Independence Class (Littoral Combat Ship)

USS Independence (LCS-2) and USS Coronado (LCS-4)
Overview
Type	Littoral Combat Ship
units	10 in service
Namesake	independence
period of service	since 2010
Technical specifications
displacement	3104 tons fully loaded, of which 797 tons are loaded
length	127.2 meters
width	30.4 meters
Draft	4.5 meters
crew	15 to 50 permanent crew, 75 on duty
drive	CODAG drive : two LM2500 gas turbines, two diesel, Renk gear
speed	45+ knots
Armament	57mm Bofors turret SeaRAM Naval Strike Missile BGM-176 Griffin

Both "Littoral Combat" type ships underway together in May 2012 - The USS Independence (LCS 2) in front of the USS Freedom (LCS 1)

The Independence class is the second class of Littoral Combat Ships (German ships for coastal combat control ) of the United States Navy . Two units of the class were planned, after cost overdrafts the program was interrupted and restarted in May 2009 with a cap on the price.

history

Planning and construction

Littoral Combat Ships are intended to replace the Oliver Hazard Perry class frigates in the United States Navy , which have also lost a large part of their combat value due to the loss of their missile capacity. The Navy had two completely different designs built for the potential successor, both classes should receive two units. In addition to the Independence class from General Dynamics , this is the Freedom class from Lockheed Martin . All LCS will initially be based in the Pacific, with their home port being San Diego , California .

Although not primarily designed as stealth ships, the LCS of the Independence class were also developed to make it more difficult to locate them or to make their emissions more difficult.

In 2005 the first LCS of the Independence class was commissioned. The planning yard for the class is Bath Iron Works , which is part of the General Dynamics Group, and the building yard for the class is Austal USA in Mobile , Alabama . There LCS-2 was laid down in early 2006. An option for the construction contract for the second unit of the class, the LCS-4, was awarded to Austal in August 2006, for which USD 208 million was made available in December. However, because, as with Lockheed's Freedom class, LCS-2 exceeded the planned costs of $ 233 million by 50 to 75%, the Navy demanded a fixed-price contract from General Dynamics for the construction of LCS-4. When both sides could not agree on a fixed construction price, LCS-4 was initially removed from the order books of the Navy on November 1, 2007, but was resumed in 2009.

On December 31, 2010, the Navy awarded another order, according to which General Dynamics may build up to ten more ships of the class, one each in the fiscal years 2010 and 2011 and two each from 2012 to 2015. From 2011, however, is for each new order confirmation by Congress is required. Lockheed also received such an order for the Freedom class.

costs

The originally planned construction costs of around 200 million dollars were far exceeded in the course of the program. The pure construction costs in February 2008 were $ 440 million, including final equipment, tests, administration costs and the like, they will rise to $ 636 million. In addition, there are around 100 million for each of the modules (see section Technology ).

The United States Congress imposed a cost cap of $ 460 million per unit in 2008 (effective from fiscal 2011) and re-tendered LCS-4. Austal / General Dynamics bid on this condition and received the order for the USS Coronado on May 1, 2009 . LCS-4 is said to cost just under $ 548 million. This includes $ 114 million in materials purchased in 2007 for the former LCS-4. LCS-5 is expected to cost $ 432 million to build, plus around $ 25 million for equipment. On average, each of the ten ships ordered from 2010 will cost $ 440 million when all orders are completed.

technology

LCS-2 2008 in dry dock before commissioning

The ships of the Independence class are around 127 meters long and 30 meters wide and have a draft of 4.5 meters. The displacement is around 3100 tons. In order to be able to achieve higher speeds, the hull is designed as a trimaran and is largely made of aluminum. The CODAG drive consists of two marine diesel engines , which are supported by two gas turbines if necessary . Instead of propellers, the power is transmitted with four water-jet drives . When fully loaded, the speed of the ships is 45 knots, unloaded over 50. The range is around 4,300 nautical miles at a speed of 18 knots.

View from aft of the deck of the USS Independence ; The four drive nozzles are also clearly visible. (2010)

The armament consists of a SeaRAM -Lenkwaffensystem and a Mk-110 - Ship gun can fire the 220 rounds per minute and has a range of 9 miles. Up to eight Naval Strike Missiles can be carried to combat sea and land targets . The anti-ship missiles are installed in two quadruple launchers. The installation of BGM-176 Griffin guided missiles to combat sea and land targets is also planned.

