The "senior congressmen" on Capitol Hill have always had a bad relationship with the US military. Whether it is the amount of the military budget or the quantity of weapons purchased, both sides will be furious.
"Independence" class "Littoral Combat Ship"
"Freedom" class "Littoral Combat Ship"
The current focus of dispute between the two sides is the " Littoral Combat Ship " which has not been in service for a long time.
As a product of the US strategy of "controlling land with sea", the "Littoral Combat Ship" has been controversial since it was put into service. For a time, the U.S. Navy was disgraced due to various technical flaws and became a laughing stock around the world. However, for the United States, especially for the U.S. Navy, the "frequency sea combat ship" is on the one hand high maintenance costs. Its annual operating cost is about 70 million U.S. dollars, which is almost the same as the "Arleigh Burke" class destroyer is almost the same.
If the operating costs were simply high, perhaps the U.S. Navy might still be able to afford it. However, due to the bankruptcy of the U.S. Navy's "control of land with sea" strategy, ships such as the "Littoral Combat Ship" that attempt to block other people's doorsteps and conduct minesweeping or anti-submarine warfare are not only useless anymore, but even Even the chance of "survival" is very small. In the words of U.S. House of Representatives member Smith, the "Littoral Combat Ship" can "only survive for two seconds in a battle with China."
The technology is flawed, the operating costs are still high, and the battlefield survivability is still poor, so the US Navy has always wanted to abandon the "frequency sea combat ship". In the past few years, the U.S. Navy has formulated a decommissioning schedule for "Littoral Combat Ships" countless times and will decommission four of them in September 2021. Although the hulls of these warships still have at least 25 years of service life. However, what the U.S. Navy did not expect was that when they prepared to retire nine "Littoral Combat Ships" again in 2022, they encountered joint resistance from members of the House of Representatives.
Although, the "senior members" of the House of Representatives often give people a feeling of bureaucracy. But this time, they seemed more objective. Because they are very dissatisfied with the US Navy's budget allocation. For example, they questioned the US Navy's Pacific Fleet's construction of a US$1 billion building in Hawaii. Of course, there are many similar questions, but what American lawmakers are most concerned about is, will the United States still have warships available in the future?
The "Littoral Combat Ship" can be equipped with two four-seat NSM anti-ship missile launchers
The U.S. Navy's "Gabriel Gifford" littoral combat ship launches NSM anti-ship missiles for a moment
The U.S. Navy For the future, Countless plans have been made, such as the "355 ships" plan in the and Trump era. But the result is that the number of ships in the U.S. Navy is getting smaller and smaller, because the U.S. military shipbuilding industry has already begun to decline due to the deindustrialization of and . So much so that one shipyard accumulated six aircraft carriers in a short period of time, but the US Navy had no aircraft carriers available on the ocean. On the contrary, the Chinese navy is "laying dumplings". Both the number and quality of its ships have posed a certain threat to the United States.
Therefore, U.S. House of Representatives member Wittman lamented that when "China is at our doorstep today", it will take six years for the U.S. Navy to build a ship to replace the "Littoral Combat Ship". Therefore, in order to ensure the number of ships in the US Navy, "Congressmen" hope that the "Littoral Combat Ship" can continue to be in service. ,
"Improved Sea Sparrow" In the MK-41 launch system, it can realize cluster loading of four bombs in one pit
RIM-162 "Improved Sea Sparrow" (ESSM)
In fact, as a medium-sized ship with a full load displacement of more than 3,000 tons Ships have huge room for improvement. For example, the Littoral Combat Ship Brielle Gifford once launched a Naval Strike Missile (NSM). This anti-ship missile , which is only two-thirds the size of the " Harpoon ", has a range of 200 kilometers and a sea-skimming flight distance of 180 kilometers.In addition to being able to install "Naval Strike Missiles", the "Littoral Combat Ship" can also be equipped with a set of eight-unit MK-41 vertical launch systems. Although there are only eight cells, this can hold 32 if the Advanced Sea Sparrow (ESSM) air defense missile is loaded. This seemingly "small" missile has a range of 50 kilometers. Therefore, the comprehensive combat capabilities of the modified "Littoral Combat Ship" are not inferior to those of the currently specially built frigates .
From this point of view, the U.S. House of Representatives wants to "use waste" to make up for the gap in the U.S. Navy's surface ships . On the other hand, the U.S. Navy behaved extremely unprofessionally this time. It seems that the U.S. Congress and the Navy also got the wrong script.
