The "early deployment" of LCS-1 when it went through the Caribbean on the way to San Diego was bad enough - but as Lee pointed out to me in a part of the article I missed in the first scan - if you fool them once; why not again?
The first LCS, Freedom — one of only two LCSs in commission — will make a cruise later this year to Singapore, but will be fitted only with a demonstration mission module, not one of the mine-warfare or anti-submarine warfare modules the Navy urgently needs the ships to carry out.Gundecking like a boss.
Speaking of boss .... looks like LCS has some continuity problems in the new year as well.
The gift that keeps on giving.
Lots of Capital Squandered
ReplyDeleteLast Career Stop ...
LCS stands for so many things. To paraphrase Churchill, "Never have so many spent so much, to benefit so few, and gotten so little." There are rumors that this oversized ski boat is going to be redesignated as a WTF. Roughead's legacy.
I'll just think of it as an opportunity for yardbirds to pad their 401Ks, flying in and out to pull PMS and fix all the crap that breaks. Should make for some decent per diem and that of course, isn't taxable.
ReplyDeleteWhat a stinking mess.
Sounds like they want to show it off at IMDEX- which if memory serves is in May. :-$
ReplyDeleteSeems to me they would use the yardbirds already at Sembawang.
ReplyDeleteDepends on whether or not the yard birds there are compliant with everything in standard items...and can pass security checks. G-D handles all the admin side as far as generating work orders and check points of varying kinds. My company did work on Independence while she was here, including doing PMS on all the watertight closures. Ships crew pulls virtually no PMS duties, something I think is crimianally negligent...
ReplyDeleteLittle Crappy Ship, or as Granpa says, LCS delende est....
ReplyDeleteThere have been warships under-armed in the history, but none so as to be almost defenceless against most likely threats...
ReplyDeletelets see: TACAIR - no defence
SSKs - no defence
missile FACs - no defence!
How long would last LCS in the San Carlos sound?
Better hope there is good weather all along the route, not so much for some real warship that undoubtedly will be sent to baby sit. refuel or tow the LCS, but for the fragile LCS itself. Would not do to have it disappear in a typhoon.
ReplyDeleteEveryone associated with LCS should be discharged and the hulks used as reefs before another dollar is thrown down this bottomless rathole.
Oh, I'm sure we could find a better use for them than that. Paint racing stripes on 'em and send them after drug runners.
ReplyDeleteI hope they got Disney to help with the demonstration module.
ReplyDeleteWell, moving a ship that can't handle rough seas like the Cole is a snap if you have the Blue Marlin...
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Blue_Marlin
Maybe thats how the Navy plans to get it there without springing leaks all over the place or breaking down. Little birdy told me this morning that the waterjet nozzles are getting replaced with...titanium nozzles.
isn't sembawang the place where they run ships up onto the beach and then cut them up into tincan stock?????
ReplyDeleteC
I believe that place you're talking about is in Pakistan.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.defensenews.com/article/20120127/DEFREG02/301270007/U-S-Navy-Fires-Littoral-Combat-Ship-Program-Manager?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
ReplyDeleteWell, LCS claims another victim.
GD handles the PMS for Independence. Freedom's is managed by Lockheed, who should have a new motto: "We Make Shit Expensive"...
ReplyDeleteWhat GD did for Independence is sit on their asses in the hangar bay and hand out work orders while the company I work for did all the grunt work. They'd show up for the op test or to witness but other than that, they never got their hands dirty. God knows, if they had, they'd know what kind of abortion they sold the Navy and the taxpayers and had the decency to commit seppuku. Of course that would require a sense of honor and obligation...
ReplyDeletewhat about the guv-mint over-see-er's ? Supe-Ship GS folks ? Aren't they even more to blame than GD, whose 1st loyalty should be to their company.
ReplyDelete1st loyalty of govt silly servants should be to govt and taxpayers. It's really badd when Super-Ship types don't point out and stop this shoddy work. Cannot the GS supervisors issue Stop Work orders at any time they need to ?
all right, I just re-read my post and I now figured the answer out.
ReplyDeleteLCS-2 has assigned gov-mint superviosors of ship building from a group based in Bath.
they are called S.S. BATH, I think. Gee, scratch each other's backs.....
Nope...no SUPSHIP involvement. GD has the contract for maintenance; they sub-out and handle documentation which they give to the government
ReplyDeleteJohn, they will have her transit along the tropics before they start to spin up when they are most benign. They will run a set of oilers, no doubt to keep her running. Which one is this? The west coast ship? I can never remember which one is where. I should, that LCS in Mayport was welded to the pier for what, Byron, 8 months?
