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LCS and tank destroyers
Apr. 20th, 2016 10:48 amI've blogged before about my dislike of the US Navy's most recent type of surface warship, the Littoral Combat Ship or LCS. For those not clicking through, the LCS is "a class of relatively small surface vessels intended for operations in the littoral zone (close to shore)" and combines light troop transport and anti-ship warfare into one small (2500 to 3500 ton) vessel. (For the record, the frigate I served on was 4,100 tons, so an LCS at ~25% lighter isn't that small.)
My chief complaint with the LCS is firepower, or rather lack of same. As built, the ships have a single 57MM cannon with a range of ~ 5 miles and an air defense system designed for anti-missile use with the same 5 mile range. The cannon is simply too small a caliber for anti-ship use, at least against anything the same size as the LCS or bigger, and the anti-missile system is rudimentary (largely due to radar limitations). In short, the LCS simply can't effectively engage ships it's own size or larger.
I've seen this movie before. In WWII, most armies fielded a type of vehicle called a tank destroyer. This was a tank-like vehicle but one, unlike the "typical" tank of the period, equipped with a gun powerful enough to destroy an enemy tank. In theory, tanks were used to support infantry attacks and tank destroyers would hunt enemy tanks.
In practice, this didn't work. Tanks frequently found themselves fighting other tanks and tank destroyers found themselves supporting infantry attacks. The long-term solution proved obvious, namely give the tank the firepower it needed to face other tanks.
Thus, I expect, unto the LCS. The first rule of modern naval warfare is that every ship needs to fend for itself in the area it is expected to operate in. So the LCS needs to be able to sink, or at least fight evenly, a ship it's size and deal with a small airstrike and have some anti-submarine capability.
My chief complaint with the LCS is firepower, or rather lack of same. As built, the ships have a single 57MM cannon with a range of ~ 5 miles and an air defense system designed for anti-missile use with the same 5 mile range. The cannon is simply too small a caliber for anti-ship use, at least against anything the same size as the LCS or bigger, and the anti-missile system is rudimentary (largely due to radar limitations). In short, the LCS simply can't effectively engage ships it's own size or larger.
I've seen this movie before. In WWII, most armies fielded a type of vehicle called a tank destroyer. This was a tank-like vehicle but one, unlike the "typical" tank of the period, equipped with a gun powerful enough to destroy an enemy tank. In theory, tanks were used to support infantry attacks and tank destroyers would hunt enemy tanks.
In practice, this didn't work. Tanks frequently found themselves fighting other tanks and tank destroyers found themselves supporting infantry attacks. The long-term solution proved obvious, namely give the tank the firepower it needed to face other tanks.
Thus, I expect, unto the LCS. The first rule of modern naval warfare is that every ship needs to fend for itself in the area it is expected to operate in. So the LCS needs to be able to sink, or at least fight evenly, a ship it's size and deal with a small airstrike and have some anti-submarine capability.
