Just so

‘Tis but a scratch, it’ll buff out.

If the Navy wants a 316 fleet in the current climate and economic situation it maybe the only way it can do this. No point in having a large navy when your country can be held hostage economically by its biggest competitor.

Nothing wrong with economising on routine monthly or bi-monthly routines or preventive works if it means you can keep an effective number of ships.

Plus you have to remember this is going to go on over a large number of years which means that if this does not work and proves that your seeming disgust at the thought proves valid they can always change it. But the Navy have to try and take the risks it feels needed otherwise it will never grow or learn it will remain stagnent and become irrelevent and redudent.

Contractors are not cheap and using them instead of sailors won’t save you any money and a contractor won’t be on the ship when the radar breaks and the one tech they have on board has been up for 20+ hours due to watch and other ship evolutions.
There are not enough crew for damage control, if that ship takes a decent hit it is screwed.
The example of cleaning was just to make a point, it isn’t a matter of how clean the ship is (well it is from a sanitary standpoint and damage control standpoint) but if the crew can’t concentrate on the little things like that and basic PMS then the concept is wrong.

Deferring maintenance will always cost more in the end than if you just did the PMS on schedule. When I visited LCS-1 when it was in Norfolk several pieces of equipment was severly corroded and needed some TLC, I asked the crew about it and they just shrugged and said it wasn’t their job, a BAD attitude for a sailor to have.

I am all for a cheap and cheerful frigate but it needs to be able to pass standard shock testing (LCS-1 and 2 can’t) it needs to be able to do basic damage control (LCS can’t) it needs to have enough crew that everyone isn’t running around with no sleep (LCS can’t). I’m all for having modular mission bays, I’m all for an experimental ship but for mass production LCS makes no damned sense.

It does!

A naval task group will know where its helicopters are, and will you that it is investigating in a certain area.

The helo will most likely be linked in over Hawklink (or something similar) so any sensor info from the helo will be relayed back to the ship, so destroying the helo probably won’t help the sub in the long run.

That doesn’t sound like a very realistic scenario it is down right idiotic. No ship (or group of ships in the same class) operates in a vacuum, LCS was designed to support and be supported by Tico’s, Burkes and eventually DDG-1000, not to mention friendly air support (F-18’s, P-3’s and P-8’s).

Bahrain would be an ideal module swap point than Diego Garcia, much closer.

There are plenty of things about LCS that are worth criticizing (I hate the low manning and the high speed requirement) but I think building a limited number of both hulls (no more than 5 each) and running them into the ground to figure out what works and what doesn’t is the way to go, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

As for the modules, it was always projected that the hulls would be in the water before the modules were perfected.

I see Zumwalt as being similar to the (surface) Virginia class and (maybe) the Ticos. Possibly overambitious but laying the groundwork for a successor

Al

More like the Long Beach, she was a very expensive one of a kind that more than paid for itself in showing what to do, what not to do and paved the way for even better ships.

SM-2 Block IV (Looks similar to an SM-3 for those unfamiliar with a Block IV)

He was asking about the size and if it can fit into a Mk-41 VLS.

I’ve seen a couple SM-2 launches before, quite a thing to behold.

You’re joking, right? Or are you mistaking BPE for Principe de Asturias, which is a modified Sea Control Ship.

You are right, I got the 2 mixed up, sorry.

Principe d’Asturias has 2 RAS stations on starboard, in front and to the rear of the island structure. Chakri Nauebet has and Juan Carlos I (BPE) have 1 RAS station on starboard, respectively to the front and to the rear of their island structures.

All US style carrier types (amphibs, sea control ships and CV’s) only have RAS stations on the starboard side.