Video: Navy Commissions Littoral Combat Ship USS Manchester

By: Ben Werner

USNI.org

May 28, 2018 8:40 AM • Updated: May 28, 2018 10:32 AM

The crew of the Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Manchester (LCS-14) man the rails the ship after the ship’s sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) gives the traditional order to ‘man this ship and bring her to life’ on May 26, 2018. US Navy Photo

USS Manchester (LCS-14), the latest Independence-class littoral combat ship, was commissioned in Portsmouth, N.H. on Saturday.

With the commissioning of Manchester complete, the Navy now has a dozen littoral combat ships in the fleet. Manchester is the seventh littoral combat ship built by Austal USA to enter the fleet. On May 5, Manchester set sail from Austal’s Mobile, Ala., shipyard for the commissioning ceremony in New Hampshire, according to a Navy statement.

“USS Manchester is a modern marvel and an example of the increased capability that comes from a true partnership with the American industry,” Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer said in a statement released before the commissioning. “The ship honors the city of Manchester and the patriotic citizens of New Hampshire for their support to our military, and I cannot wait to see the amazing things the crew will accomplish.”

The ceremony’s principal speaker was Adm. Bill Moran, Vice Chief of Naval Operations. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the senior U.S. Senator from New Hampshire, is the ship’s sponsor, and gave the order to, “man our ship and bring her to life!”

The Independence-class is one of two littoral combat ship variants. The Independence-class variant, signified with even-numbered hulls, are noted for their aluminum-hull trimaran design. General Dynamics Bath Iron Works originally developed the design but after the first two Independence-class ships were built, construction was taken over by Austal at its Mobile shipyard.

The Freedom-class littoral combat ship variants have odd hull numbers and are built by a team led by Lockheed Martin. These ships are constructed by Lockheed Martin at Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Wisconsin.

Now when Manchester leaves New Hampshire, the ship will its long voyage to its new homeport, San Diego, Calif. As part of the ship’s sail, Manchester is expected to conduct the training, equipment and systems checks standard for new ships. Manchester is expected to visit several ports and transit the Panama Canal on its way to San Diego, according to the Navy. Much of the crew is San Diego-based but has been in Mobile since August as the ship was completing construction, according to a Navy statement.

“We are proud to take full ownership of our new ship, but we also thoroughly enjoyed our time here in Mobile, Alabama and were welcomed with open arms by the local community,” Cmdr. Emily Bassett, Manchester’s commanding officer, said in the release.

Senators Want More Details on 2-Carrier Buy, LCS Requirement Before Supporting Additional Shipbuilding Funds

By: Megan Eckstein , USNI News

May 25, 2018 3:54 PM

The Senate Armed Services Committee is looking for more information from the Navy before it will support buying additional ships in Fiscal Year 2019, which its House counterparts wholeheartedly endorsed doing.

The Navy requested 10 ships in its FY 2019 request. The House Armed Services Committee earlier this month added the authority to buy three more – two Littoral Combat Ships and an aircraft carrier – and paved the way for additional ships in the Future Years Defense Program.

The Senate committee is taking a more measured approach in its version of the bill, which the committee marked up this week and will be filed with the full Senate for a floor debate and vote after the Memorial Day holiday. SASC’s bill, according to a bill summary, supports only the 10 ships the Navy requested, as well as some additional advance procurement and long lead-time material funding beyond the budget request.

Speaking to reporters on background today, SASC staffers said the committee wanted to better understand the current status of the aircraft carrier and LCS programs before supporting any spending beyond the Navy’s formal 2019 budget request.

On the LCS program, of which SASC Chairman Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has been among the most vocal critics, the House sided with industry and added two ships to the Navy’s request for one LCS – totaling three ships for FY 2019. During last year’s budget talks, the Navy said buying three ships was the minimum sustaining rate for industry. Both shipyards in the LCS program are competing for the follow-on guided-missile frigate program and maintain that anything less than three LCSs a year before the downselect will hurt their workforce and suppliers and put them at a disadvantage for the frigate competition.

