that's your problem right there.

Well, they are pretty quiet.

Sure it can. But only once.

"Now, I never said that!"



/Ah, but the strawberries...

The Littoral.

Come on farkers, we're missing an opportunity here.

FTFA the problem sounds like the electronics and sonar package. Changing those is like buying a new entertainment center, kind of a pain in the arse but not really that big a deal.

Littoral?

/give me a "C"
//what's that spell?

Al Gorithm: Littoral?

/give me a "C"
//what's that spell?

Littoralc?

a mime is a terrible thing to waste

I remember every time we pulled back into San Diego it was almost always in port. It was pretty obvious even from that far away that it was a floating piece of crap, even compared the PoS that was my ship. It was ALWAYS covered in rust/corrosion.

DBrandisNC: The Littoral.

do they have a commander? who is the lit commander?

Like with failing schools, all we have to do is throw more money at this ship and that will fix everything.

Sounds like there is no actual problem locating mines, just that each ship can only do it once.

'Littoral Combat Ship' ...

So there would be a fair number of seamen spread-out over the Littoral Combat Ship I guess? Is there an 'Aginal Combat Submarine' that could have seamen in them? What about a 'rse Combat boat' - they can hold lots of seamen too.

I have the suspicion that when the repubs in congress get on another tired worn out rant about how government can't do anything right they will mysteriously neglect to mention the massive clusterfarks the military comes up with.

GAT_00: This is the high functioning US military that we can't possibly cut a single cent from. There's clearly no waste to cut!

So your response to being lacking in mine hunting capability, is more cuts to mine hunting capability.

The way this administration has been slashing Americas great military to help pay for its fundraiser friends boondoggles, (like solindra), it's a wonder it floats. Probably doesn't have any trouble detecting the best ports for man on man buttsex.
All yours obamorons.

Launch Code: The way this administration has been slashing Americas great military to help pay for its fundraiser friends boondoggles, (like solindra), it's a wonder it floats. Probably doesn't have any trouble detecting the best ports for man on man buttsex.
All yours obamorons.


I'm going to have to assume that you're trolling since you should know well that the budget for the military exceeds that of combined budgets of the world.

If you're not trolling ... get a refund for your education.

Plus, it appears to only move sideways. Now who thought THAT was a good idea?

The genesis of the LCS was something called "Streetfighter". It was a concept created by the Naval War College way back that called for building lots of cheap, fast, *expendable* ships that could operate close to shore and deal with numerous little threats like Iranian speedboats attacking using cheap weapons like wire guided missiles, RPGs, guns, etc. The worry was that we could not counter them with big, expensive ships with fancy, expensive weapons. The little boats were too numerous to deal with and could overwhelm our fancy ships.

The War College also came up with the concept of a "Seaframe". A basic ship that could have various, easily swapped out modules for particular missions (minehunting, anti ship, anti-subs, anti air, etc).

The result was the LCS program. They are supposed to be cheap, fast, NOT very survivable (can't take battle damage). The idea is that if they get hit, you get the crew off and abandon the ship, just like you do when your warplane gets hit. The crews are valuable, the ship isn't.

I've been working on both types of ships. They are NOT built tough. Kinda flimsy, really. All kinds of Navy build specs were tossed aside, in order to get cheap ships. It's not a bad approach. Most of the time, the ships are not under attack. Once the bugs are worked out, they will be cheap to build in quantity. In combat, they will be effective, until they get hit. At which point you abandon them.

FWIW, the LCS-2 Tri-Maran is one SEXY looking beast. It looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey sitting at pierside. And the bridge is the most Star-Trekkie bridge I have ever seen. Flat screens all over, carpeted deck, reclined seating with keyboards and joysticks, plus CUPHOLDERS! (no lie!). The helmsman can run the entire ship from his station. Surrounded by screens low, and the windows up higher. Frickin' sweet!

Because it uses modules, you can get the ship to do virtually any mission,.eventually. From special forces transport/deploy, to launching robots, even launching podded missiles out the back door. And drones, lots of drones being launched off its large, tasty flightdeck.

If people don't panic, and let us out work out this new approach, we'll have lots of capability for a bargain basement price. It's not meant to slug it out WWII styli. It's meant to deploy advanced precision weapons, using it's technology to defeat the threat and protect itself. And if it gets hit, we don't lose a billion dollar ship. We lose a cheap ship.

KarmicDisaster: Sounds like there is no actual problem locating mines, just that each ship can only do it once.

And when it does find a mine it does so in a loud and convincing manner.

skinink: Jeebus, for a second there I thought that ship was being guided by an Italian Cruise Captain.
"Women and guys wearing soiled pants first!"
[www.wired.com image 640x426]

what the hell is going on in this pic?

You know in baseball, a guy who hits .400 is considered pretty damn great.

stewmadness: what the hell is going on in this pic?

They launch them by dumping them off the dock sideways. That is a pick taken shortly after it slid off of the blue skids to the right side of the image, and then flipped back upright.

TFA left out the most important consideration in whether or not this thing will continue to be built or whether they will stop production of it----who's congressional district is it being built in?

