The U.S. Navy's New 'Frigate': A Complete (And Obsolete) Mess?

Robert Beckhusen

Security,

Ships from the 1970s might be better. Yes, you read that right. 

In the late 1990s, the U.S. Navy became entranced by the idea of high-tech, modular warships that would fight close to shore, where the service anticipated future naval battles to most likely occur.

The present-day outcome of that trance, the 3,000-ton Littoral Combat Ship, has not worked out as well as the designers planned. The Navy intended to buy 52 of them — but since trimmed the number to 40. (Six are currently in service.)

The modular design, allowing the vessel to swap different sets of weapons and sensors for different missions, takes more time to adjust than first envisioned. The cost has roughly doubled. The ships are also lightly-armed and cannot expect to survive, by the Pentagon’s own admission, in a shooting war with China.

Recognizing the problem, the Navy changed direction in 2014.

A portion of the total 40-ship LCS force was redesigned as “frigates,” and will be larger, with more armor and better-armed (with a longer-range anti-ship missile) than the standard LCS. This “frigate-LCS” will also carry improved countermeasures, a towed sonar array and a bigger radar.

But the frigate is hardly a major improvement, according to the Government Accountability Office. For one, the frigate jettisons the modular structure — the mission modules now cannot be swapped out — but keeps and combinesthe surface and anti-submarine warfare modules. However, the Pentagon is being vague about the specifics.

“Frigate program officials told us that the Navy has not yet determined if all frigates will be equipped with both ASW and SUW mission package equipment at all times, or if the decision about the mission equipment to be carried will depend on specific situations or other criteria,” the GAO noted in a report released June 9.

If the frigate only carries a single mission package, then it’s not that far removed from a standard LCS. It will either have the ability to defend itself against submarines, or surface ships, but not both.