Brad Howard: The US Navy is
falling behind on what they say is an important goal building up
the force of 355 ships. But at the same time the Navy wants to
get rid of some relatively new warships when Unknown: the Navy goes to
Congress and and says we want to retire ships, all Congress wants
to think about is we already are short on ships. Why are you
getting rid of more ships? Brad Howard: One key to growing
the fleet is the Littoral Combat ship or LCS. The LCS is designed
for littoral areas, which is what are closer to shore. larger
ships have trouble operating in these areas because of how
shallow the water is, are im Brad Howard with CNBC and today
I'll be going aboard the US Navy's Littoral Combat ship,
it's one of the Navy's newest and most controversial vessels. Unknown: So the LCS program,
much like every other major defense program has had its own
series of setbacks, Brad Howard: engine issues and
mission module problems in the evolving state of the world and
put the ship in choppy waters. Unknown: The question of the of
the LCS, his ability to defend itself has become sharper and
sharper. It's a zero sum game. Okay,
every dollar you spend to keep those LCS is going as $1 you can
spend on these other I think higher priorities. Brad Howard: The next ship the
Navy hopes to procure that will take on some of the missions of
the LCS is the constellation class frigate. This frigate is
based on a design already used by several navies, which means
it should have fewer teething issues than the LCS. Unknown: But ultimately, at the
end of the day, the Navy has more than 30 of the ships, they
have to do something with them. They've spent tons and tons of
money on this, and they are at the moment now where they have
to figure it out because this is going to be a significant part
of the fleet going forward. Brad Howard: But with a
significant investment already in the LCS can the Navy find a
way to make them viable in the post 911 era of great power
competition. The LCS program began in 2002.
After the 911 terror attacks, the Navy's priorities shifted to
fighting terrorism and policing waters closer to shore. The Navy
ended up producing two variants of the LCS, the freedom class
and independence class, the freedom classes and more
traditional steel and aluminum ship and the independence
classes and all aluminum trimaran style design. Both
ships are built for speed and can hit around 40 knots which is
about 46 miles per hour. The USS Milwaukee a freedom class LCS is
training off the coast of Florida, which means getting
there requires a one hour helicopter ride. The LCS is
capable of handling a variety of helicopters on its flight deck
including uncrewed helicopters 'away starboard side'. Behind me
is a fire scout the MQ-8C fire scout is an uncrewed helicopter
that is as big as a normal helicopter, it can help the crew
by providing surveillance over the horizon among other uses.
The LCS isn't a giant warship it seems like every inch is
dedicated to a purpose. The galley where the crew eats is
utilitarian, but it provides an area for the crew to unwind
during the weeks or even months at sea. And the rear of the ship
has a hold capable of being loaded with conex boxes among
other types of equipment which can be particularly useful
during humanitarian operations. The last LCS was ordered in
fiscal year 2019. And the average cost of the last five
LCS is ordered was about $983,000,000, 23 ships have bee
commissioned in nine ships ar currently under construction o
in pre construction Unknown: The freedom class is
built by Marionette marine and Wisconsin and the independence
class is built by Austal USA in Alabama. Brad Howard: But the LCS hasn't
panned out exactly as planned, which could be the reason the
Navy has started to decommission four vessels. Unknown: My sense on the LCS is
that it probably makes sense. Both because the ships are
expensive to maintain. So you got high sustainment costs that
you want to try to get down, that they're not meeting the
breadth of capabilities that we're looking for. And that's
not to say that there aren't some missions that the LCS can
capably perform. I'm sure there are. But when you look at the
cost of maintaining a ship, that the sustainment costs aren't
working, working out as well as you would like. You don't have
the same mission set that you need versus beginning to invest
in future systems that are going to give you greater capability. You have to look at those ships
they were test designs there was a lot of changes that went from
those ships into the into the block by so you know, the
program office took a hard look and I stand by the decision the
Navy made, Brad Howard: both ships have had
their share of problems and criticisms. Some observers are
concerned that the independence class is not up for surface to
surface warfare due to its aluminum hull and light
armament. The freedom class has also had engine problems since
its inception, Unknown: late last year, when it
was discovered that the freedom class the one designed by
Lockheed Martin has an issue with it the combining gear which
is basically a part of its its propulsion, and this has created
a conflict between the Navy and Lockheed Martin everyone In
agreement that this is an issue, and it's potentially an issue
for all of Lockheed Martin's ships. Brad Howard: In a statement to
CNBC Lockheed Martin noted our solution will soon be rigorously
tested at sea to validate the improved design modification.
