The Navy has started a two-phase Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) lethality and survivability program to improve the capabilities of both ship variants.
“We are going into a lethality and survivability program where we will be adding even more capability and driving to a commonality for these ships. So we’re bringing that commonality to strategize better improvements in our capability as well as to our crewing,” Kitty Sutherland, LCS Integrated Combat Systems (ICS) deputy program manager, said during the annual Surface Navy Association Symposium on Tuesday.
The LCS has two variants, the even-numbered Lockheed Martin [LMT] Independence-variant built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine and the odd-numbered Freedom-variant built by Austal USA.
The LCS team plans to share some of their capability with other ships so there will be more common combat systems and common training across the fleet.
“That should decrease our lifecycle cost and free up some of our funding to be able to support better combat upgrades in the future,” Sutherland continued.
Phase 1 of this program covers replacing contractor furnished equipment with government furnished equipment, like improving the gun weapon system with an improved fire control system.
Other improvements include the electronic warfare system getting Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement program (SEWIP) update to match the rest of the fleet; improved decoys, upgrading to a COMBATSS-21-based combat management system to make it common across both the Independence and Freedom-variants of the LCS; continued deployment of the Naval Strike Missile across both LCS variants; upgrading to digital radar capability, with some new construction ships already including digital radar; and an Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) capability that will keep pace with the rest of the fleet.
The NSM was integrated and then tested from the Independence-variant USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10) in a Pacific test in October, the first time an NSM-equipped ship sailed into the Indo-pacific region. LCS-10 was deployed in September (Defense Daily, Oct. 2, 2019).
The NSM was first demonstrated on an LCS in 2014 on the USS Coronado (LCS-4).
Sutherland said integrating the NSM “is also a step toward our future. We’ll probably see NSM in other ships in the Navy and we’ll keep installing them on the Independence-variant.”
The new combat management system will also be integrated into the Common Source Library and is another step toward the Navy’s long-term goal of a single combat system across ship types.
Sutherland noted engineering started “in small respects” in FY 2018 with an initial engineering analysis that is then planned to kick off in FY 2021 with lethality and survivability development and procurement.
She said the ICS team is working with the LCS Fleet Introduction and Sustainment program team to make sure the improvements can be installed on the ships by FY 2023.
“Doing this quickly is part of our accelerated acquisition to get combat capability to these ships faster, support the ships faster, and mainstream the LCS,” Sutherland said.