October 25, 2021
Are Large Surface Combatants the Way Forward for the U.S. Navy?
In an era when the Navy is looking to create a distributed force of sensors and shooters, relying increasingly on unmanned platforms and aerial drones, does it make sense to invest scarce resources in a relatively small number of large surface targets?
by Dan Goure
Here's What You Need to Remember: For the cost of an LSC, the Navy can buy both a DDG-51 Flight III and a Future Frigate. If the desire is still to get to a fleet of 355 ships, this would seem to be a better path.
The U.S. Navy wants to acquire a new large surface combatant (LSC). The question is why? Ostensibly, the LSC will replace the aging Ticonderoga-class cruisers and possibly supersede the Arleigh Burke DDG-51 destroyers. It is supposed to be larger than the Arleigh Burkes but deploy many of the same systems, have lots of room for future growth and be capable of incorporating new capabilities such as large missiles, autonomous platforms and directed-energy weapons when they are developed. Considering that the Navy already has a massive fleet-building program underway and is just beginning to deploy the advanced Flight III variant of the Arleigh Burke DDG, is this the right time to chase after a new large surface combatant?
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/are-large-surface-combatants-way-forward-us-navy-195345
