LCS could get Marine support modules

[unhappycamper]

The littoral combat ship Freedom (LCS 1), the first ship in the Navy's new Littoral Combat Ship class, prepared to go to sea to begin acceptance trials on Aug. 19 in Marinette, Wis.


LCS could get Marine support modules
Staff report
Posted : Thursday Oct 30, 2008 6:56:17 EDT

The Navy’s littoral combat ships could moonlight as members of the gator Navy under a proposal now in the works — the Marines want their own menu of mission modules for the LCS, in addition to the three sets of interchangeable gear now planned by the Navy.

The Marines could get a surface fire support module, some kind of a special operations module and a humanitarian assistance mission package, according to a presentation by Victor Gavin, executive director for the Navy’s program executive officer for littoral and mine warfare.

The LCS has relatively few abilities of its own, but it was designed to carry different sets of equipment to accomplish traditional naval missions, including surface combat, hunting submarines and finding mines. Commanders seem enthusiastic about designing even more accessories for the LCS to give it the ability to also perform Marine Corps missions.

Gavin said formal planning hasn’t begun for a new set of mission modules, and they are several years from development. But they could answer the Marines’ requirement for naval surface fire support, in lieu of the now-truncated Zumwalt-class destroyer, which was to carry two 155mm Advanced Gun Systems.

Marines liked the AGS because it was designed to pound enemy targets at a long range and provide large quantities of fire for a relatively low cost, as opposed to a single, expensive Tomahawk cruise missile. But none of the weapons currently envisioned for the LCS, including its integral 57mm gun and its small Non Line Of Sight missile, being developed with the Army, have the range or the punch to take the place of the AGS.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/10/navy_lcs_marines_102908w/%2e



uhc comment: That's a cheesy looking $600,000,000.