The Navy appears poised to sunset the Mk VI and Cyclone class patrol craft programs in rapid succession, with no replacements on the horizon. The Navy has done this throughout history, only to discover after hostilities have begun that the decision was misguided. The torpedo boats of World War II were instrumental in ensuring the success of the Pacific island-hopping campaign. The Vietnam War saw a need for riverine boats to patrol deep inland and support ground troops. And the Navy needed riverine forces to patrol the Tigris and Euphrates rivers during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Yet once again, as competition with a rival great power increases, the Navy finds itself on the verge of having no small patrol craft. If the Mk VI was gone before we even knew her, perhaps it is time to ponder what a Mk VII design should entail.
Despite the good stealth and speed characteristics of littoral combat ships, the LCSs would have been reduced to bringing the proverbial knife to a swordfight.
By WILLIAM COLE | The Honolulu Star-Advertiser | Published: May 4, 2021 HONOLULU (Tribune News Service) The restructuring of the Marine Corps in Hawaii to better deter China in the western Pacific includes the planned removal of all 16 tanklike amphibious vehicles and elimination of all cannon artillery. Approximately 500 of 650 artillery Marines with the 1st Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment will be moved elsewhere, with the remainder to be part of a medium-range missile battery outfitted with Naval Strike Missiles intended to inflict damage to ships at sea, the Marine Corps said. It would be the first such ground-based missile-firing unit in Hawaii. The Marines will be attached to a new fast-moving unit at Kaneohe Bay called a Marine Littoral Regiment that also will be the first in the Marine Corps.
The Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System has been tested successfully against a target at sea.
NMESIS combines two existing technologies Naval Strike Missiles and modified Joint Light Tactical Vehicles for a deadly new way to hit targets offshore.
Marines scored a direct hit in a first-ever live-fire test in which they launched a Navy missile from the back of an unmanned tactical vehicle to strike a surface target at sea.
The Marine Corps has combined two existing technologies to produce a deadly new way to hit targets offshore. Coined NMESIS, the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System can launch Naval Strike Missiles from the back of a modified Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV, to destroy targets on land or at sea.
By
Paul McLeary on April 29, 2021 at 2:15 PM
USS Gabrielle Giffords in the South China Sea in 2020 with the Naval Strike Missile mounted.
WASHINGTON: The Navy plans to put its new Naval Strike Missile on 31 of its 35 Littoral Combat ships over the next 18 months, while outfitting 15 ships with an anti-submarine module, and 15 others with anti-mine capabilities.
That breakneck pace of the proposed LCS upgrades is the clearest sign yet of the Navy’s concern over its being outgunned by the Chinese surface navy, and the premium being placed on keeping eye on new generations of capable Chinese and Russian submarines prowling below.