Following successful sea trials and navy approval, we will
deliver the first modified ship and implement the design
modifications for other freedom Class ships. Unknown: In a nutshell, we are
right on track to get to put that problem behind us and move
on with the future of the freedom class. Brad Howard: So I'm here on the
bridge of the USS Milwaukee. what's notable about it is the
combination of training and new technology allows for the crew
on this bridge to be much smaller than previous frigate
designs. The autopilot and advanced helm controls which are
used to steer the ship and control the speed are a huge
part of what makes the ship so advanced we come Unknown: to these ships prepared
to you know, face anything that is thrown at us with a three
people that we have on the bridge vice other ships that
could have anywhere 12 1415 people, Brad Howard: the LCS was
designed to operate with a small crew size an Arleigh Burke-class
destroyer which displaces about three times as many tons as an
LCS fully loaded needs a crew of around 300 sailors by comparison
in LCS has a crew of around 90 depending on mission needs and
additionally each LCS has two crews that rotate to enable a
higher operational tempo. Unknown: My entire engineering
department on LCS is about 12 people that is designed that is
about the size of one engineering division on
conventional ships, Brad Howard: new technologies
and sailors working multiple jobs helped keep the crew
numbers so low compared to larger ships. Unknown: We by far have the
premier surface navy ship training in the LCS program, and
it goes back to the blue and gold crew. It goes back to the
employment concept. Brad Howard: One downside is
that there are fewer sailors in the event of an incident that
requires damage control. Another is that if a crew member is
taken out of action, it could be difficult to replace their
expertise on the fly. What Unknown: the Navy originally
envisioned for the LCS ships was that they would be equipped with
a series of different mission modules. And what I mean by that
was that they would have sort of a plug and play aspect to that Brad Howard: the Navy is now
pivoting towards dedicated rules for the LCS is in service. Unknown: We are still tied to
the modular systems. The change that we made in 2016 was instead
of the Envision where we might swap those modules out over a
two or three day period, we found it was more effective to
kind of tie that module to that ship. Brad Howard: The LCS is equipped
with a rigid hull inflatable boat or rhib. These boats are
also useful for search and rescue, counter piracy and also
for certain sorts of maritime inspection. The crew of than the
Milwaukee took me on an exercise where the rip would be launched
from the LCS in order to send sailors to board another vessel
but a critical hose malfunction which prevented the doors from
opening. The crew quickly and safely fixed the hose
communicating loudly through each step of the process. After
the rhib was launched, the sailors performed a boarding
exercise supported by a helicopter from the LCS one of
the main advantages a ship like the LCS brings to the fleet is
capabilities such as this sort of interdiction. The small boat
and aerial support the LCS can bring to bear is also useful in
humanitarian situations such as when Haiti experienced an
earthquake in August of this year. Unknown: USS Billings is one of
the first ones on scene so you have LCS on scene with their
helicopter providing humanitarian relief culturally, I think the service
has never really liked the ship because it's it's not a
Bluewater ship, like lobbing missiles 1000s of miles away
and, and getting into these really big epic fights in the
middle of the ocean. And you know, the US Navy's never really
been enamored since the end of the World War Two. With small
ships, it's never been something that they've been particularly
into. Brad Howard: The Navy is hoping
to retire some Littoral Combat ships to free up money for the
next generation frigate that is slated to take on a number of
important missions. This frigate will displace about twice as
many tons as the LCS Unknown: when the Navy's mine,
they're saving money. They call it divest invest, they're saving
money to put money back into something that they do want. A
frigate Brad Howard: is a type of ship
that is generally known to be made for speed and capable of
handling many different missions. The constellation
class will be based on a Fincantieri, Marinette marine
design known as the European multipurpose frigate, which is
already in service with several other countries including Italy
and France. Unknown: So the constellation
class frigates were born from intense congressional pressure
in order to find another follow on class for the LCS. And so a
lot of that was the late john mccain beating the Navy and on
the head and shoulders, saying that you need to get something
else. Brad Howard: The Navy is hoping
to buy 20 ships and they're aiming at a cost of around a
billion dollars per ship. It is hoped that by picking a proven
design, this will keep costs down. But the Congressional
Budget Office is projecting that the Navy's cost estimate is 40%
lower than what it could actually be. cost, Unknown: Congress would like to
see her value for its investment. I'm not going to stand here and
say, oh, great job on the frigate. We got to keep busting
their balls to make sure that they are, you know, hitting the
goals and meeting things we have. But I think we have a
better path forward now to building systems that will work
and that will help us and doing so in a more cost effective way.
