HMS Sutherland practised Naval Gunnery Support (NGS) drills by firing High Explosive (HE) and Star Shell rounds from her 4.5-inch gun. These drills were carried out only 2 days after HMS Sutherland was involved in fire missions off the coast of Libya.
The British remember well the value of a medium-caliber naval gun from the Falklands and is why all their ships since who could carry one have one.

Ignore the PPT, San Carlos Water demonstrated the core of littoral combat - close, nasty, and needful. Since arrows flew from the sides of galleys on, soldiers and Marines ashore need a ship to pull up close and offer what no other platform can; time critical close support. The larger the gun the better. The more guns the better. Look at the target set from Libya and so much that was done by aircraft could have been done cheaper and for less cost from a ship - but as lawfare prefers lasers and GPS, only a few have been so "serviced."

The mal-named LCS brings a 57mm and a "missile to be named later" to the fight. Oh, and make no mistake - she will be asked to close the shore and provide support as every ship that can will be - as they always have. Running away or making a big wake does not help your countrymen ashore who need their Navy to support them. In the littorals, you don't pick your war - your war picks you. If you are too exquisitely designed, you need more support at the operational level on aggregate than you provide.

A little bit of a stretch to one again kick poor widdle LCS? No. Here we have actual littoral combat in a 21st Century brush war - excuse me "kinetic military action" - where even if she winds up working as advertised, LCS once again is measured and found wanting.

Hat tip Lee.