So this is what we spend $700 Billion a year on, eh? (Not counting extra costs of actual conflicts of course)

PLEASE cut their budget. A lot. We really don't need to be spending money on this sort of shiat.

mark12A: The genesis of the LCS was something called "Streetfighter". It was a concept created by the Naval War College way back that called for building lots of cheap, fast, *expendable* ships that could operate close to shore and deal with numerous little threats like Iranian speedboats attacking using cheap weapons like wire guided missiles, RPGs, guns, etc. The worry was that we could not counter them with big, expensive ships with fancy, expensive weapons. The little boats were too numerous to deal with and could overwhelm our fancy ships.

The War College also came up with the concept of a "Seaframe". A basic ship that could have various, easily swapped out modules for particular missions (minehunting, anti ship, anti-subs, anti air, etc).

The result was the LCS program. They are supposed to be cheap, fast, NOT very survivable (can't take battle damage). The idea is that if they get hit, you get the crew off and abandon the ship, just like you do when your warplane gets hit. The crews are valuable, the ship isn't.

I've been working on both types of ships. They are NOT built tough. Kinda flimsy, really. All kinds of Navy build specs were tossed aside, in order to get cheap ships. It's not a bad approach. Most of the time, the ships are not under attack. Once the bugs are worked out, they will be cheap to build in quantity. In combat, they will be effective, until they get hit. At which point you abandon them.

FWIW, the LCS-2 Tri-Maran is one SEXY looking beast. It looks like a Klingon Bird of Prey sitting at pierside. And the bridge is the most Star-Trekkie bridge I have ever seen. Flat screens all over, carpeted deck, reclined seating with keyboards and joysticks, plus CUPHOLDERS! (no lie!). The helmsman can run the entire ship from his station. Surrounded by screens low, and the windows up higher. Frickin' sweet!

Because it uses modules, you can get the ship to do virtually any mission,.eventually. From special forces transport/deploy, to launching robots, even l ...

The problem is the "cheap" ship isn't going to end up cheap. Cost overruns, redesigns, plus standard military procurement bloat will turn these from cheap and relatively expendable ships into a half ass expensive ship we can't deploy since we can't afford to lose them as they are not built to be surviveable in a hostile environment. Add to it that, Congress never lets the military buy as many of the units as the initial budget order suggests makes the cost per unit rise that much higher (see B-2, F-22, etc.) given development costs can't be spread over as many ships. This will likely increase the costs of module development (or cut it) since there simply won't be the demand for these modules on a handful of ships.

I love the concept as an idea. However in the modern military procurement environment and budgeting realities, this simply cannot be executed properly. This magnifies the issues and will ultimately result in cancelation and a writeoff of the billions already spent for a rather modest capability that we cannot use as intended.

fark you, I got mines.

I am stationed on the LCS-2 so I am getting a kick out of the replies

The WindowLicker: stewmadness: what the hell is going on in this pic?

They launch them by dumping them off the dock sideways. That is a pick taken shortly after it slid off of the blue skids to the right side of the image, and then flipped back upright.

ah.

Sounds like the true story of the Bradley fighting vehicle. So poorly made that they had to make two versions: one to sell to foreigners (like Israel) that actually worked. And the piece of junk that didn't work to sell to the US government.

The MIC must be fed...

GAT_00: This is the high functioning US military that we can't possibly cut a single cent from. There's clearly no waste to cut!

It isn't a mine hunting vessel. It even says right in the article the LCS would "ideally never go anywhere near a mine field." Troll more.

Why is this a fail?
The contractors got a metric shiat-ton of money.
The Navy justified a budget item and will now justify more to get one that works.
Congressmen and Senators in the appropriate districts get votes from people who work for the contractors.
Lobbyists are paid.
Admirals ensure cushy jobs with the lobbying firms and contractors when they leave through that revolving door.

Sounds like it was "Mission Accomplished" for everyone who matters.

They used to run a lot of stories like this in the 80's. "M1Abrams tank can't fight in desert." "F16 Falcon can't fly." "Apache chopper can't fly in desert environment." "Bradley Fighting Vehicle can't forge water." Anytime a reporter can get his hands on a progress report on a military system in the middle of it's testing phase which includes problems, they think they've got a scoop that'll stop the development of that system.

ideclare: I am stationed on the LCS-2 so I am getting a kick out of the replies

Why did it always seem like it was completely covered in rust every time it was in port? The cruiser I was on wasn't even that bad.

kleppe: GAT_00: This is the high functioning US military that we can't possibly cut a single cent from. There's clearly no waste to cut!

It isn't a mine hunting vessel. It even says right in the article the LCS would "ideally never go anywhere near a mine field." Troll more.

Except it's operating environment makes minefields a very real possibility. Mines work best in shallow restricted waterways that this is ships mission is designed to operate in so we don't have to send in our big expensive legacy ships in. Therefore while not specifically a mine hunting vessel, it needs to possess enough capability so it won't stumble into them and with the right module pack be able to be a mine hunting auxillary to do a serviceable job at least finding the extent of a given field so other ships can avoid it. This article is about that particular module possessing the mine hunting characteristics of Helen Keller which is a bit of a concern.

Designed by committee to be the Jack of all trades, master of none.

Goodfella: [shop.tcm.com image 355x500]

Sounds like the true story of the Bradley fighting vehicle. So poorly made that they had to make two versions: one to sell to foreigners (like Israel) that actually worked. And the piece of junk that didn't work to sell to the US government.

The MIC must be fed...

For those that want the full joke...

Came for Pentagon Wars reference, leaving happy.

Why Yes I Am A Wizard: Designed by committee to be the Jack of all trades, master of none.

I've noticed that anything designed by a committee ends off that way.