Disparaged, discontinued...and indispensable? Littoral combat ships take on real-world ops
The battle-tested LCS has moved past its reliability problems, surface-forces leaders said.
Meghann Myers | January 15, 2025
Navy
The Navy may have capped its fleet of much-anticipated—and much-maligned—littoral combat ships at 28 for now, but their commanders haven’t stopped trying to squeeze every last ounce of capability out of them.
LCSs deployed to the Persian Gulf and the waters off of South America in the past year, the commodore of Littoral Combat Ship Squadron 2 told an audience at the Surface Navy Association’s annual symposium on Wednesday, including a 22-month deployment executed by two crews assigned to the Indianapolis.
“You don’t think you can maintain these ships and operate long periods of time?” Capt. Mark Haney said. “Indianapolis proved them wrong.”
The ship also received a Combat Action Ribbon, the first for an LCS, after shooting down Houthi drones and missiles in the Red Sea.
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/01/disparaged-discontinuedand-indispensable-littoral-combat-ships-take-real-world-ops/402232/?oref=d1-skybox-lander
