We're stuck with them so what now?
CDR Salamander has an excellent article on where the LCS is now...read it at his spot but check out this part.
OK - so we will have purchased ~43% of a run of ship without one ... a single one ... FMC mission module in place. If the mission modules shift to the right, as they will probably do, then will we have over half before we even know we can get any fight out of them?Read the entire article but his leads to the point I'm trying to make.
We will have ships that will sport one 57mm cannon, two 30mm cannons, close in defense cannons and maybe a stinger crew that can pop out on deck to help with the air defense missions if it gets really wild and hairy. In essence we get a powerful Offshore Patrol Vessel or a very weak Corvette.
So I ask again, how do we make these ships useful RIGHT NOW instead of 5 years from now?
The answer is to load them with habitable container modules (you're welcome Think Defence), assign them to SOCOM in each operational area (probably no more than a total of 8 ships...I hope) and we get them into the fight now.
Additionally they could participate in Southern, African and Asian partnership missions with the same habitable container modules but with a different cast of characters...Riverines, US Army Light Infantry, Marines when they're not on float or otherwise assigned, USAF Security Teams and heck even US Coast Guardsmen in the drug interdiction role.
The habitable container module is ready now. We can do this, all it takes is a little will. Read about the above module over at SeaBox.
Instant mothership/special operations base/enhanced drug interdiction ship TODAY! Oh and SOCOM can go on and put the tired USS Ponce to rest.
Sounds like a winning idea to me.
Ponder for the world! Have a love for that boat...was sad to see her go, always had a good crew that knew how to work with tracks, behind the Iwo Jima one of my favorite boats I ever floated on.
ReplyDeleteAs for the living containers solid! Solid plan. This boat has got some close punch right now. Use it for gods sake.
Habitability modules are already on both LCS types. Got photos from LCS-1.
ReplyDeleteI and recent naval studies have concluded that the LCS can be no more than lily pads for a small USMC unit. A big logistics issues is therre is no means to move cargo from mission deck to flight deck and vice versa on the LCS-1. The LCS-2 has an 6k elevator.
While the LCS can support NSW and NECC units, the ships are limited in boat lift capacity to a 11 meter RHIB size. Too bad when those sailors show up with bigger boats. I think the LCS mission bays could hold about four 11m RHIBs.
And as you & many others have point(ed) out the LCS need to up-armed
Another point in LCS-2's favor :)
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