Rules of the fight are simple. You're commanding an LCS and you're going up against another threat. Your only weapons are those that are integral to the ship itself. No helicopters but mission modules are allowed. Winner is determined by who ever is left standing at the end....
First up. LCS vs.Pirate Dhow...
Operating off the coast of Africa, your LCS has been charged with stopping illegal piracy. You spot a dhow that you suspect of being a pirate ship and as you approach to launch your boarding party, you're hit with small arms fire and RPGs. You retaliate with your 57mm cannon and make short work of the threat. LCS 1. Pirates 0. LCS wins.
LCS vs. Fast Attack Missile Boat.
Future war in S. China sea. Your LCS is acting as a picket ship. No helicopters are onboard as they've been called back to reinforce the anti-sub net for the Carrier Battle Group. Suddenly from behind an island, a Houbei class fast attack boat comes storming out. They're 25 miles away and you launch your Griffin missile and start punching out decoys and smoke 'cause you know a long range missile is coming. Your Griffin missile comes up short (you knew it would, you just hoped it would get a reaction from the enemy) and you speed away at 50 knots. The engine will have to be rebuilt but that means you'll have survived the encouter. A rebuilt engine will be a small price to pay for the joy of living another day. God frowns and you die. Your ship is a smoking wreck. The Chinese paint a silhoutte of an LCS on the bridge, your crew is shark food and the LCS is destroyed by a boat less than half its size. LCS 0. Fast Attack Boat 1. Rematch. LCS is given a mission module with Harpoon missiles. The circumstances of the battle remain the same. The outcome? Mutual destruction. Both ships launch at range and both ships are hit. The Chinese missile has a heavy warhead so the results are the same on the US side. The Chinese ship being small is also damaged beyond repair. The sharks dine on both crews. LCS loses. Rematch? LCS loses. Houbei loses.
LCS vs. Frigate.
LCS vs a La Fayette class frigate. Hmmm. This should be a decent match up. With anti-ship modules both ships are similarly equipped and since the La Fayette class carries Exocet missiles the throw weight of their weaponry is also similar. Circumstances of the ship to ship combat are irrelevant. Equal opponents. Equal weaponry. Comes down to a pick'em. Results. Tie.
Long story short? You can't fight an LCS against anything bigger than a Frigate. And thats where the Navy should go with these ships. Equip the ships as frigates and add them to the fleet. Modules should be limited to Special Ops only. An anti-surface package and anti-sub package should be a given. Limited anti-air should come from close in defense and its 57mm guns. Re-engining them with a more economical engine should be a given and the idea of speeds approaching 40 knots should be abandonded. It still won't be perfect but it will be servicable.
First up. LCS vs.Pirate Dhow...
LCS vs. Fast Attack Missile Boat.
LCS vs. Frigate.
Long story short? You can't fight an LCS against anything bigger than a Frigate. And thats where the Navy should go with these ships. Equip the ships as frigates and add them to the fleet. Modules should be limited to Special Ops only. An anti-surface package and anti-sub package should be a given. Limited anti-air should come from close in defense and its 57mm guns. Re-engining them with a more economical engine should be a given and the idea of speeds approaching 40 knots should be abandonded. It still won't be perfect but it will be servicable.
1. If an LCS were ever sent into an area where AShM attacks were a possibility then it would definitely have some sort of AShM also, so a Harpoon class AShM is almost a certainty.
ReplyDelete2. You apparently do not think much of the SeaRAM as it is a VERY good defense against AShMs, especially subsonic ones. THe 57mm also has a CWIS mode.
3. Where were the LCS's drones (with Hellfires/JAGM)?
4. How did the FAB detect and fire on the LCS from over the horizon? Remember that the horizon is less than 7 nmi from a 30ft tall mast.
http://www.gllka.com/resources/calculators/horizon.htm
All that being said, I do think the LCS is under-gunned and have stated solutions to fix this on this site several times.
A. Replace 30mm guns with armored box Hellfires/JAGM
B. Put Millinium Guns on the rear hanger corners.
C. LG rounds for the 57mm.
D. Spike NLOS missile instead of Griffin
E. VL/popup JSM/NSM/Spear3 in the forward weapons bay.
F. Replace the 50cal MGs with M230s on Mk41 mounts.
There is no missile on the LCS other than Griffin, which is pathetically short ranged, so your ties with the Houbei and Frigate aren't going to happen. You can also make the Dhow scenario a lot more interesting by giving the pirates an ATGM, since the USN's concept that no pirate or Iran would ever think to put an ATGM on small boat is ludicrous on its face.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, AFAIK, the surface warefare package is a 30mm cannon (big whoop) and a Hellfire armed helicopter and rocket armed drones. These can be powerful assets and they do give the LCS an over the horizon kill mechanism that the Houbeis can't match, though the Lafayette has its own helicopter so then it just depends on who's helicopter spots the other ship first.
Having said that, it goes to one of the key things about the LCS: the USN not only assumes absolute air superiority, they also assume no modern AAA/SAMs for the threat, since neither hellfires nor rockets are launched outside of a SAM envelope. So we're back to a 3000 ton ship that can only fight pirates in speedboats.
Maybe it's time to add the Trophy APS?
ReplyDeleteIsraelis are mounting a jamming based anti-ATGM system on some of their smaller boats, which often operate very close to shore, already.
DeleteI almost hate to mention this but I had thought the 30mm guns were only part of the mine warfare module and for the surface warfare module the missiles go where the 30mm would go on the mine warfare module.
ReplyDeleteIn any case if the USN stops buying LCS at 24 are we really still going to develop the 3 different modules? When might any of the modules actually work and we start seeing them aboard ship? Exactly how did we plan on buying and operating ships and then adopting a wait and see attitude as to what their primary mission systems would look like, cost, or even work?
Sol there is no mission module with Harpoon. Sure LCS should have Harpoon but it doesn't and there's no plans to see how to fit it aboard. In a networked world with perfect situational awareness LCS either sends it's helicopters for long range strike or moves away so it doesn't need anything like Harpoon. LCS is designed to operate in a fictional construct rather devoid from reality. There is no other way to explain, as one example, the primary surface warfare system in the surface warfare module being a missile with a range of 3 miles. I still can't believe they're serious and I know they are.