A Pentagon proposal would retire the first four LCS in an effort to save money.
www.defensenews.com
Does anyone think that we could purchase these cheap like we did Largs Bay/Choules and make them useful? Normally, i wouldn't even mention a littoral combat ship but for what you would assume to be a bargain price, and with small manning requirements, I think there's potential there.
If they were based in Darwin, it would help overcome their relatively shorter range which is still comparable to the Arafura's and their shallow draft would be best suited for ops in the archipelagos, straits and shallow seas to Australia's north anyway.
Strip the two Independence class ships of most of their US armament bar the Mk110 57mm and just use them as a lightly armed multirole patrol, fast ro-ro transport and aviation training ships.
The two steel-hulled Freedom vessels have more potential in my opinion, as they're practically identical in size to an ANZAC frigate but their aluminium superstructure is sure to reduce the centre of gravity issues found in the ANZACS. As such, i would fit the Freedom's with 2x8 Mk41 strike-length VLS for 8x LRASM/32x ESSM, in the modular space used for the twin aft Mk46 30mm guns as well as NULKA launchers immediately forward of the VLS as has been alluded to in the past for retrofit into existing vessels, b. remove the Hellfire VLS and RAM launcher and replace with a single 40mm Oto Marlin RCWS to help mitigate the added top-weight of the Mk41's and provide an aft facing gun, c. replace the TRS-3D and modify the forward mast for a Vampir-NG IRST, ES-3701 ESM and a navalized version of the lightweight CEAOPS radar with four smaller fixed X-band faces rather than C-band in the Army version for ESSM/SM-2 illumination/short range surveillance + the same single larger slewed/rotating dual S/L-band array for long range surveillance, d. add the Saab 9LV Australian tactical interface to the COMBATSS-21 combat system. Retain most of everything else like the 57mm gun, EO/IR sensors.
ASW would be a toss up for me, twin MH-60R's is fantastic and they've fiddled around with a few towed arrays including CAPTAS4, but I don't think much thought of acoustic dampening was put into a design meant to fly at 45kts. If an active hull mounted sonar like Kingklip Mk2 could be fitted that wouldn't severely interfere with the crafts high speed then i would do so along with two topside Mk32 triple tube mounts for MU90 either side and aft of the 57mm gun. If that were unfeasible you could fit a quad pair of RGM-184 Naval Strike Missile in the same locations as the proposed Mk32 SVTT's, and just use them as giant fast attack craft/missile boats with potential loadout of 24x AShM's.
You must understand that this would never be a first choice. I understand their poor survivability and damage tolerance, but even a Hobart or Hunter would be mission killed by a single AShM hit. I also understand that Independence, Freedom, Coronado and Fort Worth have been classified as test ships and that these hulls are the ones that exhibited problems that would need to be rectified as well, as they were in following ships (bridge wings, improved corrosion resistance, cross-connect gearbox issues, axial-flow waterjets etc.)
For me, in the end it would come down to how cheaply something along these lines could be done. Something based in Darwin with ESSM would also provide a handy local area defence capability for the city's RAN and RAAF infrastructure as well.
www.defence.gov.au
www.aspistrategist.org.au
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