Littoral speed

摘要

As the US Navy (USN) assesses some of the first overall fleet operations and recreates operational concepts tor its littoral combat ships (LCSs), the service appears to he just as determined to quickly reduce LCS numbers as it previously was to introduce and augment them in the first place. Designed decades ago, LCSs were built to conduct anti-submarine warfare (ASW), surface warfare (SuW), and mine countermeasure (MCM) missions with fast, lightly armed, and relatively inexpensive hulls that would last about 25 years. However, first-of-class USS Freedom (LCS 1) was decommissioned in September 2021 and USS Independence (LCS 2) was decommissioned in July 2021. Both had served the fleet for just longer than a decade.