“We’ve had significant challenges introducing the ship to the fleet, successfully operating the ship, [and] ensuring it meets the minimum mission capabilities we desire,” said retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, now a senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
For the Navy, a system-wide design flaw for the LCS project would represent another misstep in what’s been a draining period of logistical nightmares, public relations missteps and political controversies. The service also is bracing for a leadership change as the Biden administration comes to power in January, and the high likelihood of flat defense budgets moving forward may mean less tolerance for any kind of cost overruns or mismanagement.
Will upgrades and new abilities redeem the problem-plagued LCS warships?
Swarming robotic attacks, high-threat search and rescue operations, forward reconnaissance and offensive strike maneuvers are all missions the U.S. Navy is increasingly trying to perform with autonomous Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs). Specifically, the Navy wants to carry out these missions with USVs dispatched from, and operated by, larger, manned surface ships.
This conceptual and tactical vision is now being accelerated across the Navy’s fleet, including the fast-growing fleet of Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) which, among other things, are being engineered and upgraded to operate larger numbers of undersea and surface drones. Unmanned systems are of great significance regarding the LCS, giving it improved, AI-enabled capacity to perform command and control functions. Moreover, the LCS could use drones for mine-countermeasures, surface attack and anti-submarine warfare. The LCS already operates several
Despite many issues, the Navy hopes the warships will help it deter China.
The U.S. Navy is cranking out new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) at an ambitious pace to fortify the surface fleet with armed surface combatants along with new measures of surface, anti-submarine and countermine warfare.
Austal USA just delivered the future USS Mobile (LCS 26) as a recent step on route to complete ongoing construction of as many as four more new LCS ships. The current Navy plan is to commission the new ship next year.
“Building ships on time and on cost has been something we have been focused on since the beginning and we have been able to achieve that through strong safety records and performance excellence,” Craig Savage, Austal spokesman, told
What awaits Bradley Byrne after Congress? He’s mulling ideas
Updated Dec 21, 2020;
Posted Dec 21, 2020
Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., speaks as the House of Representatives debates the articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019. (House Television via AP)AP
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The coronavirus pandemic that shut down the nation in mid-March erupted about two weeks after U.S. Rep. Bradley Byrne’s hopes for winning one of the state’s two Senate seats were dashed during the March 3 GOP primary.
But the political loss and the subsequent pandemic brought a vision for the 65-year-old, four-term congressman of Alabama’s 1st congressional district. Byrne said his observations of the country’s health care crisis and the disproportionate affect COVID-19 has had on the country’s Black population is something that needs further exploration. It’s an interest that Fairhope Republican has cited as a possible future endea
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The U.S. Navy accepted delivery of two Littoral Combat Ships, the future USS Sioux City (LCS 11) and USS Wichita (LCS 13), during a ceremony at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette, Wisc., Aug. 22.
Sioux City and Wichita, respectively, are the 14th and 15th Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs) to be delivered to the Navy and the sixth and seventh of the Freedom variant to join the fleet. These deliveries mark the official transfer of the ships from the shipbuilder, part of a Lockheed Martin-led team, to the U.S. Navy. It is the final milestone prior to commissioning. Both ships will be commissioned later this year, Sioux City in Annapolis, Md., and Wichita in Jacksonville, Fla.