McCain’s longstanding LCS concerns aside, a SASC staffer noted that the Navy, by the end of the current fiscal year, FY 2018, will have bought 32 LCSs, which is the current total program of record. The staffer said the committee is interested in moving on to the more capable frigate instead of funding more LCSs. As a compromise for 2019, the committee included language that will require the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment to certify three things before any LCSs could be bought: one, that there is a national security requirement for LCSs to be bought in 2019; two, that there is an industrial base need for LCSs to be bought in 2019; and three, that buying additional LCSs would not exceed the allowed low-rate initial production (LRIP) quantity.

The staffer told USNI News after the background briefing that the LRIP quantity and the acquisition plan have been changed repeatedly and that changing the LRIP quantity to allow for more LCSs in 2019 wouldn’t be a burden on the Navy and DoD. The certification of national security and industrial base requirement, though, are important to the committee. If the Pentagon comes back and says industry requires just one LCS to be bought in 2019, SASC would support buying one – which is what the Navy requested for 2019. If the Pentagon certifies that industrial base needs dictate buying two or even three, like HASC wanted, then the senators would support that. If the Pentagon said there was no industrial base need at all, then the committee would support zeroing out the program ahead of the frigate transition, the staffer said.

On the Ford-class aircraft carrier program, which McCain has slammed in the past for cost-overruns and system development setbacks, the Navy in March released a request for proposal (RFP) to carrier-builder Newport News Shipbuilding for more information on how allowing a two-ship buy for ships CVN-80 and 81 would create efficiencies and cost-savings.

The Navy hopes to have the information it needs to make a decision about pursuing the two-carrier buy by late summer or early fall. Newport News Shipbuilding has already said it expects it could achieve $1.6 billion in savings by combining CVNs 80 and 81, and the Navy could see more savings beyond that in the government-furnished equipment it buys in separate contracts.

The Navy has not conclusively decided it will pursue the two-carrier buy, though, it looks to be a likely outcome. Still, the House bill is aggressive in aircraft carrier procurement, buying CVN-81 in 2019 and including a provision that carriers be procured on three-year centers going forward, instead of the current five-year gap between buying them.

A SASC staffer said the committee was silent on the issue of additional carrier spending in 2019 beyond the Navy’s request. The staffer said the Navy is still waiting for responses from industry to the RFP and hasn’t sent Congress a formal proposal to change its acquisition strategy – which SASC would consider once it receives a proposal with cost and schedule details. For now, though, the Senate committee isn’t embracing the dual-carrier buy or other acceleration measures in the absence of all the facts.

The House version of the NDAA also lays out a clear path of growth for the Virginia-class attack submarine program, setting up the Navy to go from buying two a year to adding a third boat in 2022 and 2023 and potentially in 2020 as well. A SASC staffer said the Senate committee chose to be more hands-off, instead supporting the two requested hulls in 2019 and adding an extra $250 million to support either economic order quantity procurement for future subs or initiatives to expand the submarine industrial base – supporting second- and third-tier vendors who either can’t ramp up to support growing submarine construction, or to bring in new companies where a sole-source supplier of an important component exists.

Overall, the SASC bill authorizes $23.1 billion for shipbuilding, which funds the 10 ships the Navy requested – three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers; two Virginia submarines; one LCS; one Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary transport dock; two John Lewis-class oilers; and one towing, salvage and rescue ship. The bill also adds $1.2 billion beyond the administration’s request to support future ships, including the $250 million for the attack subs, $250 million for long lead material for the destroyer program, $650 million for advance procurement for LPD-31 or economic order quantity procurement for the upcoming San Antonio-class Flight II amphibious ships (formerly the LX(R) program, now called LPD Flight II), and $25 million to accelerate the replacement of Yard Patrol training ships at the U.S. Naval Academy.

In aviation, the bill authorizes buying 117 naval aviation aircraft, including 24 F/A-18 Super Hornets, 10 P-8A Poseidons, two KC-130J Hercules, 25 AH-1Z Cobras, eight CH-53K King Stallions, seven Marine Corps MV-22 and Navy CMV-22B Ospreys, six VH-92A Presidential Helicopters, three MQ-4 Tritons, and five E-2D Advanced Hawkeyes – which fully meets the Navy’s aviation procurement request plus adds one additional E-2D.

On the Joint Strike Fighter, the bill supports all 20 F-35B Marine Corps variants but cuts one F-35C carrier variant, allowing just eight instead of the Navy’s request for nine. The staff said one Navy and one Air Force variant were cut, with that funding being moved to support program sustainment instead of new procurement.

