We have seen that the LCS program is in such trouble that it is being cut heavily. There is a new directive out to move toward a "frigate" design. Who knows if they will pursue the FFG designs Gibbs&Cox has already produced, explore foreign designs, or to redesign the LCS ships in order meet the original requirements. What I would like to do with this project is to take the existing LCS-1 platform and turn it into what is should have been in the first place.
Things like shifting weight away from the propulsion plant and to the strength of the hull and increasing berthing, head, and messing facilities to accommodate an appropriately sized crew would be internal and unnoticeable in a model.
The most important thing to me is to strip a new, strengthened LCS-1 hull down and build the armament and sensors to accomplish the original mission requirements as feasibly as possible. The following is nearly a repost of an earlier post that best illustrates the original requirements of the LCS, and the following is how I would meet those.
From the article written by Captain Robert Powers, the JMAG games that produced the "need" for the ASuW mission in an LCS produced the following points:
- Speed was a desirable characteristic, but not at the expense of a complete warfighting suite.
- Stealth: The ship had to have a minimum radar signature to survive in littoral waters overseen by coastal and airborne radar systems.
- A Flight deck and hangar facilities were essential. Two helos per LCS would be preferable. The Helicopters and unmanned vehicles should also be capable of carrying weapons for stand-off attack.
- There was a general agreement it should have a gun in the 57 to 76mm range.
- It should have a medium-range air defense missile and medium-range anti-ship missile.
- It should have some kind of counter-battery capability to respond in real time to a shore-based missile attack.
- CIC should be incorporated for quick communication and rapid decision making.
- The ship should not be built out of aluminum.
- Manning should be low, but not so low it inhibits combat capability or maintenance. Maintenance must not suffer from low manning.
In order to accomplish this, I have chosen the following weapons and arrangement to accomplish these missions:
- A Flight deck and hangar facilities were essential. Two helos per LCS would be preferable. The Helicopters and unmanned vehicles should also be capable of carrying weapons for stand-off attack.
- Facilities for 2 H-60 helicopters and 3 assembled and 5 disassembled Shadow UAVs or 5 disassembled Shadow UAVs and 2 AH-1W/Z Super Cobra
- There was a general agreement it should have a gun in the 57 to 76mm range.
- For the anti-boat/swarm mission, the 76mm SR gun with the far superior range and radar guided munitions fits the bill far better than the enormous and under performing Mk110 57mm gun.
- It should have a medium-range air defense missile and medium-range anti-ship missile.
- AAW: ESSM fitted in Mk41 VLS and 21-cell RAM launcher, ASuW: Harpoon would accomplish these requirements. The VLS modules could be fit on either side of the helicopter hangar up against the structure. While this would reduce the size of the helo hangar hatch, it would still allow for a good compliment of birds. The Harpoons could be put in the super structure's mission module bays.
- It should have some kind of counter-battery capability to respond in real time to a shore-based missile attack.
- Precision and volume of fire are essential in counter battery fire per mission, but we must also plan on more than one engagement per mission. This moves us away from utilizing missiles such as TLAM or Harpoon for counter battery and moves to a gunnery capability. The best gun for this size of ship would be the Mk45 Mod4 utilizing standard HE rounds fitted with the Course Corrective Fuse and the upcoming GPS/SAL projectile. To properly detect the threat for a counter battery solution, the combination of the SPQ-9B and TRS-3D into the Mk160 GFCS is necessary.
- As stated earlier, the Harpoons should be in the mission module bays in the upper super structure.
- NULKA and Chaff should be incorporated into the structure.
- SLQ-32 should ray from the super structure, perhaps in the DDG-51 style.
Comments are welcome! Next topic will be fleshing out the Surface Warfare (ASuW) capability of this LCS-1 Flight II.
