It's Official: The U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ships are Truly 'Garbage'
The first four of the Navy’s notoriously expensive Littoral Combat Ships have under a year of service life left in their hulls. The announcement by Vice Admiral J. W. Kilby, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations listed March, 31, 2021 as the ship’s projected inactive date.
The four LCS ships listed, the USS Freedom, USS Independence, USS Fort Worth, and the USS Coronado are really new—the oldest of the four, USS Freedom, was launched in 2006, and the youngest, the Coronado was launched just nine years ago.
The LCS ships are made up of two classes, the Freedom-class and Independence-class. Both classes were intended to operate in littoral environments near shore and were designed to be highly flexible with easily swappable modules for different mission objectives. Rather than returning to the United States to be refitted for a new mission, the ships’ mission modules—mine sweeping, convoy escort, fire support—could be swapped out while at sea, at least that was the idea. But not all of the ship’s mission modules are finished.
Naval shipbuilders designed the Independence-class with a unique trimaran hull design. Unlike conventional hulls, the trimaran design has a larger central hull and two smaller outrigger hulls on either side and is designed to reduce hydrodynamic drag. In addition, the class’ hull and bridge are sharply angled for a reduced radar profile. The design has had some problems though. One of the biggest problems? Hull corrosion caused by salt water. But the problems don’t stop there.
-more-
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/it%E2%80%99s-official-us-navy%E2%80%99s-littoral-combat-ships-are-truly-garbage-163989
= new reply since forum marked as read