ReplyDeleteOk let me take this on another tangent? Would the Navy have to be continuing the Ponce in service and converting it supposedly for MIW misions, IF any LCS had come online on sked AND with an operational mine mission module? OR said differently IF the MIW missions can be done from other ship types why do we need LCS? Is their vaunted high speed needed ONCE they get to a MODLOC? Won't endurance on-station be more needed than hispd? Won't the ability to fly off MH-53s (LCS-2 only need apply) be more needed along with long duration sorties? How about this can either LCS launch and recover the mine sweep sled?
ReplyDeleteJust observing and asking?
On LCS-1, SWRMC funds Lockheed, who oversees a local contractor to do the actual work. There is a long and convoluted trail from the sailor putting his/her cup under the nozzle and no soda coming out to someone actually fixing the machine. Since none of the local companies in Singapore are in the LM system, most of the labor for PMS and emergent work will be flown in; you can guess at the cost....
ReplyDeleteI was not overly impressed w/ the yard in Singapore.
ReplyDeleteLCS-2 was either at Mayport or just a couple of miles away (as the crow flies) at BAE (old Atlantic Dry Dock). Then she was in and out for a while, then again welded to the pier for nearly 4 months while we did maintenance and other minor repairs.
ReplyDeleteWhich means that LSC-1 will NEVER get any sailing time, unless it's on the bitter end of a tow hawser 8-)
ReplyDeleteThis is a really good opportunity. Since the Navy "bean counters" have reduced the size of the active duty crew to sub-minimal, then companies like Lockheed Martin and others can get the lifetime support contracts for LCS1,2,3,4,...... Just think, if can get hired, I could fly all over the world, and do the bi-weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, PMS checks, since as designed, each LCS will only carry on-board consummables listed on daily and weekly PMS cards. Besides, they will need to pull into some port every 5 or so days just to re-provision refrigerated food, dry stores, repair parts, and... of course, crew rest. Let's see an LCS get underway for 3.5 weeks in a row, doing boardings in the Persian Gulf, running their helo's round the clock ID'ing contacts and inputing their tracks into the BG links, generally assisting the Fifth Fleet in routing SSSC. Think an LCS could do that for 3 weeks in a row ? How about 2 weeks in a row ? They would gets LOTS of training opportunities: running RAS detail alongside an oiler every other day taking on fuel for helo op's, and own ship as well. LCS concept is even better than COTS concept: lifetime employment and world wide travel for a few lucky contractors. Win Win, but not for the sailors or the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Navy, the LCS-2 can't take aboard H-53's...
ReplyDeleteWeight bearing issues with the flight deck or some such.
And I've been scoffed at for suggesting to use an LPD -and purpose designing a variant- for the "mothership" "LCS" role for years now...
Now we've got this.
Would not do to have it disappear in a typhoon.
ReplyDeleteThere's that whole pesky history lessons learned stuff out there...
or that particular lesson:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usnsh-p/ca72-l.htm
flight deck capacity of LCS-4 etc is TBD, believe it has been upped? Certainly the Ponce makes some sense as an interim mothership but...
ReplyDeleteUse of an old, worn-out amphib is always questionable from a cost benefit standpoint.
Why use an old amphib design as a baseline for new forward logistics ship aka mothership? Answer: because the USN has not yet defined what a mothership should be. There have been numerous examples of AFSBs previously used and none of them were on amphib hulls. MLP is corporate welfare and is iffy for future AFSBs in my mind?
I would also repeat what is a wet well dock good for (first assalut wave rapid launch)? And why is that large expensive system needed to launch and recover boats in non-assualt scenarios? The current crop of SWO seem completely wedded to the wells despite what history has shown?
Key is pick the right ship and define the op rqmts clearly.
This is one yardbird who's thought LCS was a horrible idea since before it was launched and who thinks the nightmare just keeps getting worse. I make a living fixing Navy ships...and work hard to make sure what we do never puts a sailor in danger. LCS is the definition of putting sailors in danger, from the undersized crew to the lack of weapons to a crew that will have exactly zero hands on knowledge of repairing and maintaining their ship.
ReplyDeleteDumb, dumb and goddamn dumb.
But think positively Byron. If we get the right mix of different skin colors on that ship, it will work wonderfully! That is why diversity is one of our biggest strategic goals. right?
ReplyDelete...wouldn't that rep schedule make ship movements very predictable for someone who had bad intentions? I see another security problem there.
ReplyDeleteKey is pick the right ship and define the op rqmts clearly.
ReplyDeleteBoy Howdy! Thats a novel concept!!! Of course it doesn't appear to fit so well into the CNO Post-Retirement Plan.But why would you say such a ship is a "logisitics" ship?These vessels are going to be sent -to stay- in regions that are arguably contested.And last...even if an H-53 wont bent those transverse beams of the follow on Independences...The ships won't be anything other than austere lilly pads.
Plan is working. Now we need somebody to put it in the Congressional Record...
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