Oh, please. That's just simple Bravo Sierra.
The Avengers are mine vessels...do those counter mine vessels carry two fully capable, LAMPS III helos?
No.
Can those counter mine vessels do strong ASW work?
No.
Can those counter mine vessels lanuch helos and missiles for anti-surface work?
No.
Can those counter mine vessels carry a couple of squads of Spec Ops and all of their gear (including a couple of small APCs if necessary) and insert them on hostile shores?
No.
Do those counter mine vessels have any decent local air defense?
No.
We could keep going, but I think you get the idea. The LCS does all of that, in addition to the counter mine operations of the Avengers.
Well, if LCS is all that US navy has, then they better make sure that's hell of a mighty mine sweeper that can deal with all the military assets an enemy can possilbly deploy against the poor boat. In that case, why not throw on some VLS with anti-ballistic missle and AESA and ICBM and statsis chamber and seeds for all the plants and animal life just in case this vessel is all that survived of Humanity and have to take on an full-scale alian invasion? Tell hollywood to shoot "USS. Freedom vs Aliens", now
that would rally some public support for the project.
So, all said, the LCS vessels are nothing like a simple mine sweeper, or anything remotely "essentially" like them.
I do not mine criticism, and there are, as I have mentioned, some important concerns...but to make such a statment is just so far out of touch with the reality of the situation as to be ludicrous, IMHO.
And then for the next poster to take that statement and insert classic leftists talking points and dogma about class warfare and the military industrial complex making it that way (as if though the original statment about mine sweepers had any standing or basis in reality), is just heapping rediculous on top of ludicrous!
Come on guys...at least make meaningful, well thought out comments about the LCS, not these "drive by" rediculous bombastic statements. Sorry if I come across "snippy"... but these statements are just beyond the pale.
Leftist or rightiest, U.S. is buying boats 400 millions apiece to deal with countries and people that has to retreat into " Littorals" and restort to mines and speedboats with RPG to defend themsalves. There are only so many ways one can interpret this fact. You have spent a good part of the thread explaining why FCS has to cost this much but offered nothing really to address the core critism which is percisely why U.S. is in dire need to get rid of these billions of tax payer dollars to put its boat into other countries "Littorals".
If the LCS can prove itself in mine clearing operations, then who's to say that it's not money well spent, protecting even more expensive naval assets and thousands of lives? However that is a big "if" for now.
If you are out to prevent running into mines and endanger your navy, wouldn't the most prudent thing to do be staying away from the place where such incidence could happen? If you put your warship in one-in-a-billion areas of ocean that are potentially mined, that rather speak loudly about your intention having nothing to do with preventing loss of life and property.
You don't build mine sweeper to save lives because minefields are not natural disasters. you build them either because you're too proud to have your navy denied acess to certain (small) parts of the world, or you just need your navy go to places of conflict to destroy and kill. So, you either spend 400million for the sake of pride, or 400millions for the sake of total annihilation (because annihilation restricted to the open seas are obviously not enough). So, either or both of these reason are fine, and those who are interested can try to adjustfy that to the congress.
So, enough with this mystery that weapons save lives. weapons conduct or assist killing and destruction. That's why there is no real way to put a value on them. If a car is worth 20 grands, than the tools and materials and labours that produce that car can be summed up to worth 20000 dollars. What about a rpg that can turn that car into a worthless piece of burning metal, that got be worth, what? -20000 dollars? if you can buy that rpg with 2000, you can count yourself in the gain, because you only spent 2000 to get rid of another 20000... That why weapon business is so lucrative, there is no real flagpole of value. You basically charge people for their hatred toward each other. If you hate your neibours enough, you would pay ANY money for their demise.
But even in the ridiculus department of weapon business, stars such as LCS still command a level of absurdity all to their own. If a $2000 RPG is a sure-kill on a $20000 car to generate a whooping -1000% efficiency, that's still fantastic if only in the negitive sense. However, if a $600 million LCS, during its lifetime service, manage to destroy 10 mines(being generous here) each worth 6000$ (also being generous), that's a, a...(sorry, bad at math) -0.01% return of investment. So, if failed to produce real value and ultility, one even fails to quickly and efficiently make mess and destruction, what could be left but a profound sense of failure, self-loathing and suicidal intentions? The only analogy I can think of to characterize beings such as LCS is like someone fired from work decided to take an fully automatic to the office only to find out that the gun was jamed. It is comical in its tragedy. If the US "defense" industry did not get a juicy cut out of the deals, I can only start to consider the possibility that american tax payers are masochists.
