Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The LCS. Time to rebrand it.

Sometimes an organization will produce a product that is so horrible that it should be destroyed.  But sometimes, that horrible product can simply be rebranded and reintroduced to the public.


That's what the Navy should do with the LCS.


First the name is horrible.  Littoral Combat Ship?  I think we can all safely say that the LCS has expanded beyond that simple description.


And lets be honest here.


If you want to fight small boats in the littoral zone, all you need to do is send the Riverines out in CB90's and they'll wipe the floor with them.


So what do we do with the LCS?  First we rename it Multi-Mission Vessel (MMV).  Then we build every one of them we have in the pipeline and then we stop.


At that point we turn our attention 100 percent toward getting mission modules together.


Some advice to the Navy.  You want to get these ships fully funded and into the fleet like yesterday?


YOU GET SOCOM'S MISSION MODULE UP AND RUNNING PRONTO!


If you have to assign half these ships to supporting SOCOM then you do it!  That will get you funding, it will make your ships high profile and it will get you positive press.


Next up (in my way of thinking) would be to get mission modules running for the Marines and certain Army units....Besides running these ships around the world for SOCOM, you team them up with AFRICOM to support partnership missions there.


That will get you positive interagency press.  Which brings me to the next module.  Humanitarian assistance/Inter Agency module.


Have you noticed the trend here?  You're developing personnel modules.  Not warfighting modules, but in essence support modules.  This will get your ships out to the fleet quicker, will make them useful sooner and will create demand that will help kick start this poorly handled program.


Once SOCOM, the Marines, Army, Inter Agency and Humanitarian Assistance modules are done, then you can accelerate the work on the surface warfare, anti-mine warfare and land attack modules.


But you've got to rebrand this thing first.  The LCS can be saved, will be useful and can contribute to the fleet.  

If you do it my way, it'll be welcomed with open arms not cries of WTF!