Death to LCS. Long live the Constellation

ever wondered why the U.S Navy's LCS the literal combat ship is getting sidelined and prematurely retired and why has the US opted to go back to much larger frigates like the future constellation class this video will explain it all it will compare the two ship types and showcase constellations capabilities will it be all that LCS never was or even more or will it still not be enough [Music] modern warships are great but have you ever wanted to command a battleship now you can thanks to World of Warships a game sponsoring this video it may be nostalgic for a World War II Naval Warfare not so much standoff nonsense just get a destroyer and Rush ahead torpedo zahoy Orson the cruiser or a battleship on a rampage yeah big guns are particularly satisfying but if I do want long range strikes well I can get a carrier and send out bombers World of Warships lets you try all those it's free to play and available for PC you get to play with over 500 historical ships the maps were gorgeous there are even Dynamic weather changes it gets pretty realistic and playing against real people means I have to change and adjust my tactics all the time roots of Ingress ship positioning solver management they all matter I love it when I can get a few friends in my division so we figure out the best tactics together why don't you try it out it's free just click the link at the top of the video description if you register into the game through that link you'll get a huge starter pack just use the code warships and you'll get 500 doubloons 7 Days of Premium 2 million credits tier 4 ship token and six killed points Commander rewards Galore go on and sing them all back to ships and the mid-autis the literal combat ship project or the LCS promised a lot over 50 ships highly modular to cover many roles all operated by small Crews to keep the operating price tag cheap essentially providing the US Navy with cheap means to replace both their Mine Warfare vessels to do escort missions anti-piracy missions and a lot of anti-submarine missions but it didn't really work out too much was demanded of the LCS ships some of the planned Solutions simply weren't ready or were botched by the manufacturers in the end the high modularity Mission flexibility and small Crews got thrown out of the window some 15 years later three ships have already been retired with a whole list of additional hulls being publicly denounced by the US Navy the only thing that was holding them in service over the last few years was the US Congress not willing to accept the retirement but that is likely to change eventually there are currently 32 LCS ships in service the class itself is represented by two separate ship designs the freedom and the independence freedoms have a serious design flaw in their propulsion modules the US Navy concluded that the failures of several Freedom ships were due to an inherent engineering design issue where the combining gear that links to propulsion systems was not strong enough the issue is serious enough that the US Navy is ready to Simply get rid of most of the freedom ships even though the repair burden is on the manufacturer some ships will be retired and placed into Reserve while some will be offered up for sale to other countries ultimately the long-term Navy plan calls for dedicating each of the two LCS designs to One mission the independence class will be dedicated to Mine Warfare some 15 ships will be needed for that in that regard the US Navy will get a seriously more capable ship for Mine Warfare compared to what other country is used for such missions or compared to its current Mine Warfare ship this is what the US still uses for that the Avenger class most countries use similar vessels instead of a fairly simple ship displacing maybe 1500 tons the US Navy will thus use a 3 000 ton ship with ample helicopter facilities very high speed and decent self-defense capabilities two more independent ships are for now still slated to remain in service possibly for training or other non-combat roles the other LCS type Freedom class will be cut down to perform as cheap surface Warfare ships six hulls are needed as per US Navy for that role while some or all might carry the NSM anti-ship missile their main role will be anti-piracy fighting small craft and boats to cheaply Patrol a sea so the Navy doesn't need to waste a big bird class destroyer to do such job so out of the original plan for 52 LCS ships possibly less than half of that number will actually remain in service once all the hulls that are currently under contract are built and all the unwanted hulls are disposed of that's quite a drop in numbers but the US Navy has something much better and more expensive lined up the constellation frigate program is ongoing with the first ship in construction since 2022 its Hull may be launched around 2024 and the ship is planned to enter service in 2026. so far 20 frigates are planned but that may easily change in fact the US Navy Admirals have already stated they would like a second Shipyard to be able to build the constellations and that they would ultimately like 4 frigates per year instead of the current planned pace of one and a half rickets per year you don't go into such long-term Investments like paying for training of a few times more workers to build new ships if you ultimately plan to limit yourself to just 20 ships the constellations will basically be see what the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates were back in the late Cold War and before the LCS came online the US Navy at one point operated 51 Paris in the Cold War the Destroyers were there to hold the first line of defense against the Soviets the frigates were there to