Navy, LockMart mum on LCS early deployment blog post
June 10th, 2009 | Blogs Pirates Ships Washington | Posted by Phil Ewing
The littoral combat ship Freedom prepares to moor in Buffalo, N.Y., in November 2008 // MC3 Kenneth R. Hendrix/Navy
Spokespeople for the Navy and defense giant Lockheed Martin are not confirming a blog post that reported Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead has called privately for the Navy’s first littoral combat ship to deploy much earlier than scheduled, so it can demonstrate its capabilities.
The post — on the blog of the Military Officers Association of America — quotes a source inside LCS shipbuilder Lockheed Martin as saying that Roughead wants the littoral combat ship Freedom to sail soon to join the warships combating piracy off the coast of Somalia. That mission would put the ship into action much quicker than its current schedule, which calls for its first deployment in 2012.
A spokesman for Roughead, Capt. Conrad Chun, would not confirm that Roughead had called for an earlier deployment for the Freedom; Chun said he would not respond to anonymous reports on blogs. Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Jennifer Allen also would not comment on the report. Chun did point out that Roughead “has always said LCS is a capability the fleet needs.”
In the post, MOAA blogger Gina DiNicolo speculates that the Navy could benefit politically from an early Freedom deployment, by demonstrating it has too few ships; that the technology in the advanced Freedom is ready to go; and that Congress should continue to buy littoral combat ships.
“Bottom line: The Navy needs money and ships. Send this jet ski-warship into harm’s way now without disaster and cha-ching,” DiNicolo wrote.
Comments
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LCS to Deploy to the Gulf? « New Wars Says:
June 10th, 2009 at 6:43 pm[...] newest shallow warships, when it docked in Charleston Harbor this week. But first, from the Scoop Deck blog: A spokesman for Roughead, Capt. Conrad Chun, would not confirm that (Navy CNO Admiral [...]
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Mayona Says:
July 5th, 2009 at 1:00 amNice!
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The Scoop Deck – ‘SNOOZEPAC’ blow-back Says:
July 20th, 2010 at 10:10 am[...] I don’t know DiNicolo personally, but we e-hacks definitely know her work: She was the first person to hint last year that Big Navy was itching to send the littoral combat ship Freedom on an early “trial [...]