Saturday, December 19, 2015

Pentagon Orders Navy To Only Buy 40 LCS Ships And To Use Only One Shipbuilder

USS Freedom (LCS-1), left, and USS Independence (LCS-2) in 2012. US Navy Photo

Defense News: Pentagon Cuts LCS to 40 Ships, 1 Shipbuilder

WASHINGTON — The US Navy's fight to buy 52 variants of its littoral combat ship (LCS) from two shipbuilders may have taken a fatal blow this week after the secretary of defense directed the service to cap its buy at 40 ships and pick only one supplier. The directive also orders the Navy to buy only one ship annually over the next four years, down from three per year.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter, in a Dec. 14 memo to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, told the Navy to "reduce the planned LCS/FF procurement from 52 to 40, creating a 1-1-1-1-2 profile, for eight fewer ships in the FYDP, and then downselect to one variant by FY 2019."

More News On The Pentagon Cutting Back Its LCS Program

Exposed: Pentagon's Latest Fleet Overhaul Cuts LCS -- National Interest
Navy Fights For 52 LCS After SecDef Cuts To 40: Presence vs. Warfighting -- Breaking Defense
Rough sailing ahead: Defense secretary calls for LCS cutback -- Al.com
Sec. Carter Directed the Navy to Decrease LCS Fleet Size from 52 to 40 -- Scout
Carter directs US Navy to cut LCS, frigate numbers while boosting aircraft procurement -- IHS Jane's 360
SECDEF Carter Directs Navy to Cut Littoral Combat Ship Program to 40 Hulls, Single Shipbuilder -- USNI News
Builders Defend Littoral Combat Ships after Carter Orders Program Cuts -- Military.com
Congressmen will resist SecDef effort to cut LCS buy -- Marine Log
Why the Pentagon Is Cutting Back Orders on Its New Combat Ship -- Martin Matishak, Fiscal Times

4 comments:

jj said...

Only one ship builder?

Makes perfect sense .. kickbacks to politicians and no competitive bids as to costs ..

Unknown said...

It is a Democrat world.

Democrats complain about unit cost. They cut down the # of units and so the overhead is spread over fewer units leading to higher unit cost.

It is a self fulfilling death spiral.

The only way to survive it for manufacturers is to give kickbacks.

Your typical war fighter would not willingly put all their eggs in one basket.


But politicos see defense as waste. It cuts down on the largess they can spread.

Jay Farquharson said...

Guys,

Both designs of the LCS are not reliable, they require "modular mission tailored weapons systems" to be installed (72 hours) before a mission, both the MHIROV and MADIROV systems are complete failures, so the ships have no defences against mines or subs, and both variants rely on Ageis THAD for survival against missile and air attack.

So, as designed and built, you have a Littoral Combat Ship, that requires a tow to get to the "enemy" coast, requires the deployment of a full fleet to actually enter the enemy's coastline, and is really only able to fight Somali Pirates.

It's the boat version of the F-35. As it's a U.S. naval program, there is way too much graft spread around dozens of Congressional ridings for the project to be cancelled.

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