The bill also allows for $100 million for Marine Corps unmanned aerial vehicles. A SASC staffer said the Marine Corps has a shortfall of its Group 3 RQ-21A Blackjack capability, and its large Group 5 UAV is still early on in its development. The committee supports the Marine Corps using a fielded Air Force or Army large UAV system as an interim capability to meet operational commanders’ needs and to potentially help inform the requirements for the Group 5 UAS.

Additionally, the bill includes measures to reform the surface navy in the aftermath of last year’s four surface fleet mishaps in U.S. 7th Fleet, two of which were fatal and killed 17 sailors. The Surface Warfare Enhancement Act was introduced back in February, and 10 provisions and three pieces of report language from that act were included in SASC’s version of the NDAA. The House committee seeks to address the same surface readiness issues but in a different way. SASC calls for a clean-sheet review of the command and control structure and asks for an unclassified summary of the Navy’s the Board of Inspection and Survey (INSURV)’s reports – whereas the House wants to declassify each individual INSURV report.

The full SASC bill language is not yet available and will be released after the holiday recess. Once the full Senate passes the NDAA, the HASC and SASC will have to meet for a conference committee to work out the differences between their bills.

Marinette shipyard has two chances to win multibillion-dollar Navy contract as LCS winds down

By David Schuyler  – Digital Producer, Milwaukee Business Journal 

May 23, 2018, 2:44pm CDT Updated May 23, 2018, 1:32pm 

The U.S. Navy shipbuilding program that has supported thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic impact in Wisconsin since the mid-2000s is slated to wind down with the last of 32 littoral combat ships to be ordered either this year or next.

But it’s possible that the work won’t end for the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, which was tasked to produce half of the U.S. Navy’s LCS orders as a member of the contract team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. of Bethesda, Md. The U.S. Navy now wants another small class of combatants that could bring $10 billion worth of work and hundreds of additional jobs to Wisconsin, and the Marinette shipyard has more than one way of winning the contract.

The U.S. Navy intends to transition to a class of new frigates, called FFG(X), with the intent of procuring 20 of the ships. In order to speed deployment and keep cost down, the Navy wants existing designs adaptable to the new specifications of the program, which call for a guided-missile frigate with combat and mechanical systems suitable for a carrier strike group and independent operation.

Combined with the LCS program, the frigates would fill out the Navy’s desire for achieving and maintaining a force of 52 small surface combatants as part of the Navy’s plans for building a 355-ship fleet. 

The Navy is holding a competition for designs for the FFG(X) and in February, it selected five designs to compete for the work. Two of the five would mean more work in Marinette. 

The five finalist contractors were awarded $15 million for conceptual designs that the Navy will evaluate over the next year or so. A final request for proposal will be issued in 2019 and the contract will be awarded in 2020, according to a U.S. Naval Institute report.

Fincantieri, owner of the former Marinette Marine shipyard, won one of those contracts for its submitted design, which is essentially its FREMM frigate now in use in the Italian and French navies. Another finalist is Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), which submitted its Freedom-variant littoral combat ship (LCS) parent design in response to the U.S. Navy's FFG(X) conceptual design solicitation. If either design wins, Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Marinette would essentially be the shipbuilder.

The designs from Fincantieri Marinette Marine and Lockheed Martin are competing for the FFG(X) program with designs from Austal USA, which submitted the Independence-variant LCS design, and with submissions from General Dynamics Iron Bath Works in Maine and Huntington Ingalls Industries in Virginia.

A win would be significant for Wisconsin. If Fincantieri’s design wins, the Italian shipbuilder would hire about 500 more employees in Wisconsin, while the work would retain 1,500 jobs, a company spokesman said. Fincantieri Marine Group already employs more than 2,000 workers in the United States. 

The shipyard value of the contract will be $10 billion for the 20 ships, with an initial order for 10 ships, or $5 billion, according to the Fincantieri spokesman.

Fincantieri is now touring the Italian frigate ITS Alpino along the East Coast in a demonstration of its capabilities. The FREMM-class frigate landed at Norfolk, Va., earlier this week and will venture to Baltimore, New York City, and Boston. 

