Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)

Jeff Head said:

Perhaps.

The Mk-41 is not cheap itself...but that would be a shared cost.

The ESSM will be cheaper itself than an LRASM. They will have to add significant upgrades to the Surface Radar itself in order to be able to reach much further out, and then the data link and other necessaruy comms to be able to share the even further out target acquisition from other assetts.

Time will tell. I believe they can do both to the existing platforms...they will just have to be willing to spend the money.

The FFG vessel will be designed that way and the cost will be a part of the multi-role vessel.

I still believe upgrading the survivability of the vessels to Combat II may prove even more prohibitively expensive since they did not build it into the hull and structure to begin with.

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Jeff Head said:

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a) 12 Freedom class, all of which get a Mk-41 and sensor upgrade to make them multi-role in capability. All of them also get "up armored" to get them from their current Combat 1+ to the Combat 2 classification that the Perry's were designed for.

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dtulsa said:

Isnt it possible to "navalize" the amraam missile for surface AAW applications just speculation @this point but seems possible probably the Norwegians will figure out how to.

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Bltizo said:

Hmm yes. I'm not entirely sure about anti ship vs SAM sensor fit. I believe an LRASM fit could utilise off board targeting instead of on board surface radar. Isn't it also mostly autonomous?

Personally I think the best way to go is fit both LCS I and II classes with slant launchers for harpoon or NSM. Give up on Mk-41 for LCS and use them as higher end auxiliary/ASW/mine hunting ships with limited attack and self defence capability.

Use lessons to get the next generation frigate right. Preferably it should feature an x band fixed APAR for guidance of multiple SAMs simultaneously. As formidable as the aegis system is, if its SARH SAMs still rely on mechanically oriented terminal illuminators it will feature some meaningful and really last century limitations on multi target engagement capability. The ARH SM-6 goes a long way in rectifying this, but until an ARH version of ESSM comes out, they should look into an X band APAR like SPY-3 or AMDR-X.

Then again, I might be projecting a little what I hope the PLANs next generation frigate will look like...

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dtulsa said:

Would it be possible to mount a 5/54 mount on the current versions of the LCS this would also go along way toward fixing its firepower issues could use existing technology for this I would assume.

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