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US Navy replacing speed with firepower in new strategy

Sunday, 19 June 2016 5:17 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 19 June 2016 6:30 PM ]

US Navy littoral combat ships USS Independence (LCS 2)(L), and USS Coronado (LCS 4). (AFP photo)

The US Navy has reached the conclusion that spending billions of dollars to make faster warships is not a viable strategy and it needs to sacrifice speed in favor of firepower.

According to Rear Admiral Peter Fanta, the Navy’s director of surface warfare, increasing the offensive punch of American warships has become the Navy's top priority.

“Each ship that I now have — I have to make more lethal because I cannot build ships fast enough, or enough of them,” he told The Associated Press.

The commander added that the US Navy’s littoral ships were slated to receive over-the-horizon missiles this summer.

To address the need for an affordable and fast fleet of small warships to operate in shallow coastal waters in the post-Cold War era, the US Navy started a $15 billion program in early 2000s to produce two versions of littoral combat ships (LCSs).

The Navy’s first littoral ship, USS Freedom, was commissioned in 2008. The second ship, USS Independence, was commissioned two years later.

However, in 2015, the US Navy was ordered by Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to cut its required number of LCSs from 55 to 40 and dump one of the two classes in order to channel more funds to the more combat-capable frigate class of ships.

LCSs could reach speeds of nearly 50 mph (80 km) by using steerable waterjets instead of propellers, but their light set of weaponry and armor has prompted criticism from the General Accounting Office, especially considering that the latest versions cost $482 million to $563 million apiece.

The reliability of LCSs was further questioned after two major breakdowns in December and January, when the SS Milwaukee had to be towed 40 miles to a naval base in Virginia, while the USS Fort Worth was sidelined in Singapore.

Fanta said the frigate class is designed to address the shortcomings of the LCSs by employing heavier armor plates and additional weapons.

The US Navy’s extravagant strategies were taken to a whole new level in May, when it unveiled USS Zumwalt, its largest and most technologically advanced destroyer with an approximate cost of $4.4 billion.

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