Choppy waters for LCS
The survivability and lethality of the US Navy’s troubled Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) programme has again been called into question in a GAO report released on 18 December.
A total of 40 LCS vessels, down from 52, will now be built from one shipyard for the US Navy after an intervention by US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. Plans had originally called for 52 vessels in two Freedom and Independence-class variants constructed by Lockheed Martin and Austal USA, while six LCS have been commissioned into service.
Last month Lockheed Martin began work for the US Navy’s fifteenth LCS at
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