Questions remain about Navy's modified littoral combat ship.

• Author: Insinna, Valerie
• Position: Homeland Security News

* When former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel paused littoral combat ship contract negotiations in 2014 to look at alternatives to the vessel, some thought it portended the early end of a ship maligned for its perceived vulnerability and lack of combat prowess.

But later that year, the Navy doubled down on the vessel. Instead of cutting down the program of record, the service will procure the full 52-ship buy, and the last 20 ships will be outfitted with beefed up weapons, sensors and armor, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert announced in December.

The service has not yet cemented what specific upgrades will be incorporated onto the modified USS Freedom and Independence variants, but officials say the ships will provide a leap ahead in combat capability. The Navy will deliver its acquisition timeline to the office of the secretary of defense May 1.

"We came up with a more lethal, more survivable small surface combatant that gives the fleet exactly what" it wants, Rear Adm. Peter Fanta, the Navy's director of surface warfare, said in January. Fanta was one of the co-chairs of the small surface combatant task force, the group charged by Hagel with studying alternatives to the littoral combat ship, including existing hulls, new designs or modified versions of the vessel.

The decision is a boon for manufacturers Lockheed Martin and Austal USA, which produce the Freedom and Independence class, respectively. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus has said that modifying the LCS will add about S75 million per ship, but the service will be able to keep expenses below the $220 million congressional cost cap.

However, the Navy's decision to procure 20 up-gunned versions of the vessel may do little to quell the program's critics in Congress and the Pentagon.

Those changes will not be enough to significantly enhance the lethality or survivability of the LCS, according to the 2014 report by the office of the director of operational test and evaluation. The office in October conducted an assessment of the alternate concepts developed by the small surface combatant task force.

"That assessment found that only major modifications to the existing LCS design, or a new ship design, could provide the multi-mission capabilities and survivability features found in a modern frigate," the report stated. The minor improvements recommended by Navy leadership would reduce the ship's susceptibility, but not yield a ship with the capabilities of a modern frigate, it said.

Some lawmakers in Congress also remain skeptical about whether the changes to the ship address the many issues legislators have had with its survivability, lethality, mission modules and manning concept.

"I think the modifications that...