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.
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