I still say that each month makes the Church of Latter Day LCS advocates look more and more like The Thing in the dog kennel.
In spite of the strategic risk this entire program will have on our Fleet by having such a large percentage of our warships having so little capability - we push on? Why do we push on? Simple, because yesterday we pushed on.
Ego, myopia, pigheadedness? Hard to say. Never before has so much been spent for so little capability.
Even in its original forms of 60 then 45 NLOS missiles, the ASUW package was lame and fraught with technology risk. So much non-mitigated technology risk, that when NLOS predictably could not make it off the PPT slide - we defaulted to the even more than suboptimal Griffin missile that we discussed back in JAN of this year.
Over at PEO LCS - or whatever they are calling themselves this FY - RDML James A. Murdoch and his band of merry folks are doing the best they can with the bucket of goo they inherited .. but this is just sad.
The program executive office for the Littoral Combat Ship has already identified capabilities that could replace the Griffin missile that will be utilized by the ship's surface warfare mission package, and a competition will begin this fiscal year, Rear Adm. James Murdoch, head of the PEO, said here recently.
This is good news, really. Griffin is unquestionably unsatisfactory, but it is all that we have.
Griffin-B’s surface-launched range is less than 1/6th of the Raytheon NLOS-LS PAM’s planned 25 mile range, so replacing NLOS-LS with Griffin comes at a cost. This severe cut in reach, coupled with the warhead’s small size, will sharply limit the Littoral Combat Ship’s already-restricted ranged engagement options. Griffins would be suitable for engaging enemy speedboats, but cannot function as naval fire support for ground forces, or do much damage to full-size enemy vessels – most of which will pack large anti-ship missiles with a 50+ mile reach.Let me help you with the math with that 13-lb warhead.. 1/6th of 25nm is 4.17nm. Let that soak in. Target 2nm inland ... close shore ... some goober pulls a 57mm AZP S-60 out from behind the goat shed .. etc, etc, etc ... I guess we could just use that awesome speed to run away from a threat. That has such a wonderful pedigree in the Navy.
We have recognized the Griffin's shortcomings and are now working for something else. OK, fine. Something beats nothing for now. But, as a result - more money falling in to this money pit; money that could have been used to equip our fleet with something useful - a good general purpose light frigate or heavy corvette.
The best time to execute Plan B was four years ago - but alas the PPT was too strong. It can still be done, though less effectively at more cost - but is still better than the swampy and pestilence filled path we continue to go down. Blinkered stubbornness is not how one wins at war. It is how one finds yourself sunk or surrounded.
Would you really want one of your kids to go to war in one of these death traps any time soon? Marines or SOF ashore - like this as your cover and support? Ponder.