protect the sea Lanes behind the front line mostly to protect them against lone enemy submarines perhaps to engage an odd enemy aircraft that managed to slip by unnoticed and when needed to boost the anti-submarine defenses when part of a larger task force such as a carrier battle group and that's pretty much exactly what the constellations will do once again this time being focused more in the Pacific against China the constellation is a large ship not just larger than the LCS ships but also larger than old parries part of that is due to the Pacific requirement there will simply be bigger distances covered compared to the Atlantic with China's military being far more potent than what Soviet pacific-oriented military ever was the U.S may not be able to count on forward basing as much as it did in the Cold War so the constellation has to be able to stay on station for a long time part of it is future proofing who knows what new systems and technologies will need to be added over the decades but there is also the urgency the US Navy usually goes for bespoke designs but for the constellation frigate competition it requested only mature designs of ships that are already in service The Chosen design is a European one with ships that have been in service since 2012. some 20 frigates named Fram serve in several navies around the world since they serve a more prominent role in those other navies their design was made large enough to facilitate multi-role combat roles Aesthetics wise the European variants are better looking but that's just one opinion the old-fashioned and unattractive looks of the constellation are due to U.S sensors and comms equipment which have been tested and confirmed as working in such old-fashioned layouts as Raider stealth is obviously not a consideration for the constellations it was the cheapest route to just retain the old-fashioned looking Mast the urgency behind the constellation program also explains a lot when it comes to the choice between LCS or constellation the urgency is there because of China the US Navy wants to prepare itself as much as possible and as quickly as possible if it comes to a shooting war with China so retiring LCS ships early which frees up funds in the short term makes sense as those funds can then be funneled elsewhere like in the constellations and frankly when the ships are compared one-on-one the constellations below the LCS out of the water yes the LCS can go fast faster for short bursts in Trials Independence class LCS did 38 knots for three hours before fuel stocks fell below acceptable levels speed Sprints were taxing on the propulsion systems too and that's the more robust Independence class not the faulty Freedom class but in Modern Warfare it's not so much about speed it's more about persistence how long can a ship be in an area before it must disengage go back into relative safety Service Supply ship can give it extra Fuel and food constellation is visibly better in those regards when it comes to sensors the LCS has a fairly Advanced but still simple rotating radar compared to the constellation which has an Aegis light suit using three fixed spy six Raider faces to cover the 360 Degrees around the ship while the LCS ultimately lost it Todd and variable depth sonar module sonars are perhaps the most important part of the constellation suit it will have both Toad and variable depth sonars both ships use the same 57 millimeter main gun which is due to its small caliber and reach only useful against missiles aircraft flying close and small boats against some targets guns will be using guided rounds such as the Alamo but for defenses against missiles the independence LCS will rely primarily on its CRM system which is fine enough coming with its own sensors but is limited to 11 missile salvos before reloads and a 10 kilometer reach Freedom LCS are better there packing 21 Ram missiles though those rely on the ship's own sensor to cue them onto targets the LCS does not have any other anti-air or anti-aircraft system the constellation will have one 21 cell Ram launcher but also a full-fledged long-range anti-air and anti-missile capability right now the plans call for at least 32 Mark 41 vertical launch cells the wording at least and the fact the ship is large enough to handle more equipment in the future makes it plausible that may not be its final count that being said it's likely the first batch of ships will indeed stick to just 32 cells the US Congress already asked the Navy if the constellations can be made to hold 48 cells and the Navy replied that the first ships would need a redesigned to accept such a change this late in the construction process the Navy doesn't seem to be concerned with 32 cells being too few Mark 41 VLS can in theory hold anything from a tomahawk cruise missile to smaller missiles like essm right now the design requirements state constellation is to use the essm and the sm-2 likely also the rocket assisted torpedo the ASRock though the mention of that system has been absent so far it makes sense that an anti-submarine-oriented ship would be backing those weapons as well those allowed the ship to quickly react and saturate an area over 20 kilometers away with several anti-submarine Torpedoes at once going back to the tomahawks a U.S Congress office mandated that both tomahawks and U.S Navy's best anti-air missile the sm-6 are added to the constellation adding those would require longer VLS cells so the US Navy is still thinking how to go about it but even without those essm and sm-2 offer quite a bit of capability essm are shorter arranged but can be quad packed into each cell so a Loadout of the whole ship might for example be eight cells holding 32 essm missiles for self-defense 8 cells