LCS - ONE MORE TIME

17 December 2015: As if the last post about the success (NOT!) of the LCS - Littoral Combat Ship) was not enough, this star-crossed class makes yet another appearance in the official press again today. I could not resist sharing this piece from the US Naval Institute with my readers as it indicated that now on an official level, someone might be awakening to the fact that the whole class of ship is flawed.



Here are #'s 1 and 2 of the LCS class
 

As memo from SecDef Ash Carter released today has directed Ray Mabus, SecNav, to cut the planned number of LCS ships from the original 52 to just 40. Which, in your scribe's humble opinion is about 34 too many. None of the 6 currently launched are operating the way they are supposed to and some are not operating at all! (See the previous post).

As a sidebar to this LCS story, the most recently launched, USS Jackson, has stirred up a controversy over her name, Jackson. The navy claims she is named for the town of Jackson Mississippi, (which of course is named for Andrew Jackson, president of the United States and not such a nice guy to the Indians or, so it would appear, his slaves) rather than the person. But those individuals, who get louder and more strident with each imagined wrong, put the ship's name in the same pot with the "horror of the Confederate Battle flag." I guess we should just redact our history to make them happy!

Until next time,

                                      Fair Winds, 
                                                                             Old Salt