Littoral Combat Ships - Design Features

Design Features

The concept behind the littoral combat ship, as described by former Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England, is to "create a small, fast, maneuverable and relatively inexpensive member of the DD(X) family of ships." The ship is easy to reconfigure for different roles, including anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations, and logistics. Due to its modular design, the LCS will be able to replace slower, more specialized ships such as minesweepers and larger assault ships.

Most of the functions of the mission modules will be performed by carried vehicles such as the helicopters or unmanned vehicles such as the Spartan Scout, AN/WLD-1 RMS Remote Minehunting System and MQ-8B Fire Scout. By performing functions such as sonar sweeps for mines or submarines or torpedo launches against hostile submarines at some distance from the ship's hull, the crew is placed at less risk. This is part of the Navy's goal to "unman the front lines."

Thales has sold one Captas 4 antisubmarine sonar to the U.S. Navy to be towed behind the LCS itself, with a potential order of 25 units.

Also by placing sensors on remote vehicles, the LCS will be able to exploit concepts such as bistatic sonar.

A report by the Pentagon's director of Operational Test and Evaluation found that neither design was expected to "be survivable in a hostile combat environment" and that neither ship could withstand the Navy's full ship shock trials. The Navy has responded that the LCS is being built to a Level 1+ survivability standard and that the ships will rely on warnings from networks and the speed of the ship to avoid being hit, or if hit be able to limp to safety.

The combat abilities of the LCS were said to be "very modest" even before the cancellation of the XM501 Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System.

The Independence variant is said to have better helicopter facilities and more internal space while the Freedom variant is said to be better able to launch and recover boats in high seas. Admiral Gary Roughead has said that a mix of both types would be "operationally advantageous".

Some of the LCS will rotate through Singapore. These two or four ships will not be based in Singapore and their crews will live aboard ship during their rotational deployments. The ships will be managed from rather than based in Singapore for a six to ten month deployment that includes port calls to other countries in the area.

In April 2012, Chief of Naval Operations Greenert said "You won't send it into an anti-access area." But Navy Secretary Ray Mabus clarified that the ship could operate in combat areas, as long as it remained under the protection of real warships.

The ships were predicted to fall short in manning. And the Navy has deployed the ships with berthing modules in the mission bays in order to carry the crew required for operations. However the ships are designed with sufficient headroom to change from 2-high bunking to 3-high bunking, which would allow crew sizes of 100 if needed.

The ships will be unable to defend themselves effectively against anti-ship cruise missiles, which are commonly employed in the littorals.

The LCS is the first USN surface combatant class in a generation to not use the Aegis Combat System. Though aegis-equipped variants of the LCS hulls have been offered to foreign customers. The LCS classes have suffered from problems in their communications and radars and will require refits in these areas.