holding anti-submarine as rock missiles and 16 more holding medium to long range sm2 missiles to be used against aircraft essms have recently gotten in their block 2 variant Active Radar Seekers making the system worship independent and more lethal against large swarms when talking about anti-ship missiles it's worth noting that the LCS ships were originally not slated to carry dedicated anti-ship missiles but that changed more and more LCS ships are getting the Naval Strike missile which is a compact and potent weapon think of it as a harpoon missile replacement for ships but the constellation will have doubled the missile load and if the tomahawk and sm-6 do get added to the constellation those will increase its options and lethality even more sm-6 while nominally a very long range anti-air missile also has a proven and anti-ship and land Attack Mode the tomahawk is currently in its block 5 variant but an in-development sub-variant the block 5A will turn it into an anti-ship missile so the constellation might find itself equipped with missiles reaching not just a few hundred miles but once reaching over a thousand miles both the LCS and constellation will carry one Seahawk helicopter and one fire Scout C unmanned helicopter the latter is basically an unmanned Bell 407 meaning a full-sized helicopter drone on both ships the forest Cloud will be tasked with surveillance and targeting while the Seahawk will be more free to also do utility rolls and in the case of constellation anti-submarine work ultimately the LCS was a ship for another time conceived in the mid-2000s it had no real threats the Soviet Union had dissolved China was regarded as a partner not a threat back then the thinking was along the lines of this oh we've got too many big and expensive ships we don't need full size frigates let's replace all those and the minesweepers with a single ship type but as we now know that didn't pan out out of five different LCS equipment modules to remain as even the anti-submarine module got canceled special weapons like the endless missile got canceled module swapping originally hoped to be done in hours took weeks due to higher than planned crew requirements some ships had to use the spaces reserved for Mission modules to actually house the additional crew anyway with the LCS being a mess the concept is going back to less modular combat chips constellations will be multi-role but with an emphasis on anti-submarine work just like Perry's were in their day given the shrinking number of large U.S Navy ships like the taekwonderoga Cruisers that are too old to Soldier on the US Navy will do anything to upkeep their numbers compared to a Burke destroyer the constellations are going to be over twice as cheap to build and furnish the 2023 shipbuilding plan shows that even the initial constellations aren't gonna break the bank usually first ships in class get quite expensive as they include a lot of development costs but with a proven design the constellations are looking to be fairly affordable in U.S Navy terms they're fairly low crew requirements also make them cheaper to upkeep over time if the future requires it the constellations will have the room to birth a crew of 200 while visibly more expensive than the LCS the hiking capability compensates for it there are some areas where the US Navy seems to have decided to save money like on the already mentioned extra VLS cells but also on a hull mounted sonar which the constellation lacks and the ship mounted Torpedoes if an enemy submarine manages to get close and no helicopters happen to be available the ship might be in a very unfavorable position that being said the constellation is going to be a massive Step Up in terms of air surveillance almost rivaling early Burke destroyers with 16 anti-ship missiles no U.S surface combatant had a comparable anti-ship Loadout since 1994 when an earlier variant of an anti-ship Tomahawk was retired and the long-range anti-submarine capabilities with the new variable depth sonar included are likely going to be among the best in the U.S Navy especially if the fire Scout drone also gets anti-submarine capabilities which its maker is developing will the constellations be enough for future Wars that's a complex question as Wars are not one with individual ships but overall networks of platforms and systems they share along constellation is not going to survive a planned airstrike it might not even survive an encounter with a modern submarine but the same could be said about larger ships like Berks what it will be enough for is escorting logistic ships to forward areas even if having to sail in larger groups an anti-submarine Warfare is something the US Navy has sort of forgot about a little over the last few decades so the constellations will help address that as well the frigates are certainly not going to rival bird class destroyers but they are large potent platforms that the US Navy seems to be fast tracking even before the first one has been built they are tacitly considering increasing production numbers it may very well become the Navy's second most important and most numerous ship after the Burke destroyer while the freedom LCS is likely to die a slow death as the Navy gets rid of unwanted hulls the independence LCS is likely to continue to service in its newly found Niche role as a Mine Warfare vessel not glamorous but still better than retirement [Music] foreign

Channel: Binkov's Battlegrounds

Views: 5,131

Keywords: LCS, Independece class, Freedom class, littoral combat ship, Independence, Frigate, Destroyer, USA, US Navy, Navy, Constellation-class frigate, Constellation

Id: LJoQwItQgVo

Length: 18min 39sec (1119 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 30 2023