CDR Salamander - The Small Warship We Should Have Had

Most are familiar with the rolling train wreck of missed opportunities, bad theory, wasted hundreds of billions of dollars, and destroyed careers that the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) left in its wake…and still does.

Many of us remember the mission set it was supposed to meet compared to the shambolic grabassery it transmogrified into. Looking back at the sales pitch by the ascendant transformationalists just makes you sick to your stomach what they did to Vice Admiral Arthur K. Cebrowski and Captain Wayne Hughes’ concept.

We also remember the mission set of the recently decommissioned-without-relief Cyclone Class Patrol ships and why we had them—with the added side-benefit of the LT/LCDR command opportunity that, with the departure of our MIW ships as well, is now gone.

The requirements are still here. We can see them in the Persian Gulf today, but sadly we still have an unbalanced fleet with nothing on the low-end.

I remain convinced it was a great error not to have replaced the 330-ton PC with…something. Even at the last minute, we could have extended the 4-ship production of the 600-ton Ambassador MK III missile boats that we built for Egypt.

These ships were built in Pascagoula by VT Halter Marine, managed by NAVSEA…all American, and she came ready to party with:

• 8 × RGM-84 Boeing Harpoon SSM Block 1G in 2 quad canister launchers

• 1 × OTO Melara Mk 75 76 mm/62 Super Rapid DP gun

• 1 × Mk 31 Mod 3 RIM-116 RAM (21 missiles)

• 1 × Raytheon Mk 15 Mod 21 Phalanx (Block 1B) 20 mm Phalanx CIWS

• 2 × deck-mounted 7.62 mm M60 machine guns^[1]

She’s easy on the eyes too.

I’ll put something else on the table for you, roughly the same size as the Ambassador MK III, the 680-ton Falaj 3-class patrol boat whose Hull 1 hit the water 18 months ago.

She’s ready too.

• Leonardo 76mm OTO Super Rapid gun equipped with the STRALES guided ammunition system

• eight-cell vertical launch system loaded with MBDA VL MICA surface-to-air missiles

• 21-cell Raytheon Mk 49 launcher for the RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM)

• four MM40 Exocet Block 3C anti-ship missiles

• two 12-cell Low-cost Guided Imaging Rocket (LOGIR) guided rocket launchers

• two Electro Optic Systems (EOS) R400-M 30mm remote weapon stations

She’s easy on the eyes as well.

Yes, there are those who argue that the U.S. Navy has no use for such small ships. Frankly, I’m tired of arguing with them. They are wrong. Call them small corvettes or “heavily armed OPV”…or better yet the Salamander-approved “Sloop of War”…does not matter. It is a gapping hole in our fleet design.

Imagine the surface warfare leaders we would build if they were able to earn a Lieutenant command in one of these. Since we first started talking with Jerry Hendrix about this 17 years ago, it has made complete sense…but alas, we’re on the losing end of the argument. Imagine having a couple of these working with our Arleigh Burke DDG in the latest operations against Iran?

It sells itself.

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