So sayeth SecNav.
What the Navy once called frigates and, before that, Destroyer Escorts were ships that were designed to escort convoys, replenishment ships and landing ships. They were primarily ASW ships, built for blue-water warfare.
LCSs are glorified offshore PT boats. They don't have the crew or the capability for extended open-ocean operations (like DE/FFs did). The very word "littoral" implies that they are designed to operate where brown water meats blue water-- not very far offshore. And certainly not in the middle of the ocean. So far, it hasn't been proven that the LCSs can operate very far from a support base (or ocean-going tugs).
Calling a LCS a FF is like calling a 3-wheeled motorcycle a "sedan".
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6 comments:
Comrade M,
The Littoral Combat ships might barely be considered corvettes or cutters but they are not DEs. And the Navy going forward w/ a back-and-forth of the two designs which is odd. And the Zumwalt-Class has been slashed so they're only getting 3 of those fancy futuristic Destroyers.
Big orders have been put in for Arleigh Burke-Class which are going to be in service for a long time.
Hell, some Korean War era Spruance Destroyers are still in serivce after we sold them to other Navies.
"Calling a LCS a FF is like calling a 3-wheeled motorcycle a "sedan"."
... or an F-35 an airplane :-(
Grung_e_Gene probably meant "Gearing", not "Spruance", for the latter were 70's and 80's vintage.
The idea that these under-armed and under-equipped LCSs (that might or might not have the right "modular system" on board) might be survivable in a contested or even an A2/AD environment is delusional.
If I was assigned to an LCS crew I'd be working on a transfer to SSNs...
SO, that, or Sumner or Fletcher classes. All of which had ships which were provided to other nations.
You're right, though. The Sprucans were all either scrapped or sunk.
Calling a LCS a FF is like calling a 3-wheeled motorcycle a "sedan". Calling a LCS a FF is like calling a 3-wheeled motorcycle a "sedan".
Or calling it a "motorcycle"
;-)
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