To be honest i do see some merit in them and i can see what the USN is doing by building them.
Oddly i think they have taken a leaf out of the Russian book buy building smaller assets but more of them than major assets, basically to act as a force multiplier to keep the ship numbers up but overall costs down.
This is exactly what we are seeing in the Russian navy today, building very powerful corvettes and frigates but not yet investing in the DDG and CG areas.
If we look at the USN the CGX program was stopped as was the DDX, also factor in the early decommissioning of the Perry class frigate with no direct replacement and why did all this happen ? simply because of cost.
The USN relies heavily on large DDG's in the Burke class and they are fantastic capital assets, multi role jack of all trades what the USN has in this DDG is a platform that can be both offensive and defensive at the same time.
Now this is where the issue becomes a little more complex, these capital assets the DDG's are more suited to a high threat area working independently or as part of a CSG, areas such as the persian gulf and south china sea.
However all to often you will find them in low threat areas such as the Caribbean doing anti drug operations, the Gulf of Aden doing Anti Piracy operations with CTF150, so the USN is utilizing a capital asset in an area that in reality its not needed and can be filled by a much more cost effective vessel, these areas would have been the perfect fit for the Perry class, but we dont have them any more.
what type of ship can undertake that type of low threat role but still be a worthy deterrent ? well in my view the LCS can release the capital asset from these duties and still maintain a presence.
After all when you think about it logically 4 men in a skiff with a dozen RPGs and AK47's is hardly a match for a Arleigh Burke with a 96 cell VLS launcher and a 5 inch gun is it?
The USN should in my opinion focus on deploying the LCS in these areas and release the capital assets, they will still be more powerful than the threat that exists already and using this vessel will be cheaper than having a DDG running around the place.
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