The US Navy has launched USS Cleveland Freedom
Class littoral combat ship (LCS) . The ship is the 16th and last of
a controversial class of vessels that have been plagued by technical issues.
Unfortunately during the launching a the ship had a Collin with a tug boat.
Navy said, “No personnel injuries occurred, but there was limited damage” to the Cleveland,
“The damaged area is well above the waterline and no flooding occurred.”
US Navy described what happened as “unintentional
contact ... between the ship and a supporting tug.”
It is unlikely that the incident will have a major impact.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes why USS Cleveland (LCS 31) is a key addition to U.S Navy?
Let's get started.
The littoral combat ship (LCS) is a set of two classes the Independence and Freedom. Construction
of the Freedom-class is spearheaded by Lockheed Martin at Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard
in Wisconsin, while that of Independence-class ships is led by Austal USA in Alabama.
These are relatively small surface vessels and primarily designed for operations near shore.
During the late 1990s, the U.S. Navy understood that cruisers and destroyers would be vulnerable
to attacks in shallow coastal waters. Large warships are designed for open-ocean warfare
and not for shallow water where these can be targeted by high-speed boats, missile-firing
fast-attack craft, small submarines, sea mines, and land and air-launched anti-ship missiles.
The idea 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.” If required these
ships will absorb an attack and protect the much more expensive cruiser or destroyers.
The LCS is envisioned to be a networked, agile, stealthy surface combatant capable
of defeating anti-access and asymmetric threats in coastal waters. Interestingly, the LCS has a
modular design. The vessels can be configured with different modules for specific roles that include
anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations, and logistics.
USS
Cleveland has a length of 115 m (378 ft ) and a displacement of 3,500 tonnes when fully loaded.
The ship uses two gas turbines and two diesel engines to power four steerable waterjets.
USS Cleveland has a speed of 87 km/h or 54 mph and has a range of 6,500 km or 4,000 miles
It accommodates 50 core crew plus up to 15 mission crew.
USS Cleveland can carry up to one MH-60R/S Seahawk or two MQ-8B Fire Scouts or one MQ-8C Fire Scout
The Sikorsky MH-60R/S Seahawk is a twin turboshaft engine,
multi-mission United States Navy helicopter based on the United
States Army UH-60 Black Hawk and a member of the Sikorsky S-70 family.
The Northrop Grumman MQ-8 Fire Scout is an unmanned autonomous helicopter
developed by Northrop Grumman for use by the United States Armed Forces.
The Fire Scout is designed to provide reconnaissance, situational awareness,
aerial fire support and precision targeting support for ground, air and sea forces.
USS Cleveland is a semiplaning steel monohull with an aluminum superstructure.
The design incorporates a large, reconfigurable sea frame to allow rapidly interchangeable mission
modules, a flight deck with integrated helicopter launch, recovery and handling system, and the
capability to launch and recover boats (manned and unmanned) from both the stern and side.
USS Cleveland is equipped with several sensors and control systems which includes EADS North
America TRS-4D air and surface search radar, It is a three-dimensional, multifunction naval
radar combining mechanical and electronic azimuth scanning that delivers increased
sensitivity to detect smaller targets with greater accuracy and faster track generation
It also posses AN/SQR-20 Multi-Function Towed Array
Lockheed Martin COMBATSS-21 combat management system is
present for oversight of different operations.
For electronic warfare, it has Argon ST WBR-2000 ESM system and for decoy, it has Terma A/S SKWS.
The Freedom class has encountered issues with its propulsion system due to a design flaw and
the Navy acknowledged in 2021 that fixes on the acquired vessels would take years. There are also
talks of decommissioning 9 of the these very new warships though the number may be reduced to 4.
USS Cleveland will be armed by a variety of the weapons
One BAE Systems Mk 110 57 mm gun One Raytheon SeaRAM CIWS (Close-In Weapon System)
Four .50-cal guns (2 aft, 2 forward)
Two 30 mm Mk44 Bushmaster II guns (part of SUW module)
24 AGM-114L Hellfire missiles (planned part of SUW module) or 8 NSMs in deck-mounted canisters.
Naval Strike Missiles or NSM will be the most powerful weapon of USS Cleveland and
once integrated, will enable it to take on much larger opponents.
NSM is the upgrade of Kongsberg’s Penguin short-to-medium range anti-ship guided missile.
The missile has a range of 100 miles or 185 km and is capable of high subsonic speeds.
Importantly it can be used as an anti-ship missile as a for taking out land targets.
NSM will be placed on the decks of LCSs through a proprietary canister launcher.
US Navy has about 10 active supercarriers, almost 70 Arleigh Burke-class destroyer,
17 active Ticonderoga-class cruiser as well as
several other surface combatants like Wasp-class amphibious assault ship.
The powerful warships have made the American
Navy’s surface fleet to be the most formidable one.
With the inclusion of Littoral Combat Ship like USS Cleveland,
U.S Navy will be able to plug certain holes like operating in constrained places.
For example, there are several passages in the world oceans that are narrow like the
Strait of Hormuz where even much less competent force can trouble much better-equipped force.
The relatively smaller but very agile USS Cleveland will significantly improve the
combat flexibility of the US Navy as it faces asymmetric threats from countries
like Iran as well as help in taking on ever stronger Chinese and resurgent Russian Navy.
The integration of the Naval Strike Missile will provide USS Cleveland
with an excellent surface to surface capability and aligns it with the U.S Navy's Distributed
Lethality concept that aims to disperse firepower across different platforms.