Littoral Combat Ship (LCS)

Mission — Littoral Combat Ship source

The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Program Element (PE) provides funds for detailed design, development, construction, issue resolution, certification, integration, and testing of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). LCS operates with focused-Mission Packages that deploy manned and unmanned vehicles to execute a variety of missions, including, Surface Warfare (SUW) and Mine Countermeasures (MCM). LCS also possesses inherent capabilities, regardless of the Mission package installed, including intelligence/surveillance/reconnaissance (ISR), LCS SUW will also include Maritime Interdiction/interception Operations (MIO), Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection (AT/FP), air warfare self-defense, joint littoral mobility and logistic support for movement of personnel and supplies. This relatively small, shallow-draft, high-speed surface combatant complements the U.S. Navy's Surface Fleet by operating in environments where it is impossible or undesirable to employ larger, deeper-draft, multi-mission ships. LCS can deploy independently to overseas littoral regions or remain on station for extended periods of time either with a battle group or through a forward-basing arrangement. LCS will operate with Carrier Strike Groups, Surface Action Groups, or independently as dictated by the mission and environment. Additionally, LCS can operate cooperatively with the U.S. Coast Guard and Allies. This PE also provides funds for the design, development, engineering, implementation, and testing of the combat system modifications for Lethality and Survivability (L&S) for both LCS variants (Independence and Freedom). The L&S upgrades include the development of a common Combat Management System (CMS) and integration and testing of government furnished systems including the Gun Weapon System (GWS), Electronic Warfare (EW) system and Decoy Launching System (DLS) for both LCS Class Variant ships.

Mission — Littoral Combat Ship source

The RDT&E portion of the LCS Program comprises design and development efforts required to field the LCS Class Ships, including integration with the Mission Packages (MCM and SUW) activities both pre- and post-delivery. It includes the design and development effort required to support the introduction and deployment of a Flight 0+ baseline (LCS 3/4 and Follow) with incorporation of lessons learned from the design and construction of USS FREEDOM (LCS 1) and USS INDEPENDENCE (LCS 2). Additionally, it includes design, development, issue resolution, certification and testing efforts required to support the design baseline for the six year block buy in FY10-15. This baseline includes lessons learned from the LCS 1 through LCS 4. The LCS design and development phases include platform design and development, experimentation, ship system design and integration, hull platform testing, development of Technical Data Packages (TDPs), total ship system engineering and integration, combat systems and warfare systems certification, and planning and conduct of system testing. These efforts include procurement of combat and warfare system elements and/or simulators to support production representative testing in support of design, development, and certification efforts and ordnance in support of testing. The RDT&E portion of LCS funding also comprises formal Developmental and Operational Assessment testing of the LCS Ships and Mission Packages. Test and Evaluation (T&E) will concentrate on verifying integration and interoperability of employed technologies and systems in the LCS seaframe designs and modular mission packages to achieve the mission capabilities and performance requirements as defined in the LCS program's Flight 0 and Flight 0+ Capabilities Development Documents (CDD). T&E functions will include the evaluation of Critical Technical Parameters (CTP), Measures of Effectiveness (MOE), Measures of Suitability (MOS), and Key Performance Parameters (KPP) for the core seaframe and the focused missions. This budget provides funds for the design, development, engineering, implementation, and testing of the combat system modifications for Lethality and Survivability (L&S) for both LCS variants (Independence and Freedom). The L&S upgrades include the development of a common Combat Management System (CMS) and integration and testing of government furnished systems including the Gun Weapon System (GWS), Electronic Warfare (EW) system, and Decoy Launching System (DLS) for both LCS Class Variants (Independence and Freedom) ships. Without funding for L&S trainer upgrades, sailors on ships with L&S configuration will not be trained on the L&S configuration in our trainers.

Mission — LCS Training source

As a minimally-manned ship, the LCS uses a Train-to-Qualify (T2Q)/TYCOM Certification Training process in an off-ship/shore-based virtual ship trainer environment. These simulators and blended training solutions focus on tactical, equipment operations, and maintenance training. When completely developed and procured, the LCS shore-based training capability will satisfy individual, team, unit, and force training, with an objective of meeting Capability Development Document (CDD) T2Q/TYCOM Certification Training Key Performance Parameter (KPP) requirements. Funding will develop upgrades of the Surface Training Advanced Virtual Environment (STAVE) courseware and associated simulators to achieve the training objectives. Additionally, after fielding more of the systems and courseware, out-year funding will be utilized to upgrade training to maintain conformity with LCS configurations and approved operational technical manuals and procedures, as well as test and evaluate training devices to verify compliance with requirements.

Accomplishments & Planned Programs (1)