Navy Ordered to Reduce LCS Fleet

Defense Secretary Ash Carter has directed the Navy to reduce its planned fleet of Littoral Combat Ships from 52 down to 40 in a memo to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Pentagon officials confirmed.

First reported by Chris Cavas of Defense News, the reduction also includes a directive from Carter to decrease the number of LCS ships built per year from three down to one.

Carter also said the Navy needs to change its current fleet of two separate LCS variants down to one, in order to consolidate or streamline purchases and improve fleet consistency.

The LCS is a shallow-water, multi-mission ship and performs a range of missions from surface warfare to mine countermeasures and anti-submarine missions. The large number of planned LCS ships was a contributing element to the Navy’s plans to reach a fleet of 306 ships in coming years. Today’s Navy operates 272 ships. Six LCS ships are already in service and as many as 14 are under construction.

This memo, however, could very well complicate the Navy’s 30-year shipbuilding plan and require the service to re-examine its fleet size.

Navy officials acknowledged the memo to Scout Warrior but declined to comment on its ramifications.

“Shipbuilding has always been a priority for the Navy, and we will continue to balance capability with capacity in our shipbuilding programs as we have always done. We are aware of the memo, however budget discussions are pre-decisional. It would be inappropriate to discuss anything further until the FY 17 budget is finalized,” Navy spokeswoman Lt. Kara Yingling told Scout Warrior in a statement.

The size of the current Navy fleet has been the subject of considerable discussion and debate. Some proponents of a larger fleet, many Republicans in Congress in particular, point out that the Navy operated nearly 600 ships in the Reagan era and should be funded to maintain a much larger fleet than is currently the case – given the operational demands placed upon today’s Navy and the fast-changing global threat environment.