We haven't really keep pushing that though Brad Howard: these frigates also
have what is known as a vertical launch system. This allows a
ship to carry more missiles in an efficient way lay down what
are known as cells Unknown: that's able to fire
anti air and anti ship missiles. It has a beefier radar than the
LCS Brad Howard: does. One major
criticism of the LCS is that it would be outgunned in any modern
fight with other surface ships or against aircraft. Unknown: The LCS is deficiency
in the face of defense against air and missile threats,
especially with China and Iran moving closer together with
military cooperation is a problem. Brad Howard: At the end of the
day. The LCS is a Navy warship and it's designed to engage with
the enemy. The LCS has a 57 millimeter main gun Unknown: primary purposes the
anti Surface Warfare can be used against anti air warfare as
well. You don't expect a gun this big to shoot that fast. But
when it starts pulling out rounds, it's it's definitely
impressive to watch. You know the 30 millimeter guns
that that ship has. Every single crew that comes back from
deployment has gotten us out of the out of that system. There is
also a missile element of that SSM mm or service ship mission
missile module, which is a longbow hellfire missile that we
have, and it's coming in and more numbers to put on the ship. Brad Howard: The freedom class
also has smaller machine guns and some defensive weapons. In
the case of the Milwaukee a rolling airframe missile
launcher is installed on the ship to help take down enemy air
threats. The freedom Class ships in operation are also awaiting
an upgrade that will place the Naval Strike missile onboard
which will be a huge upgrade in the ship's ability to fight
other warships something that the Pentagon wants in an era of
strategic competition. Unknown: With that missile
there's many other lethality upgrades that the LCS are
getting, which I cannot talk about right now. But again,
you're taking a lethal, stealthy ship, who's able to go fast in
other tutorials and making it much more deadlier and lcss Brad Howard: have also launched
Harpoon missiles and modified Hellfire missiles, but it's to
be seen if these solutions will be enough to compete with
heavily armed Chinese and Russian ships. The fight between
Congress in the Navy over divesting away from existing LCS
isn't going away. Unknown: This has lawmakers
disturbed by the fact that the Navy is trying to reach 355
vessels and the next 10 years but they are also looking to
retire at least for these LCS ships. The LCS has become a
congressional punching bag because it's there's an issue
after issue. And it's become an item that if lawmakers don't
know that much else about the Navy, if they want to make an
argument the Navy is going down the wrong path, they will
reference the LCS. Brad Howard: Meanwhile, the Navy
is trying to salvage the LCS reputation and make it a lethal
part of the Navy's small surface combatant fleet. Unknown: I mean, the Chinese are
particularly interested in LCS, now that they have a Naval
Strike missile aboard because you have a ship that has
actually a lot more lethality to it, and can be a threat to some
of their larger warships out there at a relatively
inexpensive cost. When we went back and now that
we've kind of gotten past that initial point, the ships have
been built, they've been we've been deploying them independence
has been very successful deploying overseas to Singapore
in you know, in China's backyard, we're starting in late
2019, the freedom class followed in in the south Kami or I think that funds should come
from the army. And to a certain extent, the Air Force. And this
is not a it may be seen as a radical idea. But it is not
something that it's something that's been done before the
Eisenhower administration, for example, prioritize the Air
Force in the 50s at the expense of the other services. So it's
not like, Oh, my God, we're doing something completely new
here. Now, some of those some of those
future systems are future I mean, a destroyer, the new you
know, you just class destroyer, very capable ship meets a clear
need, we know how to build it, we know how to build it in a
cost effective way. So every dollar that you can save over
there, you can do that same for submarines, you know, when we
got them cooking up there with the whole two and now even some
cases three submarines a year. To the step we're cranking out a
very capable platform that we know has a clear mission that
hits our cost goal, and the more money that can go into that the
more capable systems that we can build. Brad Howard: As I left the USS
Milwaukee, it seemed to me that after a rocky 20 year
development, the name You may not have the ship it set out to
build back in 2002 but it does have a very capable small
warship. And the lessons learned from it will likely be part of
future navy ship designs for years to come.
