Recent Developments
Prior to the reduction of ships in the DD(X) destroyer program, it seemed unlikely that the above four conditions would have impeded the current plan to turn Iowa and Wisconsin into museum ships because the navy had expected a sufficient number of DD(X) destroyers to be ready to help fill the NSFS gap by 2018 at the earliest; however, the July 2008 decision by the navy to cancel the DD(X) program would leave the navy without a ship class capable of replacing the two battleships removed from the Naval Vessel Register in March 2006. Although unlikely, the cancellation of the DD(X) destroyer program may result in a reinstatement of Iowa and Wisconsin to the Naval Vessel Register; by law, the navy is required to maintain two battleships on the register until the navy certifies that it has within its fleet the operation NSFS capability that can meet or exceed the amount provided by the battleships, and with the Extended Range Guided Munitions program already cancelled in March 2008 and DD(X) destroyer program essentially cancelled in July 2008 the navy does not appear to have met its needed criteria for battleship removal. James T. Conway, Commandant of the Marine Corps has said that missiles fired from the Littoral combat ship could fulfill the USMC needs for NSFS. This would not be the current NLOS-LS program as the range of the PAM missile at 22 miles (35 km) falls short of the threshold requirement for NSFS of 41 miles (66 km) and the number of CLUs the current LCS designs can carry in a ready to fire configuration is also short of the required volume of fire. The Loitering Attack Missile could have matched the required range, but it was cancelled in 2011 and the LCS would still have fallen short in terms of rounds ready to fire.
Read more about this topic: United States Naval Gunfire Support Debate
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