Yeah, it does make sense in this day and age. It is like a Hollywood movie, big budget, neat-o special effects, but little intrinsic value.
As for the doing more with less. Yep! that is why USN studies found the proposed crew of 40 to be very overworked. Testing of the proposed 70 hr work week exceeded core crew endurances by 594 hrs. and 42 percent of the crew exceeded acceptable fatigue levels. You can't win if your too fatigued to even fight.
The LCS is: Over priced. Under equipped, under armed, and under staffed.
It can be a gold-plated minesweeper.
It can be a gold-plated battle taxi for special forces.
It will be gold-plated but of dubious use in surface combat.
It can be a gold-plated ASW unit.
It can be a gold-plated ELINT unit.
It can be a gold-plated Maritime Intercept unit.
It can be a gold-plated Homeland Defense unit.
It can be a gold-plated Anti-Terrorist/Force Protection unit
As for stealth, it will be at SEA! What's it going to be mistaken for a low flying seagull with a high powered radar emitter.
As for the Aegis cruisers: look what you get for $1 billion as opposed to the $600 million LCS. The Aegis is a major offensive and defensive weapons platform. The LCS is about as inoffensive an offensive weapons platform can be and its defensive capabilities are nowhere near an Aegis.
The LCS is just a modern variant of the battlecruiser. It can out fight what it can't out run. That didn't work then, so why does the USN think it will work now?
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