"The ITS Alpino demonstrates the proven versatility and capability of the FREMM class frigate," said Vice Admiral Richard Hunt (Ret.), Fincantieri Marinette Marine's chief strategy officer. "It is lethal, survivable, designed for sailors and in service now. It provides a superior platform for the U.S. Navy FFG(X) competition and can provide great combat capability for our Navy in the near term and beyond. It will contribute to the defense of America and our allies."

Fincantieri is also a partner in Lockheed Martin’s bid, which proposes an FFG(X) based upon the the two companies’ current LCS class now being produced in Marinette. That may be significant, since in congressional background materials on the status of the LCS program dated April 5, the FFG(X) design “may or may not be based on one of the two LCS designs.” That the LCS designs produced by Lockheed Martin at Fincantieri’s Marinette shipyard — and at Austal USA’s shipyard in Alabama — are specifically mentioned suggests the suitability of basing the FFG(X) design on the LCS hull design.

It's also noteworthy that in May 2017, then-acting Secretary of the Navy Sean Stackley said the two LCS shipyards, with their mature production lines, will likely hold a cost advantage. 

Perhaps the primary difference between the current LCS and the future frigate being sought by the U.S. Navy will be the frigate’s ability to support Hellfire guided missiles, which are launched vertically. The Wisconsin-built LCS ships implemented that capability into later designs and Fincantieri’s FREMM class already has the capability for vertically launched missiles.

To be sure, the last orders for littoral combat ships won’t mean the Marinette shipyard will go idle. The Lockheed Martin and Fincantieri Marinette Marine team has delivered five Freedom-variant ships to the U.S. Navy to date and has eight ships in various stages of construction in Marinette, with one more in long-lead production, Lockheed Martin said in February. Still, as the ships filter through with no work replace to them, jobs will be inevitably be lost.

Gast: View from 'Big Blue' another check off the bucket list

Jon Gast, Special to USA TODAY NETWORK-WisconsinPublished 6:32 p.m. CT May 21, 2018

This check off my bucket list fell more into the column with sky diving, considering the resulting experiences were very similar.

Actually, I was thinking a parachute might have come in handy as I was riding the elevator up one of the legs of the gantry crane at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay last week.

Years ago, there were days when I had trouble climbing up a ladder to string a net on our driveway’s basketball hoop.

But age has seemingly relaxed such fears, perhaps knowing that we all have to go sometime. Still, the crane presented a challenge.

It just isn’t any ordinary crane. Perhaps if it were located in some larger city among taller buildings, it wouldn’t be as conspicuous as it is in Sturgeon Bay.

But “Big Blue” has become the most prominent structure in this small town’s skyline.

“Big Blue,” as it is affectionately known at the yard, is the gigantic crane that spans the expansive graving dock that services some of the largest vessels on the Great Lakes.

If you asked a lot of the city’s residents how long the crane has been around, many would have a hard time imagining the city without it. Even some of the older residents might have trouble putting an age on it. 

Count me among that group. I arrived in town nearly three years before it went up and I can’t visualize the yard without it. All I know is that ever since, I’ve wondered what it was like up there and the view it must afford.

Well, the distinctive four-legged structure turns 40 years old this spring, a product of the yard’s building boom of the 1970s, especially the phase that involved the construction of six 1,000-foot bulk carriers.

Now, years later, the arrival of these boats in town for winter layover has left some of us a bit complacent as to their grandeur.

That’s perhaps why I like to serve as a tour guide for the Rotary Club’s annual Shipyard Tours. With the Paul R. Tregurtha in town for this year’s tour a couple weeks ago, visitors remind you of their significance. 

Actually, they reinforce the uniqueness of living in proximity to the largest shipyard on the lakes. Everything seems big there. Especially the crane.

Production Manager Stewart Fett has spent 44 years at the yard and was more than happy to talk to me about the crane, a piece of equipment that with his electrical expertise has provided a unique platform on which to test his skills while enhancing the machine’s capabilities.

Stu said the crane’s construction by the yard’s previous owner, Manitowoc Company, was in concert with the creation of an 1,100-foot-long graving dock.

“We were building the Belle River (later renamed the Water J. McCarthy),” remembered Fett. “It was our first 1,000 footer.”

The four-legged design of the crane allows it to roll on railroad ties up and down the full length of the dock to deliver needed materials for new construction and repair work.

Fett pointed to an already assembled bow section for the petroleum barge being constructed at the end of the dock as one of its next heavy lifts.

