{"id":228498,"date":"2021-02-25T07:01:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T07:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=228498"},"modified":"2021-02-27T06:35:21","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T06:35:21","slug":"us-to-retire-a-warship-commissioned-6-years-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=228498","title":{"rendered":"US to Retire a Warship Commissioned 6 Years Ago"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ankit Panda \u2013 Anti Empire Feb 24, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Last week, the U.S. Navy formally announced that it will soon begin to retire the first four of its Littoral Combat Ships, two of the\u00a0Freedom\u00a0class and two of the\u00a0Independence\u00a0class.<\/strong> The vessels have long faced technical, operational, and logistical hurdles to fulfilling their originally envisaged role. The retirement of the four LCS vessels amounts to a tacit acknowledgement by the Navy that the\u00a0Freedom\u00a0and\u00a0Independence\u00a0class vessels are effectively a failed concept.<\/strong> The downsizing will come even as the U.S. Navy continues to work toward a nominal 355-ship fleet.<\/p>\n

The announcement of the\u00a0Freedom\u00a0and\u00a0Independence\u00a0class LCS retirement came in the U.S. Navy\u2019s fiscal year 2021 budget request. \u201cThese ships have been test articles and training assets, and were key in developing the operational concepts leading to the current deployment of LCS ships today,\u201d the Navy\u2019s budget preview noted. \u201cBut cancelling their modernization allows us to prioritize lethality and survivability where we need it and in the mission packages assigned ships that will fill the roles of Surface Warfare (SUW), Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), and Mine Countermeasures (MCM) going forward,\u201d the budget added.<\/p>\n

The LCS program was conceived roughly two decades ago and was meant to the give the U.S. Navy a low-tonnage, responsive option that would be capable of operating in shallow seas off coastal areas and in dense archipelagic settings, like in Southeast Asia, as the name implied. The final production\u00a0Freedom-\u00a0and\u00a0Independence-class vessels ended up being underarmed and oversized compared to their original conception, effectively hamstringing their value for the Navy day-to-day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To make matters worse, the operational history of the four LCS vessels that are slated to be retired (USS Freedom and USS Fort Worth from the Freedom class; USS Independence and USS Coronado of the Independence class) left much to be desired. USS Coronado was commissioned in April 2014, meaning that its announced retirement comes less than six years into its life. Freedom, Fort Worth, and Coronado all have suffered notable breakdowns while forward-deployed.<\/strong><\/p>\n