By Philip Ewing Thursday, July 28th, 2011 3:26 pmWe observed not too long ago that the urgency seemed to have gone from the Navy’s littoral combat ship program, but nevertheless, the service’s next chief of naval operations, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, said Thursday that it’s still committed to its vision of 55 ships and their interchangeable mission equipment. Greenert told Senate lawmakers at his confirmation hearing that he’s spent the night aboard the first ship, the steel-and-aluminum USS Freedom, as well as some quality time aboard the second, the all-aluminum USS Independence, and he and the brass remain convinced that the Navy has made the right bet with the LCS concept.Arizona Sen. John McCain, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is not a fan of LCS. He castigated the Navy for spending so much money and still failing to “have a single ship that is operationally effective or reliable.” (Both Freedom and Independence are laid up today, and neither has any of the custom equipment it needs to hunt submarines, mines or fight surface battles.) Hey, we get it, Greenert said, but just you wait and see — the Navy’s bet on LCS is going to pay off. One of its bets already has, Greenert’s hearing showed: After going back and forth about whether it would select a single LCS design or build both of them, the Navy decided last year to go with both, pleasing shipbuilding-state lawmakers whose constituent yards will all get to share the work. Read more
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