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Lockheed Martin
The third and latest LCS, the Fort Worth, is scheduled for commissioning on 22 September. She and her sister ships are products of concepts cultivated during 1990s war games. But many are now asking, "Is the LCS up to the tasks it could soon face?"
Lockheed Martin

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Birth of the Littoral Combat Ship

In a series of 1990s simulations, the LCS concept was born; the Strait of Hormuz was the hypothetical scenario, and ‘the fight against sea and shore’ became the mantra.
By Captain Robert Carney Powers, U.S. Navy (Retired)
September 2012
Proceedings
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The recent findings of the Perez Report and related coverage in Defense News enumerated significant problems with the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). It therefore seems worthwhile at this point to take a look at how the LCS was conceived and ask, “Is it up to the tasks it could soon face?”

In the mid-1990s, the Navy conducted a series of war games in which the LCS concept was born. The wargaming process was called the Joint Multi-Warfare Analytical Game (JMAG). The computer models included all areas of joint forces: command-and-control, intelligence, environment, political-military actions, land warfare, air warfare, sea warfare (including antiair, antisurface, antisubmarine, mine warfare and mine countermeasures), and special warfare. JMAG employed experienced subject-matter experts (SMEs) at the flag/general level in all the services for “Blue” and “Red” forces.

These war games were at the developmental cutting edge of of modeling, simulation, and a “decision-maker in the loop” process. Their output allowed comparison of various systems and tactics to determine the warfighting value gained from each.

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