He also pointed to the elevator and asked if I wanted to go up. I had my hard hat on and, accompanied by Stu, who by his own estimation had been to the top at least 1,000 times, what could go wrong?

Still, this wasn’t a Marriott resort elevator, and at the top the door was a little sticky. Stu said it was nothing a little WD-40 wouldn’t fix. It was also the door where he said some preferred not to get out.

I did, and Stu showed me some of the inner workings of the crane. It was noisy inside the building at the end of the crane but I’ve never had a fear of noise.

But once we stepped outside to the catwalk that spans the crane, I surprisingly felt pretty good. I wouldn’t say great, because the crane isn’t something you walk around on every day, but the view was fantastic.

Below in the graving dock, shipyard workers were busily working on two hulls. Fett said only one other similar graving dock remains on the lake, making this view all the more significant.

We walked down to the little hanging cab that houses the crane operator. With his sunflower seeds for a snack and a view unlike any other in the city, he admitted to relishing his job.  

While the 40-year wait to the top of the crane was everything I could have imagined, I kind of relished the elevator ride back down.

Back on the ground, I thanked Stu for the tour of “Big Blue”  and then looked back up at it. It seemed an even higher look up. 

Watch the Littoral Combat Ship test its Hellfire missiles

The Freedom variant littoral combat ship USS Milwaukee (LCS 5) conducted a live-fire missile exercise off the coast of Virginia May 11, 2018.

The Milwaukee fired four longbow hellfire missiles that successfully struck fast inshore attack craft targets.

During the evolution, the ship's crew executed a scenario simulating a complex warfighting environment, utilized radar, and other systems to track small surface targets, simulated engagements and then fired missiles against the surface targets.

"The crew of the USS Milwaukee executed superbly and the test team ran the event seamlessly, both were critical in making this event successful," said Capt. Ted Zobel, LCS Mission Modules program manager.

This marks the completion of the first phase of the Surface-to-Surface Missile Module (SSMM) Developmental Testing (DT) for the LCS Mission Modules (MM) program. This was the first integrated firing of the SSMM from an LCS. Additionally, this was the second at-sea launch of SSMM missiles from an LCS. SSMM leverages the U.S. Army's Longbow Hellfire Missile in a vertical launch capability to counter small boat threats. Initial operational capability (IOC) and fielding of the SSMM is expected in 2019.

The Milwaukee, homeported at Naval Station Mayport, is a fast, agile, mission-focused platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric "anti-access" threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.

"The east coast littoral combat team continues to grow and mature with two Freedom variant LCS arriving annually in Mayport. We look forward to conducting the next phase of SSMM testing onboard USS Detroit (LCS 7)," said Littoral Combat Ship Squadron Two Capt. Shawn Johnston.

The ship is a modular, reconfigurable ship, designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface warfare, anti-submarine warfare and mine countermeasures missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain, and exploit littoral maritime supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical areas in multiple theaters.

Courtesy of the United States Navy: We Are the Mighty
 

US Navy to christen Future USS Cincinnati (LCS-20)

BYWORLD NAVAL NEWSON 13 MAY 2018• 

The US Navy officially christened its newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship (LCS), the future USS Cincinnati (LCS 20) with a ceremony Saturday, May 5, in Mobile, Alabama.

{At the mast stepping ceremony prior to the christening, Cincinnati Council Member and US Navy veteran David Mann presented a key to the city and a letter from Mayor John Cranley, along with other items. These items will be welded within the ship.}

According to Cincinnati City official web news; Cincinnati has a long and proud tradition of recognition by the Navy including the naming of four other vessels. The first was a stern-wheel casemate gunboat that served during the Civil War and was sunk by Confederate fire on two separate occasions. Raised both times and returned to service, she was decommissioned following the war. The second Cincinnati was a cruiser commissioned in 1894. She served extensively in the Caribbean before, during, and after the Spanish-American War before being decommissioned in 1919. The third ship to bear the name was a light cruiser commissioned in 1924 that served around the world and earned a battle star for World War II service that included convoy escort and blockade duty. She was decommissioned in 1945 after the war ended. The fourth Cincinnati was a Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine commissioned in 1978. The boat served for 17 years before being decommissioned in 1995.