On the aft deck there is a large landing deck for helicopters or drones; among other things, can there SH-60 Sea Hawk or drones with VTOL take off and land capacitance. Below the deck is a hangar for two helicopters. A RoRo ramp allows vehicles to be loaded quickly.

Depending on the mission, so-called modules can later be installed, which cover special tasks such as submarine hunting , mine control or the fight against surface targets. Due to the large payload, two of these modules can be on board at the same time.

units

Identifier	Surname	Keel laying	Launch	Commissioning	Whereabouts
LCS-2	USS Independence	January 19, 2006	April 26, 2008	January 16, 2010	active
LCS-4	USS Coronado	December 17, 2009	January 14, 2012	5th April 2014	active
LCS-6	USS Jackson	August 5, 2011	December 14, 2013	5th December 2015	active
LCS-8	USS Montgomery	June 25, 2013	August 6, 2014	September 10, 2016	active
LCS-10	USS Gabrielle Giffords	April 16, 2014	February 26, 2015	June 10, 2017	active
LCS-12	USS Omaha	February 18, 2015	20th November 2015	3rd February 2018	active
LCS-14	USS Manchester	June 29, 2015	May 12, 2016	May 26, 2018	active
LCS-16	USS Tulsa	January 11, 2016	March 16, 2017	16th February 2019	active
LCS-18	USS Charleston	June 28, 2016	September 14, 2017	2nd March 2019	active
LCS-20	USS Cincinnati	April 10, 2017	May 22, 2018	5th October 2019	active
LCS-22	USS Kansas City	15th November 2017	19th October 2018	June 20, 2020	active
LCS-24	USS Oakland	20th July 2018	July 21, 2019		in testing
LCS-26	USS Mobile	December 14, 2018	January 11, 2020		in testing
LCS-28	USS Savannah	20th September 2019			under construction
LCS-30	USS Canberra	March 10, 2020			under construction
LCS-32	USS Santa Barbara				instructed
LCS-34	USS Augusta				instructed
LCS-36	USS Kingsville				instructed
LCS-38	USS Pierre				instructed

The first units are all stationed in San Diego.

Web links

Commons : Independence class  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official site about the Independence class (English)
• General Dynamics page about LCS (English)
• Independence class on globalsecurity.org (English)

Footnotes

1. ↑ Technical data from the US Navy ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ navy.mil: Navy to Base First Four Littoral Combat Ships in San Diego ( Memento of the original from November 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
3. ↑ Press release from General Dynamics ( Memento of the original from October 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
4. ↑ Navy Times: Citing cost overruns, Navy cancels LCS 4 ( Memento of the original from June 8, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
5. ↑ Navy Times: Cost of LCS rises again ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
6. ↑ Jane's Defesen Weekly, May 13, 2009, p. 10
7. ↑ Navy Times: LCS costs fall from 1st order, still top target ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) 
8. ↑ US Navy: Littoral Combat Ship Contract Award Announced (English)
9. ↑ Defense Blog: Littoral combat ship successfully launches Naval Strike Missile
10. ↑ Usni News: Raytheon Awarded LCS Over-the-Horizon Anti-Surface Weapon Contract; Deal Could be Worth $ 848M
11. ^ USS Montgomery. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 13, 2016 ; accessed on September 4, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ bga-aeroweb.com: Littoral Combat Ship (LCS ), accessed on January 29, 2013.
13. ↑ L'US Navy met en service son 5ème LCS du type Independence. June 13, 2017. Retrieved June 12, 2017 . 
14. ↑ Ohama. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on September 13, 2016 ; accessed on September 4, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
15. ↑ Janes, June 29, 2015 ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
16. ^ Austal launches USS Manchester (LCS 14) at Alabama shipyard. Retrieved September 4, 2016 . 
17. ↑ 'Enthusiastic' local delegation takes part in keel laying ceremony for USS Tulsa on Tulsaworld.com
18. ^ L'US Navy commande un 14ème LCS du type Independence. June 27, 2017, accessed July 5, 2017 (French). 
19. ↑ https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=107121