The Navy wants to sell off its troubled littoral combat ships to allies after just a few years in service
The service wants to kiss a half-dozen 'little crappy ships' goodbye in the coming years.
BY JARED KELLER | PUBLISHED APR 26, 2023 1:32 PM EDT
The Navy plans on selling off six of its much-maligned littoral combat ships to U.S. allies through the Defense Department’s Foreign Military Sales program after just a few years at sea, according to the service’s recently-released shipbuilding plan.
The plan, publicly disclosed in the Annual Long-Range Plan for Construction of Naval Vessels for the 2024 Fiscal Year sent to Congress in late March and first reported by our colleagues at The War Zone, would see the service move to sell two Independece-class and four Freedom-class LCS variants over the next two years.
As The War Zone notes, the youngest LCS up for sale under the proposed plan is Freedom-class USS St Louis, which was commissioned barely three years ago and billed as bringing “speed and agility” to the Navy’s surface fleet.
“Whether conducting counter-narcotic operations in the Caribbean or working to enhance interoperability with partners and allies at sea, USS St. Louis will provide maneuverability, stability, and lethality in today’s era of Great Power Competition,” then-Navy Secretary Kenneth J. Braithwaite said at the time.
https://taskandpurpose.com/tech-tactics/navy-littoral-combat-ship-foreign-military-sales/
