The Independence variant littoral combat ships USS Tulsa (LCS 16), left, USS Manchester (LCS 14), center, and USS Independence (LCS 2), right, sail in formation in the eastern Pacific. (U.S. Navy/Shannon Renfroe)
WEST 2023 — The Navy is studying the potential of using Littoral Combat Ships as motherships for unmanned vessels, with the “current phase” of its study expected to wrap up in 2023, according to a letter to key lawmakers obtained by Breaking Defense.
“The Navy continues to conduct fleet experimentation in pursuit of future capabilities across multiple platforms, including an ongoing study of the supporting infrastructure required to operate a future hybrid manned/unmanned fleet,” Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro wrote in a Feb. 1 letter. The memo was sent to House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., and House Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.
If the LCS can be used in such a manner, it could give new life to a ship that has has been plagued with design and production issues almost from inception. While the Navy is actively seeking to retire the LCS from its inventory, lawmakers have fought back, with the argument that rather than scrap the ships the service should find a new way to use them. After back and forth debate, in the fiscal 2023 budget Congress allowed the Navy to retire five of the nine Littoral Combat Ships the service wanted to decommission.
Del Toro’s letter was prompted by a requirement in a previous defense spending bill directing the service to provide the congressional defense committees with information about “alternative uses” for the Littoral Combat Ship.
“This effort uniquely focuses on dedicated platforms acting as a mothership for a variety of future unmanned capabilities,” the letter continues. “To date, this study has analyzed current Navy platforms that could be repurposed for this concept.”
FULL COVERAGE: Breaking Defense reports from West 2023
The Navy’s apparent interest in now focusing some LCS on a mission as an unmanned mothership is sure to attract new scrutiny. As Breaking Defense has previously reported, the Navy’s ambitions with the use of unmanned maritime systems has often invited skepticism from lawmakers.
The service in November 2022 previously published a request for information to industry about designing an “attritable mothership” for unmanned systems, one that was purposefully designed to be unmanned and able to sail fearlessly into “contested” waters.
The letter also says the service is “exploring the potential use of LCS” for either foreign military sales or excess defense articles transfers.
The Navy last spring opted to drop the anti-submarine warfare package for the Littoral Combat Ship, which subsequently triggered a cost breach known as a “Nunn-McCurdy” violation. Although Del Toro’s new letter does not mention the canceled mission package, he did write that the Navy will “aggressively employ the remaining” LCS to meet the remaining missions, mine countermeasures and surface warfare.
“Current investment in the LCS class will continue to focus on improving the sustainability and reliability of the ships designated for the SUW and MCM missions,” Del Toro wrote. “The Navy will continue to conduct experimentation to determine the feasibility of future capabilities and will keep Congress appraised of our progress.”
