Navy Defends LCS, Positioning It For Frigate Competition

WASHINGTON: Even as the Navy solicits designs for its future frigate, it is ardently defending its current Littoral Combat Ship. A memo obtained by Breaking Defense lists about three dozen pro-LCS attributes, followed by a mention of the frigate. Upgraded Littoral Combat Ships, of course, are the underdog contenders for the frigate.

“This is an attempt by Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to put LCS and the frigate on the same page together and begin the narrative that LCS should be picked as the new frigate, the FFG(X),” said Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy captain now with the Center for a New American Security.

Reading between the lines, Hendrix said, the talking points boil down to “LCS is great! They are coming in under the cost cap by a good margin, and we have 11 built and another 18 on the way — and, oh, by the way, we have a new FFG(X) class coming up behind these. We don’t know what it will be, but we have decided to go after fully mature designs…such as, oh, LCS.”

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