General Characteristics, Independence variant :

Builder: General Dynamics (LCS 2 and LCS 4), Austal USA (LCS 6 and follow)

Length: 421.5 feet (128.5 meters)

Height: 126.3 feet (38.5 meters)

Beam: 103.7 feet (31.6 meters)

Displacement: approximately 3,200 MT full load

Draft: 15.1 feet (4.6 meters)

LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface warfare (SUW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and mine countermeasures (MCM) missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain and exploit littoral maritime supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical areas in multiple theaters.

The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin (for the odd-numbered hulls). The Independence variant team is led by Austal USA (for LCS 6 and the subsequent even-numbered hulls).

Report to Congress on Littoral Combat Ship Program

April 19, 2018 7:01 AM • Updated: April 19, 2018 8:25 AM

The following is the April 5, 2018 Congressional Research Service report, Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program: Background and Issues for Congress.

From the Report:

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is a relatively inexpensive surface combatant equipped with modular mission packages. Navy plans call for procuring a total of 32 LCSs. The first LCS was procured in FY2005, and the Navy’s proposed FY2018 budget requested the procurement of the 30th and 31st LCSs. As part of its action on the Navy’s proposed FY2018 budget, Congress procured three LCSs—one more than the two that were requested. Thus, a total of 32 LCSs have been procured through FY2018.

The Navy’s proposed FY2019 budget, which was submitted to Congress before Congress finalized action on the Navy’s FY2018 budget, requests $646.2 million for the procurement of one LCS. If Congress had procured two LCSs in FY2018, as requested by the Navy, the LCS requested for procurement in FY2019 would have been the 32nd LCS. With the procurement of three LCSs in FY2018, the LCS requested for procurement in FY2019 would be the 33rd LCS.

The Navy’s plan for achieving and maintaining a 355-ship fleet includes a goal for achieving and maintaining a force of 52 small surface combatants (SSCs). The Navy’s plan for achieving that goal is to procure 32 LCSs, and then procure 20 new frigates, called FFG(X)s, with the first FFG(X) to be procured in FY2020. Multiple industry teams are now competing for the FFG(X) program. The design of the FFG(X) is to be based on either an LCS design or a different existing hull design. The FFG(X) program is covered in another CRS report.

The LCS program includes two very different LCS designs. One was developed by an industry team led by Lockheed; the other was developed by an industry team that was then led by General Dynamics. LCS procurement has been divided evenly between the two designs. The design developed by the Lockheed-led team is built at the Marinette Marine shipyard at Marinette, WI, with Lockheed as the prime contractor; the design developed by the team that was led by General Dynamics is built at the Austal USA shipyard at Mobile, AL, with Austal USA as the prime contractor.

The LCS program has been controversial over the years due to past cost growth, design and construction issues with the first LCSs, concerns over the survivability of LCSs (i.e., their ability to withstand battle damage), concerns over whether LCSs are sufficiently armed and would be able to perform their stated missions effectively, and concerns over the development and testing of the modular mission packages for LCSs. The Navy’s execution of the program has been a matter of congressional oversight attention for several years.

Issues for Congress for the LCS program for FY2019 include the following:

• the number of LCSs to procure in FY2019;
• the Navy’s proposal to procure a final LCS in FY2019 and then shift to procurement of FFG(X)s starting in FY2020; and
• survivability, lethality, technical risk, and test and evaluation issues relating to LCSs and their mission packages.

Courtesy USNI News, to read Full Report

U.S. Navy to Christen Newest Freedom-Variant Littoral Combat Ship, Future USS Indianapolis

The U.S. Navy will christen its newest Freedom-variant littoral combat ship, the future USS Indianapolis (LCS 17), during a 10:00 a.m. CDT ceremony Saturday, April 14, in Marinette, Wisconsin.

The future USS Indianapolis, designated LCS 17, honors Indianapolis, Indiana’s state capital. She will be the fourth ship to bear the name. 

The principal speaker will be former U.S. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. Mrs. Jill Donnelly, wife of U.S. Senator Joe Donnelly of Indiana, will serve as the ship’s sponsor. In a time-honored Navy tradition, she will christen the ship by breaking a bottle of sparkling wine across the bow.

“The future USS Indianapolis honors more than a city, it pays tribute to the legacy of those who served during the final days of World War II on board USS Indianapolis (CA-35),” said Secretary of the Navy Richard V. Spencer. “This ship will continue the proud legacy of service embodied in the name Indianapolis, and is a testament to the true partnership between the Navy and industry.” 

