LCS USS Sioux City, (We Hardly Knew You,) Decommissioned After Less Than Five Years

The sad saga of the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) is winding down. The small surface vessels, built in two classes, and designed for operations near shore, were intended to be inexpensive and flexible. Instead, they proved to be unreliable, relatively … Continue reading

Austal Shipyard Execs Charged With Massive Fraud in LCS Program

The  Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have charged three current or ex-Austal USA executives with accounting fraud in the construction of Independence-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). A grand jury issued indictments against Craig Perciavalle, who … Continue reading

Navy Seeks To Dispose of All Freedom-Class Littoral Combat Ships Now in Service

USNI News reports that the nine Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) currently in Navy service – the youngest of which commissioned in 2020 – have been marked for disposal as part of the Department of Defense’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget … Continue reading

Navy to Decommission Two LCS, with Four More on Chopping Block

We posted back in February, about the Navy’s plans to decommission four relatively new Littoral Combat Ships (LCS). Congress granted approval to decommission two, the USS Independence and the USS Freedom. The Independence was decommissioned on July 29, 20201 and … Continue reading

Navy Wants to Retire First Four, Still Almost New, Littoral Combat Ships

In its recent budget proposal, the Navy announced its intention to retire the first four Littoral Combat Ships (LCS)  — the USS Freedom, USS Independence,  USS Fort Worth, and USS Coronado — which range in age from twelve to only … Continue reading

LCS — the Program that Broke the Navy

“The experience of LCS, it broke the Navy,” said Sean Stackley, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for research, development and acquisition. The Navy’s ambitious Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program promised low cost, highly flexible, reliable, multi-mission ships. So far they … Continue reading

More LCS Failures but CNO Says “Everything on Track”

Recently, the USS Montgomery, an Independence Class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), established a new record. The ship broke down, suffering two unrelated engine failures only three days after being commissioned.  The previous record had been set by the USS Milwaukee, a … Continue reading

Freedom Class LCS in Service — 100% Failure Rate in Last Year

The LCS saga continues. The USS Freedom suffered another serious failure.  There are currently three Freedom Class Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) in service — USS Freedom, USS Fort Worth, and the USS Milwaukee.  In the past twelve months, all three of the … Continue reading

USS Freedom Limping Toward Singapore – The US Navy’s Sorry LCS Saga Continues

The USS Freedom, the first of the US Navy’s Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), is on her way to Singapore. The press has reported that the ship is intended to show the US’s commitment to counter China in the region. Before … Continue reading

USS Pegasus and the Littoral Combat Ships

David Hayes passed along a video of the USS Pegasus, a hydrofoil patrol boat that was billed as the “vanguard of the new navy,”  thirty five years ago.   While the Pegasus was not the first of many hydrofoils as was intended in 1975, the development … Continue reading