…to have a moment of hope.
We are years past the argument IF LCS was going to be useful – we’ve bought so many that we have to find a way to make them useful.
While so many sub-optimal aspects of both LCS classes are baked in to the design, for much of this decade good people in hard jobs have accepted that and have, in fits and starts, been trying to work around them.
Especially the last year and a half – our LCS have not been seen all that much as we have broken the system down to parade rest and tried to reset.
At last, we have a LCS deployed – a real deployment it appears.
…USS Montgomery (LCS-8) arriving in the Philippines over the weekend on its maiden deployment.
…
“USS Montgomery departed its homeport of San Diego in late May, as part of a deployment to the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations.”According to commercial ship tracking data, Montgomery made a port call in Hawaii and left on June 10 to continue its trip towards 7th Fleet.
Bit by bit, capability by capability, we will see more a more useful LCS heading out to show the flag. All the shortcomings and past fully acknowledged, but let’s hope the next couple years will deliver good news.
We will need the most from every platform in the coming decade. LCS will never be what it was promised, but it will be here, so let’s get what we can from them.
Good luck MONTGOMERY – bring back some good news and good lessons for those who follow.
