Navy Chief Wants To Sell-Off Doomed Littoral Combat Ships To Allies
Oliver Parken - Yesterday 4:10 PM
Testimony from a congressional hearing on the Navy’s 2023 budget request outlines one way the U.S. Navy may choose to rid itself of the troubled Freedom-class of Littoral Combat Ships, or LCSs. Admiral Michael Gilday, the U.S. Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations, suggested in May 26 testimony with two other senior officials to the Defense Sub-Committee of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations that the Navy sell some of the vessels to allies, including possibly those in South America.
The service’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2023 reveals its intentions to decommission nine Freedom-class LCSs by the end of 2024, 'saving' the Navy an estimated $ 3.6 billion. The Navy’s long-term force plan reveals that two Independence-class LCSs – a very different class of ship compared to the Freedom-class LCS – also face retirement by the end of 2024.
During the hearing, Gilday noted that the decision to decommission the nine Freedom-class LCS — which are extremely young ships by any standards and cost billions to build — was made in a bid to “stratify” the Navy’s range of capabilities. However, he argued that the ships could add value to the navies of U.S allies and partners.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/navy-chief-wants-to-sell-off-doomed-littoral-combat-ships-to-allies/ar-AAXPK3O?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=3e466452501247de9e4ce99848fce1ce
