The United States Navy is decommissioning nine of its Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ship and eliminating the anti-submarine warfare (ASW) missions for the combat vessels. The Navy called to scrap 24 of its vessels as part of a budget proposal and use the savings to modernize the rest of its fleet.
Littoral Class Ships (LCS) have been platform seeking a problem rather than addressing one. They were designed as the Global War on Terror (GWOT) was starting. They could operate close to shore against missile-firing boats and small submarines and delivery and support Navy seals.
None of this worked. Sailors called them Little Crappy Ships. The Navy wasted $3.2 billion on the LCS program. Cancelling the LCS will have about $400 million of additional spending.
tTe Navy wants to cut the nine LCS vessels, five Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruisers, four landing dock ships, two Los Angeles-class submarines, two oilers, and two expeditionary transfer docks.
China’s naval fleet could reach 420 by mid-decade and 460 ships by 2030, still five years before the U.S. Navy hopes to reach the size the PLA Navy is today.https://t.co/v1W0mVQwUX
— The Diplomat (@Diplomat_APAC) November 14, 2021
China has a 355-ship Navy. They achieved that last year, while we were just talking about it, and they are on track to get to 460 ships by 2030. By comparison, our Navy is around 300 ships and is likely to stay there if our defense budget doesn’t grow. pic.twitter.com/BpHoSonddB
— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) April 23, 2021
Russia has lost 5 ships so far in the Ukraine war including the flagship of the Black Sea fleet. Russia has about 14 ships that are destroyers or larger and only 11 or 12 are working. The aircraft carrier is not working. The US has about 130 ships destroyers or larger. China has about 40 destroyer or larger ships.
SOURCES- Navy Times
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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