Some call them the “wrong ship at the wrong time”, but I’d say the Littoral Combat Ships or LCS were
probably just the wrong ship! No American naval ship in recent memory has been subject to more
criticism than the LCS. Even some members of Congress called it “a fleet of lemon ships”.
The US Navy’s announcement in 2022 to decommission 9 Freedom-class littoral combat ships,
some of which are practically brand new, has left many wondering: can this retiring fleet
of lemon ships be used for anything? The answer is yes, but it’s Not What You Think!
Today we’re calling it the “Leaking Cracked Ships”, and let me tell you why …
That’s ok, I’ll take it from here. On November 1st, 2001, the US Navy announced it would build
a small, fast, and stealthy Littoral Combat Ship. They built 2 classes, but what they didn’t
anticipate was that the Independence would corrode away and the Freedom would break down … a lot!
Independence-class littoral combat ships were built from aluminum and suffered from aggressive
corrosion in as early as 2011. That issue was eventually sorted out. But in May of 2022, it was
revealed that the Independence-class suffered from class-wide structural defects that led to hull
cracks on many of the ships, limiting the speed and sea states in which some ships could operate.
On the other hand, Freedom-class ships, which rely on a combined diesel and gas propulsion
system, suffered from serious class-wide issues with the combining gear system.
Many of them broke down while underway and had to be towed back. The modular concept of
the LCS program turned out to be impractical. Even as single-missioned ships, the hopes of
installing the anti-submarine warfare system was tarnished when the variable depth sonar suffered
stability problems while being towed underwater. Abandoning the anti-submarine package triggered a
Nunn-McCurdy breach for the LCS mission module program, and boy was this program expensive!
The Navy had initially told congressional overseers that the lightly armed vessels
would merely cost $220 million dollars per ship. But these best-case scenario estimates
overlooked all the uncertainties around the innovations that were envisioned for LCS.
Cascading delays and cost overruns successfully launched the price tag into orbit, at $550 million
per ship, more than twice the initial estimates. The operating costs were no better, estimated to
be 70 million dollars per ship per year. To put that number in perspective, an Arleigh Burke
destroyer, the workhorse of the US Navy, costs about $81 million dollars to operate annually.
At this point, the US Navy said … fu*k it! We need to stop throwing good money after bad.
That’s why almost half of the LCS ships have or will be decommissioned prematurely.
In the words of Sean Stackley, assistant secretary of the Navy for research,
development and acquisition “The experience of LCS, it broke the Navy".
But what’s going to happen to these ships? Are they going to scrap them? Well,
when life gives you lemons, you know exactly what to do. Pass it on to someone who likes lemonades!
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In May of 2022, testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee defense subcommittee,
Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Mark Gilday, suggested the panel assess the
possibility of transferring the ships to allied countries in South America,
where the LCS could perform counter-drug operations.
While the mechanical issues were a factor in the decommissioning decision,
Admiral Gidlay argued that a bigger factor was the lack of sufficient warfighting
capability against a peer competitor like China, especially that the anti-submarine
warfare package that was being developed for the Freedom-class hull ended up dead in water.
Even if it is true, that these decommissionings were more due to the lack of warfighting power,
which is debatable, you just cannot ignore the costs associated with the operation and
maintenance of the LCS, coming in at tens of millions of dollars annually.
This is in part because contractors are the ones maintaining these ships,
which is extremely costly, as opposed to Navy sailors doing that work.
But which South American nation in their right mind would want to spend half of their yearly
defense budget on maintaining and operating a fleet of undergunned ships that’d only be
available 69 days a year? I’m exaggerating, of course, probably only 12 days a year!
We are happy to be the first channel to acquired and report the official reaction of South American
navies to the idea of taking on the lemon fleet: First they were shocked:
A quick look and they declined the offer.
And the poor littoral ships have to justify their poor performance.
But even if no nation agrees to take on these littoral combat ships, they are
not completely “ship” outa luck! Lieutenant Brian Adornato of US Navy Reserve proposes
some alternatives. For example, turning one LCS into a self-defense test ship!
The US Navy has a designated refurbished ship, a self-defense test ship, where
numerous technologies and weapons are tested on. Anything ranging from bio-fuels to lasers.
This ship can be operated by remote control, because at times, they fire live missiles toward
the ship to test its defensive systems, so all the crew leave the test ship via a helicopter.
You’d be interested to know that even if the ship’s defensive systems fail to neutralize
the incoming missile, the ship won't be damaged. Not because the missile is fake,
but because the missile is not exactly targeting the test ship,
but a decoy barge that’s being pulled 150 feet behind the test ship. Just in case!
The Ex-Paul F. Foster destroyer currently fills this role,
but she’s almost 50 years old. A littoral combat ship is heavily automated,
so converting it to a remotely piloted vessel should be relatively easy.
The Navy used to operate a helicopter landing ship to train new pilots, the Baylander, which on June
10th, 1988, set a record with 346 landings in a single day. You could say she was very popular
with young pilots who were still learning. There’s a name for that, and it’s “horrible”!
Then in 2011, she was struck from the Naval Register and sold.
Baylander was then used to house LED-equipped pigeons for an art exhibition. She is currently
a floating restaurant in New York City! Wonder if she ever saw this coming in her “horoscope”!
Long story short, the Navy doesn't have a helicopter landing platform for training
new pilots. So instead of burdening ships that are in-service, an LCS,
which already has the required aviation facilities including
a flight deck and a helicopter hangar, could be designated for this purpose.
Of course keeping the littoral combat ships in use in any capacity will require maintenance,
which costs money. But it’s not like retiring them and keeping them in reserve, which is what
the plan is so far, would be free of charge. For each ship that is transferred to the Reserve
fleet, the US Navy pays about $500,000 in operation and maintenance costs per year.
If the ship is to be in the Ready Reserve, the Navy has to pay the Maritime Administration
about $10 million dollars per ship per year. That seems like a lot of money to pay each year for a
deactivated ship, but keep in mind that in the early 1990s, when the the US Navy activated 78
ships from the reserve fleet as part of Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm to transport equipment
to the Persian Gulf, more than 60 percent of those ships failed to meet the required schedule because
of their … condition … you mean shrinkage? yes, shrinkage of the reserve fleet!
So think of the Ready Reserve as a fancier and
more expensive retirement home for ships that are in reserve.
One thing is for sure. The littoral combat ships will continue to spend
taxpayers’ money as long as they are around, whether they are assigned a
role as a self-defense test ship, or simply sitting in the reserve fleet.
Even turning them into artificial reefs as part of SINKEX or recycling them for metal scrap is going
to be costly. So for now, the saga of the littoral combat ships continues … even in their retirement.