Hmmm.
Everytime I think I have a role figured out for the LCS, the Navy leadership utters a few words that makes me think we have idiots in charge.
Check out these tidbits from an AOL story...
Even the LCS contingent soon to start operating out of Singapore will focus on exercises, port visits, humanitarian assistance, and counter-piracy operations with Southeast Asian partners -- taking that burden off the more war-worthy carrier, cruisers, and destroyers based in Japan.and...
So while the LCS will be the Navy's most numerous future class, it won't be much of a warfighter. No less an authority than the Pentagon's independent Department of Operational Test & Evaluation has officially warned that "LCS is not expected to be survivable in a hostile combat environment." That's despite the Navy having significantly toughened survivability standards in the middle of building the first two vessels, retrofitting improvements at a major cost in time and money. All that work simply brought the LCS up from commercial survivability standards to what the Navy calls "Level I," equivalent to existing minesweepers, patrol boats, and supply ships, which are expected to last long enough for their crew to get out alive if the ship is damaged but not to keep on fighting after they take a hit. Destroyers and carriers, by contrast, are Level III.I mean seriously?
How is a ship with a max crew of what...75? Going to properly respond to a humanitarian assistance crisis? HA's require manpower, heavy equipment and helicopters...plenty of all 3. The LCS is limited in everyone of those categories.
How is so small a ship with limited firepower and armor going to even handle the primitive pirates operating around the world...pirates that will have RPG's and Assault Rifles?
I seriously wonder if our current military and political leadership actually believe some of the nonsense they spout. And to think...I just gave them credit for knowing how to play the politics game.
