SECNAV Says More LCSs May Decommission, Wants Naval Strike Missiles On All Remaining
The Independence-variant littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) launches a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) during the biennial Pacific Griffin exercise as part of a sinking exercise on Oct. 1., 2019. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
By Rich Abott |
9 hours ago |
01/20/2023
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SECNAV Says More LCSs May Decommission, Wants Naval Strike
Missiles On All Remaining
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III UAS
The Secretary of the Navy
this month said while some additional Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) may
decommission going forward, he wants to put Naval Strike Missiles (NSMs) on as
many LCSs as he can.
“We’ll, perhaps, propose a
few more smaller number divestments of those ships that are the least capable
in terms of the high end fight, for the purpose that we need them. But I’m very
enthused about the future of LCS and what we’re gonna do with it. And you know,
we need to put Naval Strike Missile on each and every single one of them,”
Secretary Carlos Del Toro said during the Surface Navy Association’s annual
symposium on Jan. 11.
The Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) launches a Naval Strike Missile (NSM) during the biennial Pacific Griffin exercise as part of a sinking exercise on Oct. 1., 2019. (Photo: U.S. Navy)
The NSM anti-ship cruise
missile was developed by Norway’s Kongsberg. The producer is
partnered with Raytheon Technologies [RTX] to integrate it on
U.S. Navy ships.
The Navy’s FY ‘23 budget
request included plans to retire test ship LCS-3 and eight Freedom LCSs due to the
costs of fixing a combining gear defect and canceling their planned
anti-submarine warfare mission package due to severe technical challenges (Defense
Daily, April 25, 2022).
The LCSs were originally
expected to have service lives of 25 years each.
However, the final FY ‘23
defense authorization bill only allowed the Navy to retire 12 ships total,
including four LCSs.
Del Toro reiterated the
Navy’s ideas to use LCSs particularly in Central and South America for
anti-drug and illegal fishing missions with partner countries.
“I look forward to flying
LCS, to its fullest, with all the years that they have remaining. But, you
know, the challenge that originally I faced when I came in as secretary and the
CNO faced in the years prior, is the challenges that we have with the
underwater system on the Freedom-class. And so that presented a
real threat and a real challenge. And so we have to make some difficult
choices. There are no easy choices at the Secretary level, I guarantee that.”
Following his remarks, Del
Toro told reporters if there are specific hull by hull decommissioning
decisions, they will look into that for the president’s 2024 and 2025 budget
requests. Additional retirements would be due to the LCSs being not as capable
or competent as alternative ships.
However, Del Toro declined
to confirm the NSMs would be put on every remaining Freedom-class
LCS. The NSM is due to be installed on the future Constellation-class
frigates as well.
Although he said he wants
to put NSM on as many as they can, “I’m not going to get too detailed into the
operational utility of the ships, because I also don’t want to necessarily
reveal what is ahead either.”
When pressed if the Freedom-class
will get the NSMs like the Independence-class is set to, he argued
he does not want to reveal plans to China.
“Why would I want to
reveal to the Chinese exactly what we’re doing with all our platforms?…We’re
exploring all options on LCS.”
In contrast, Rear Adm.
Fred Pyle, director of surface warfare on the CNO’s staff (OPNAV) N96,
separately told reporters the Navy plans to put Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) on
both LCS variants.
“For the platform, we will
continue to remain committed to survivability and lethality, to get the NSM
missile on all the platforms, so we make that ship more lethal.”
Pyle confirmed that
includes the Freedom-class.
Last month, the Navy
issued a notice seeking companies that can produce the NSM for a potential multi-year
procurement contract in accordance with using a Technical Data Package (Defense
Daily, Dec. 13).
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