Friday, January 20, 2012
Littoral Combat Ship
Touted since the 1990s as the next generation of advanced naval vessel, the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was designed to function as a minesweeper, among other duties. But after extensive testing it was found the LCS would have a difficult time locating mines, let alone surviving a blast from one.
This conclusion was formed by the Department of Defense's Operational Test and Evaluation Office, which checked out the LCS for about a year. The Pentagon's top weapons testers determined that the ship's sonar and special lasers for detecting mines don't work sufficiently well enough. They also found that the LCS is “not expected to be survivable in a hostile combat environment.”
The U.S. Navy wants to buy 55 of the ships. But given the vessels' shortcomings and shrinking defense budgets, it's possible the LCS will go straight to the scrap yard.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Navy’s New Minehunter Can’t See or Stop Mines (by Spencer Ackerman, Wired)
Operational Test and Evaluation Annual Report FY 2011 (large pdf) (pages 139-141)
U.S. Shifting Military Forces Closer to China (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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