USS Freedom : The coolest thing you'll see today

[AntEater]

Problem is, aside from fighting the CSS Virginia, a monitor has only one purpose, that is to support troops on shore. A monitor is not a ship to control littorial waters. The monitors of old needed whole fleets of escorts, minesweepers and picket boats if they wanted to operate. In WW2, "monitor warfare" was not so common, but off the Flanders coast in WW1, monitors were quite threatened by destroyers, mines, shore artillery, the first MTBs and remote controlled boats. A LCS is not a shore bombardement vessel (though it is supposed to have that capability), but rather a means for controlling the coastal waters so that other ships can operate there.