The ship will be launched into Menominee River on April 17. After additional outfitting and testing, the ship will be officially delivered to the U.S. Navy later this year.

LCS-17 is the fourth ship to carry the name of Indiana’s capital city. The most recent Indianapolis was a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, commissioned Jan. 5, 1980, which served through the end of the Cold War before being decommissioned in 1998. The first Indianapolis was a steamer built for the U.S. Shipping Board (USSB) and commissioned directly into the Navy in 1918. After two runs to Europe, the ship was returned to the USSB following the war. It is the second Indianapolis (CA 35)—a cruiser—that is perhaps the best known of the three. The ship was sunk in the final days of World War II, and her crew spent several days in the water awaiting rescue. But it was her impressive war record that first brought the ship to the attention of Navy leaders and the American public. The ship and her crew served faithfully throughout the war, seeing action in the Aleutians, the Gilbert Islands, Saipan, the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. In addition to frequently serving as the flagship of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, the ship earned 10 battle stars for World War II service and successfully completed a top secret mission delivering components of the instrument that ended the war.

The future USS Indianapolis is a fast, agile, focused-mission platform designed for operation in near-shore environments yet capable of open-ocean operation. It is designed to defeat asymmetric “anti-access” threats such as mines, quiet diesel submarines and fast surface craft.

LCS is a modular, reconfigurable ship, designed to meet validated fleet requirements for surface warfare (SUW), anti-submarine warfare (ASW) and mine countermeasures (MCM) missions in the littoral region. An interchangeable mission package is embarked on each LCS and provides the primary mission systems in one of these warfare areas. Using an open architecture design, modular weapons, sensor systems and a variety of manned and unmanned vehicles to gain, sustain and exploit littoral maritime supremacy, LCS provides U.S. joint force access to critical areas in multiple theaters.

The LCS class consists of two variants, the Freedom variant and the Independence variant, designed and built by two industry teams. The Freedom variant team is led by Lockheed Martin (for the odd-numbered hulls). The Independence variant team is led by Austal USA (for LCS 6 and the subsequent even-numbered hulls).

Courtesy of DefPost staff writer

Navy May Not Deploy Any Littoral Combat Ships This Year

By: Megan Eckstein

April 11, 2018 5:04 PM • Updated: April 11, 2018 10:05 PM

USNI.org

The littoral combat ship USS Omaha (LCS 12) pulls into Naval Base San Diego on March 9,2018. Omaha is the newest Independence-variant littoral combat ship and one of eight LCS homeported in San Diego. US Navy photo.

This post has been updated to note that USS Little Rock will arrive in Mayport this week. 

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The Navy may not deploy any of its Littoral Combat Ships this year despite previous plans to deploy one to the Middle East and two to Singapore in 2018, due to a confluence of maintenance availabilities that has most of the LCS fleet sidelined this year.

Three of the Navy’s four original LCSs are in maintenance now, and four of the eight block-buy ships that have commissioned already are undergoing their initial Post Shakedown Availabilities (PSA), Cmdr. John Perkins, spokesman for Naval Surface Force Pacific, told USNI News.

In addition to the deploying ships themselves being in maintenance, so too are the training ships that will be required to help train and certify the crews. The Navy upended its LCS training and manning plans in 2016 when then-SURFOR commander Vice Adm. Tom Rowden announced a change to a blue-gold crewing model and a ship reorganization: hulls 1 through 4 serve in San Diego as a test division, to help test mission module components and get them fielded; the remaining ships are divided into divisions of four ships each, responsible for either surface warfare, mine countermeasures or anti-submarine warfare. Within each division, the first ship has a more experienced crew that is responsible for training and certifying the rest of the crews, and the other three ships are deployable assets. Due to this model, not only does the deployable ship have to be in the water and ready for operations, but so does the training ship.

Previously, the Program Executive Office for Unmanned and Small Combatants (formerly PEO LCS) had told USNI News that the program was preparing to deploy one Lockheed Martin-built Freedom-variant LCS from Mayport, Fla., to Bahrain this year, as the first LCS deployment to U.S. 5th Fleet; and that it was also preparing to send two Austal-built Independence-variant LCSs from San Diego to Singapore, in the first dual-ship deployment to stretch the Navy’s ability to support multiple LCS operations in theater.

