Is the Future of the Littoral Combat Ship Adrift?
Posted on January 19, 2016
The Littoral Combat Ship is one of the Navy’s most high-profile programs. But is it heading for rough seas? The Defense Secretary recently called on the Navy to cut procurement of these ships from 52 to 40, narrow down the design options, and spend the savings on either more F-35 Joint Strike Fighters or on upgrading existing ships.
What’s wrong with the Littoral Combat Ship program? In today’s WatchBlog, we share why we urged Congress to delay funding for them.
$34 billion program
The Littoral Combat Ship program is designed to build fast, small vessels that can operate close to shore. The program is slated to cost over $34 billion in 2010 dollars and, so far, 26 ships have been built or are under contract.
Yet, 6 years after the first ship was delivered, it’s still unclear if these ships have enough firepower to succeed in combat and fully respond to enemy threats. Moreover, the program has a history of cost overruns, schedule delays, and technical challenges.
Capability issues
In developing littoral combat ships, the Navy received two different design options from two different contractors. The Navy’s original intent was to “downselect”—choose the one design they liked best, but then decided to continue buying equal numbers of both types.
While both designs met the same set of performance requirements, they have key differences.
- The Freedom variant has a steel single hull, or “monohull” design with an aluminum superstructure, whereas
- The Independence variant uses an aluminum alloy and a “trimaran” hullform—one that has a main hull and two smaller outrigger hulls.
- Questions on the content of this post? Contact Michele Mackin at mackinm@gao.gov.
- Comments on the WatchBlog? Contact blog@gao.gov.