Despite what these ships had been advertised to Navy leaders, some Sailors appear to not have a good description of littoral combat ships. One label given to these ships was “little crappy ships.” The USS Little Rock contributed its fair share of “hiccups,” including when it got stuck in ice at the Saint Lawrence River for 3 months during its transit to Florida. It will join the list of ships that have been decommissioned.
From 2WGRZ On Your Side:
The history for that relatively new version of a Navy ship with that dame name is unfortunately short-lived.
It was the Navy’s traditional and ceremonial start of service on that cold, snowy December day in Buffalo as the crew did run up the gangplanks to “man the ship” and thus begin USS Little Rock Littoral Combat Combat Ship # 9’s Naval service.
We showed you back then how the ship was actually built at a Wisconsin shipyard at a cost of over $350 Million dollars. There were even shipboard tours to help explain its new technology and potential missions of everything from special operations with Navy Seals and offshore support of landed troops to anti-submarine warfare.
One officer explained for 2 On Your Side back then that the ship had a sophisticated camera to use with its main deck gun on the bow. “That’s the camera that the gunner would use to focus the weapon on.”
But we also told you about the ship unfortunately getting stuck in the St., Lawrence River ice for three months in Montreal while it was underway to its assigned home base in Mayport, Florida. And then there was talk about the Pentagon’s whole supposedly “transformational” low-cost LCS program,
But the concept got panned and then pulled apart by politicians on Capitol Hill. Chris Cavas, a Maryland-based naval warfare journalist and commentator with the CavasShips podcast, gave us an example. “The Navy was told to operate this ship with a crew of 40. Nobody ever said we could do it with 40. They were told to make it work with 40. It turns out that you can’t.”
The eventual crew size was about twice that number.
But there were also sea-side problems with the sophisticated ship propulsion technology which allowed the warship to be fast and maneuverable. It was a warship acting like a jet ski according to some.
Additional information could be obtained at 2WGRZ.
Morons. They could have built a whole fleet of Arleigh Burke destroyers. Instead they put us hopelessly behind China.
Built by Lockheed Martin…who never built ships before.
Its not the experience that counts, its the number of retired flag officers they hire and the amount of political contributions made.
Soon they’ll be build F-35’s at Bath Iron Works in Maine.
Another boondoggle from the MIC that cost the taxpayers’ $. Bet the CEOs still got their bonus for bringing it in on time and under budget. /s/
Another reason why we can’t have nice things.
“It’s only tax dollars, and there will always be more.”, well, apparently the pols and bureaucrats think so! How many politicians and their cronies got fat, happy and rich off of that boondoggle? I’m sure those Little Crappy Ships will be remembered as the US Navy’s Sergeant York, how many people remember that rolling money pit that nearly machine gunned some people in bleachers?
“It’s only tax dollars, and there will always be more.”
I believe this quote came from Phil Monkress (CEO of All-Points Logistics).
Come on, APL. You need to cite this in your comment or at least attribute some credit to Phildo.
The Sgt. York was tested at Ft. Bliss in our AO. Actually, from the articles I read there turned out to be two basic LCS designs, so dissimilar that crew members couldn’t interchange. Only one was made by LM.
If only it hadn’t ID-ed the fan on a portash*tter as an attack helicopter target…
https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/m247-2.gif
There are others.
Who wants to serve on a ship named after DETROIT?
Too late.
https://news.usni.org/2023/09/27/navy-to-decommission-littoral-combat-ships-uss-little-rock-uss-detroit-this-week
Would you prefer to serve on a vessel named for Harvey Milk?
Harvey would love the fact that something filled with seamen bears his name
Gunnery targets.
SINKEX targets?
Get Some!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puasDX1935A
There is a still pic of a torpedo finishing off my former ship USS Okinawa LPH 3 in the pacific ocean in 2002. She was commissioned in 1962
LCS’s don’t work out like Mcnamaras IWO JIMA class LPH’s. One shot deal on that class.
Navy Times or USNI magazine, I forgot which had an article on the LCS’s where a lot of Sailors wanted to go aboard because crew members were crossed trained in the different rates being a small crew and I believe that it helped them in advancing in their carreers. The Skipper lined up in the same chowline as his/her crew members. Am typing this from memory and may have missed stuff that was also mentioned in the article.
And nobody lost their job over this. Kind of says it all.
Screw up and move up.
How about using these decommissioned ships to house the millions of “undocumented immigrants” flowing across our secure border?
While this song plays as they start te second part of their journey.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3D1WDly1Oc_P4&ved=2ahUKEwjDz7iLq9OBAxWVhYkEHdnaAXwQ3yx6BAgpEAI&usg=AOvVaw0gLO5wQjdbbUmfnnRmGgNY
When will USS Gabby Gifford get sent to a SINKEX?.
Have you ever seen the strippers in Montréal? I’d drag my feet, were I docked there, too.
Can confirm. Quebec strippers are next level and the best in Canada by far.
Years ago I was up in Sioux Lookout ( Northern Ontario) for a training EX with our Rangers.
The Lookout is the place where strippers go to die.
First and only time I have seen a ‘ dancer ‘ with an Ostomy scar 🤢