Rethinking Survivability

In April 2012, the Defense Department’s Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) dropped a bombshell, stating that the littoral combat ship (LCS) “is not expected to be survivable in that it is not expected to maintain mission capability after taking a significant hit in a hostile combat environment.”¹ Immediately thereafter, then-Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert and Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus commenced damage-control actions to try and restore faith in the new platform.² The backlash was intense, to say the least. But the heated discussions about the survivability of LCS represent the first significant, public discussions on surface-ship survivability since the Navy first adopted official survivability standards in 1988, and more presciently, since the instruction was updated and reissued in September 2012.