US Navy’s first 4 littoral combat ships to leave the fleet in 9 months

WASHINGTON — The Navy’s first four littoral combat ships will be headed into mothballs next March, according to a June 20 message from the chief of naval operations.

The littoral combat ships Freedom, Independence, Fort Worth and Coronado will all be inactivated on March 31, 2021, with Coronado being commissioned just six years ago.

The Navy decided to cut the ships to save money on modernization efforts as it faces a mountain of shipbuilding bills and upgrade costs.

The ships were supposed to be used as test vessels for the continued standing up of the LCS class, but LCS 1 through 4 have just about reached the end of their usefulness as test vessels and are no longer worth a deeper financial investment, according to a February briefing by Rear Adm. Randy Crites, the deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for budget.

RELATED

US Navy proposes decommissioning first 4 LCS more than a decade early

A Pentagon proposal would retire the first four LCS in an effort to save money.

By David B. Larter

“Those four test ships were instrumental to wringing out the crewing, the maintenance and all the other things we needed to learn from them,” Crites told reporters. “But they’re not configured like the other LCS in the fleet, and they need significant upgrades. Everything from combat [systems], to structural, you name it. They’re expensive to upgrade.”

The ships will be put in inactive reserve status, which means they could conceivably be reactivated if needed in a crisis.

Split between two variants — a line of traditional steel monohull warships and another featuring an aluminum trimaran design — the LCS was intended to serve as a fast and nimble warship, capable of morphing into a minesweeper, anti-submarine vessel or ship killer.

But Crites said the first four ships had become less relevant for “great power competition” and that money could be spent on better options.

“They’ve played an important role and we’ve certainly ramped up our employment [of the LCS],” Crites said. “That’s a good thing. But when we looked at our return on investment and the cost of bringing those ships up to speed, they’re important, but in the context of great power competition they were less important. So we took those savings and applied it to other areas.”

More In Naval

Space Force mulling nuclear protection for missile-tracking satellites

The study could drive changes to future tranches of Space Development Agency and Space Systems Command satellites.

Space Force missile warning competition robust despite RTX exit

Col. Rob Davis, who oversees space sensing programs, said, "There’s no shortage of competition in the market."

Drone killing Marines: Corps seeks ‘buckshot-like’ counter-drone gear

The brass wants to see every Marine become a drone destroyer.

Here are the munitions Navy jets used for first time against Houthis

Fighter jets flying off the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower used a variety of munitions for the first time ever in combat, according to the Navy.

The first of 14 new F-16 fighter jets from the US land in Slovakia

Two F-16 Fighting Falcons arrived in Slovakia in Monday under a deal with the United States.