LCS surface warfare mission package debuts

LCS surface warfare mission package debuts

By Philip Ewing - Staff writer

Posted : Monday Jul 14, 2008 9:21:58 EDT

NAVAL SURFACE WARFARE CENTER DAHLGREN, VA. — To the annoyance of waterfowl bobbing on the Potomac River, Navy gunners test-fired the 30mm modular gun Friday that will be carried as part of the surface warfare package aboard the Navy’s new multipurpose littoral combat ships.

As dignitaries watched nearby — and contractors and reporters looked at video displayed in a distant building — the gun, set up on shore, loosed 30 rounds, at three rounds per second, toward the river.

Navy officials are confident that if the technicians had been shooting at a hostile boat, instead of the water, they would have quickly stopped an attack.

With its gun; non-line-of-sight missile system, or NLOS; Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle; armed MH-60R helicopter; and the attendant networks and sub-systems — all of which officially debuted here Friday — the LCS now has its surface warfare mission package. It’s the second of two mission packages delivered for the 3,000-ton customizable warships; the mine warfare package was unveiled in September and the antisubmarine package is scheduled to be unveiled in San Diego later this summer.

With the surface warfare package, an LCS has what Navy officials call a triple-layered defense, designed specifically to hit small attack boats, as opposed to other warships or targets on land. An LCS captain could first try to shoot at an attacker up to 25 miles away with the NLOS, guided by the Fire Scout. Next, for closer-range targets, the ship could use its 57mm gun, carried on the forecastle. For targets closer still, the ship could use the 30mm gun, demonstrated Friday.

Without the surface warfare package, each LCS still carries its 57mm gun and an Evolved Sea Sparrow missile launcher, for use against air threats.

Although the Navy doesn’t quite have a ship yet on which to install the mission packages, commanders say progress is being made on both the LCS hulls: the steel LCS 1, Freedom, built in Wisconsin, and the aluminum trimaran LCS 2, Independence, built in Alabama. Both ships are in the water, said Vice Adm. Paul Sullivan, commander of Naval Sea Systems Command, and are scheduled for at-sea tests within a few weeks.

Despite yard delays and cost overruns for both ships — which led Navy leaders to cancel two additional planned hulls — officials here continue to praise the concept behind the LCS, a “ship-as-truck,” in the words of Jason Gross, a spokesman for the Navy’s program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare.

Just as you can throw a tool kit or camping gear into a pick-up, making the vehicle suitable for both types of jobs, so too is the LCS valuable because it can carry a customized load-out, Gross said. The ability to mix and match equipment gives the ship “focused mission capability,” as program workers call it.

Critics inside and outside the Navy have said LCS achieves that “focus” by sacrificing firepower, as compared with the longer-range missiles and harder-hitting guns carried aboard cruisers and destroyers.

Sullivan seemed to anticipate such critics when he spoke before the gun test-firing Friday.

“If you think these [guns] are little, take a look at that bullet,” he said, motioning toward a menu of ammunition.

“I wouldn’t want to be in front of it.”

Find NavyTimes article here.