The delivery of the final Independence-class vessel closes a significant and controversial chapter in US naval shipbuilding history.
The 19th and final Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) was delivered to the US Navy last week. According to its Alabama-based shipbuilder, Austal USA, the latest LCS will be designated as the USS Pierre (LCS-38). “The delivery of the future USS Pierre will be one of our most memorable milestone achievements as it marks the conclusion of Austal USA’s Independence-variant Littoral Combat Ship program,” Austal president Michelle Kruger said in a statement released by the company. “Our shipbuilding team has poured years of dedication, innovation, and manufacturing excellence into this ship and the results are evident. Though USS Pierre is the last LCS Austal USA will deliver, we remain committed to supporting the U.S. Navy with innovative maritime solutions and the highest standards of quality.” The delivery of the final Independence-class vessel closes a significant and controversial chapter in US naval shipbuilding history.
An Overview of the Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship Program
Designed to serve the Navy as a cheaper member of the DD(X) family of ships, the LCS class was initially meant to fulfill the requirement for small, fast, and maneuverable vessels. Under the LCS designation, the Independence and Freedom classes can take on a variety of roles, ranging from surveillance and anti-submarine warfare to special operations and logistics. Notably, due to the LCS’s modular design, these warships were constructed to be able to replace specialized ships like minesweepers and assault ships. Although this effort on paper was promising, issues pertaining to the modular mission sets onboard set back the LCS’s potential. The upfront cost of incorporating these versatile modules, coupled with maintenance costs, forced the service to rely on outside contractors to take on a large component of the work and maintenance required. As a result, the readiness of the LCS ships was diminished since their own crews were ill-equipped to work on them.
In addition to these monetary roadblocks, the LCS ships have also suffered from design issues. Specifically, hull cracks and propulsion failures have marred the track record of the LCS ships. The Government Accountability Office analyzed 18 LCS maintenance delivery orders from 2018 to 2020 and detailed that the Navy “had to contract for more repair work than originally planned, increasing the risk to completing LCS maintenance on schedule.”
Clearly, the Navy’s LCS program has not seen a smooth trajectory over the years. While the Independence and Freedom-class vessels were conceptualized to provide the service with greater power projection capability, budgetary overruns, delays, and failures in developing modular mission sets have stained the LCS’s reputation. While the LCS ships will be relegated to retirement earlier than initially planned due to these shortcomings, their development will not be considered completely useless. As the Navy continues to develop its upcoming FFG(X) Constellation-class of new frigates, many lessons learned from the littoral combat ships will be incorporated into that design.
About the Author: Maya Carlin
Maya Carlin, National Security Writer with The National Interest, is an analyst with the Center for Security Policy and a former Anna Sobol Levy Fellow at IDC Herzliya in Israel. She has bylines in many publications, including The National Interest, The Jerusalem Post, and The Times of Israel. You can follow her on Twitter: @MayaCarlin.
Image: DVIDS.
