Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
The more I see of that class the more it seems like a space craft then a traditional naval vessel. I mean look at the background behind the officer being interviewed. The metallic material on the bulkheads looks like the stuff you find on the interior of space craft and aircraft.
Its like a shuttle bay for the Starship Enterprise.
Amazing ships.
Its like a shuttle bay for the Starship Enterprise.
Amazing ships.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Depending on Series and episode they had any where from two shuttles to a dozen but if you want to make that argument....
I am betting the ship was in port during filming, the footage was of the large mission bays unique to the Independence class. those bays though are not intended to store VLS or missiles, especially since they are located directly under the flight deck and firing a VLS into a waiting seahawk seems....
The Bays are mostly for Amphibious or special missions like ASW or mine hunting. the bays are scaled to carry maybe as many as 4-6 Stryker sized armored vehicles. hence the reason the Bays are actually larger then the most popular ones in the original Startrek series, Also the Starship Enterprise ( depending on series ) some times had multipule shuttle bays and Cargo bays well Independence bays are doing cargo, embarked craft and more missions. Additionally Visible in the Video were a Ridged Hull Inflatable boat and a Remote mine hunting sub.
I am betting the ship was in port during filming, the footage was of the large mission bays unique to the Independence class. those bays though are not intended to store VLS or missiles, especially since they are located directly under the flight deck and firing a VLS into a waiting seahawk seems....
The Bays are mostly for Amphibious or special missions like ASW or mine hunting. the bays are scaled to carry maybe as many as 4-6 Stryker sized armored vehicles. hence the reason the Bays are actually larger then the most popular ones in the original Startrek series, Also the Starship Enterprise ( depending on series ) some times had multipule shuttle bays and Cargo bays well Independence bays are doing cargo, embarked craft and more missions. Additionally Visible in the Video were a Ridged Hull Inflatable boat and a Remote mine hunting sub.
Also the standardized Conex boxes which hold the mission specific hardware and sometimes even control consoles. The idea of shifting to an ROV based operational architecture is ambitious but I also believe inevitable given the course of technological development and the desire to put distance between yourself and the source of danger. The enthusiasm of the XO/CO in the Youtube video is obvious. He clearly doesn't think he is in charge of a lemon.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Well I made a Star Trek Analogy and I did that for a reason. The USN is moving more and more multirole. just like how in Star trek the Enterprise crew was equally ready to mix it up on the surface of a planet or dog fighting with Kingon Battle Cruisers in space or hunting cloaked Romulan warhawks.
The USN needs to be able to change it up as a global navy. If the USN were say Germany it could afford Traditional Frigates or even specialist ASW and Anti-Air Frigates. but because the USN is the Global Navy it needs to flex. and LCS were and even as FF are still needing to change it up based on mission.
If Independence is deployed to the Malaka Strait what is the most likely mission need?
Anti Piracy because that is where we see a lot of Piracy. That means hunting small fast moving craft attempting to interdict shipping. So the needs then would be less antiaircraft, some surface warfare, Special ops and Boarding demanding Ridged hull inflatable boats and maybe additional helicopters and small surveillance drones.
If its deployed to the middle east it has to be used to escort USN Carriers and LHA/LHD and LPD. IT needs to keep These Ships protected against Iranian small craft and potential mines and these demand a different mission set. more Anti surface warfare, Anti mine warfare and some ASW.
Now move it to the sea of Japan. and East/south China sea.
it's being used for freedom of navagation and potential island hopping ops.
So surface warfare, some Asw but if you need to deploy troops.
In the Atlantic we move back to traditional Frigate role anti ship and anti sub with some Anti aircraft
So we are seeing a lot of different mission types. some based on region others changing day by day.
Some times you want to shoot missiles at ground targets.
sometimes you want it sinking fast boats.
sometimes you want to grab pirates,
Sometimes you want to hunt Red October.
How do you solve this? In a Traditional frigate you can do some of those missions well others you might try and pass off to other ships. If the US was restricted to just one region they could get away with just one frigate However because the USN operates in both the Worlds main Oceans
with access and needs across all the Navigable non land locked seas.
They can't. They can't specialize. You have to find a way to mix it and multi role. Now there are two solutions for this. One is like what the Russians did where each fleet is kinda it's own navy. Where they build ships for the Northern Fleet that is one fleet, the Baltic fleet, the Black sea Fleet , the Caspian Flotilla and the Pacific Fleet many of the ships in those are optimized for there specific fleet.
The other is to well LCS. Where you design a ship with lots of flexibility that can be reconfigured to meet the needs it faces. it's ambitious cant deny it. but the NAvy cant afford to build five different classes of frigate for five different fleets