Now, the Bahrain deployment has definitely been pushed to 2019. The Navy would not state that the Singapore deployments have been delayed until 2019, but given the task of getting ships through maintenance and then getting the crews trained and certified and ready to deploy, it is unlikely that even one LCS would be able to deploy this year.

“LCS deployments on both coasts are event-based vice time-based. As such, deployments from both coasts will occur when the deploying hulls are fully prepared and the assigned Blue/Gold crews are fully trained and certified,” Perkins told USNI News.
“Training and certification of the Blue/Gold deploying crews require availability of the first LCS Surface Warfare Training Ships on the east and west coasts, respectively. At present, the projected deploying units and their respective training ships are all undergoing their initial Post Shakedown Availabilities (PSAs). Repairs and technical enhancements resulting from the lessons learned during construction of follow-on Freedom and Independence class hulls warranted extended timeframes for these PSAs, ensuring maximum material readiness in support of training, certification, and deployments. The completion of these identified shipyard events will ultimately yield platforms on which training and operations can commence in support of the next set of deployments.”

USNI News understands several things are creating longer-than-intended PSAs for these LCSs. First, the ships now entering PSA are the block-buy ships, which are somewhat different than the first four ships of the class and therefore come with their own set of lessons learned for the maintenance yards. Second, as Perkins said, the ships continue to get new capabilities backfit into them during PSA, which adds time. And third, USNI News understands that, in the aftermath of last year’s fatal destroyer collisions, the Navy is being more diligent than before about ensuring the best possible material condition of ships coming out of maintenance – additional quality assurance steps are being taken, which keeps the ships tied up in the yards a bit longer than before.

Additionally, on the West Coast, where all the Independence-variant ships are homeported, the trimaran hulls require a drydock for virtually any kind of maintenance availability, and the drydocks are in short supply as the Navy faces a high workload in the coming years.

A helicopter from the Philippine navy prepares to land on the flight deck of the littoral combat ship USS Coronado (LCS 4) during an exercise for Maritime Training Activity (MTA) Sama Sama 2017 in June 2017. US Navy photo.

In San Diego, where LCS Squadron 1 (LCSRON-1) is homeported, the first three hulls – USS Freedom (LCS-1), USS Independence (LCS-2) and USS Fort Worth (LCS-3) are in planned maintenance periods, while USS Coronado (LCS-4) is back from the most recent Singapore deployment and available to conduct some Coastal Mine Reconnaissance testing this spring and mine countermeasures mission package testing this summer, LCS Mission Modules Program Manager Capt. Ted Zobel told USNI News this week at the Navy League’s Sea Air Space 2018 symposium.

He added that, in terms of conducting mission package testing on the waterfront, the program is “hoping to loop in 1 through 3 as they come out of their availabilities.”

The Independence-variant surface warfare division includes USS Jackson (LCS-6) as the training ship, and USS Montgomery (LCS-8), USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) and USS Omaha (LCS-12) as the ships that will operate forward as surface warfare assets. Two of the four ships are undergoing PSA now.

In Mayport, the LCSRON-2 Freedom-variant surface warfare division includes USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) as the training ship and USS Detroit (LCS-7) as a deploying ship. USS Little Rock (LCS-9) is expected to arrive this week, and USS Sioux City (LCS-11) will join after it commissions this fall, Naval Surface Force Atlantic spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Courtney Hillson told USNI News.

Milwaukee recently completed its Light Off Assessment, which certifies the engineering plant after a maintenance availability, in this case the ship’s PSA. Sailors are busy training in seamanship and navigation ahead of getting the ship back underway later this month.

Detroit is preparing for its upcoming Light Off Assessment as its PSA wraps up.

Zobel said during a panel discussion at the symposium that Milwaukee will begin testing a Surface-to-Surface Missile Module during the week of April 23, marking the beginning of developmental test for the SSMM. Over the summer, though, the SSMM equipment will be taken off Milwaukee and installed on Detroit, which will continue the developmental test and conduct operational testing beginning in the fall. Zobel said SSMM testing should be completed by December or January, and then the Detroit crew will conduct its predeployment training and certification. About a year from now, Detroit will make its maiden deployment – with the surface missile – to Bahrain.

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