The USS Coronado (LCS-4) operates both an MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV and an MH-60 manned helicopter. (U.S. Navy photo)
Two months after the USS Coronado (LCS-4) returned to San Diego from her maiden overseas deployment, I was invited by the Coronado Council of the Navy League of the United States to deliver a presentation to their members detailing the highlights of our deployment. During the question and answer session that followed my remarks, a member of the audience asked a blunt question: “Commander, with all due respect, how do you reconcile the fact that you’ve staked your professional reputation on something that many have come to refer to as a ‘Little Crappy Ship.’”
Suppressing my surprise, I answered politely and perhaps a little defensively before moving on to the next question. Now with the benefit of time, separation and a clearer perspective since having relinquished command of the Coronado, I am in a position to articulate a more well-formed response.
The Coronado’s maiden deployment demonstrated the value the littoral combat ships (LCSs) deliver to the Navy. The partnerships we cultivated, the engagements we executed and the sometimes painful — but necessary — lessons we learned laid a solid foundation that will inform how these ships could be integrated into a broader fleet concept of operations.
During her maiden deployment, the Coronado successfully demonstrated integration of the MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in an over-the-horizon (OTH) targeting problem and accompanying kill chain. We showed how a shallow-draft, high-speed, minimally manned ship can be a powerful tool for collaboration and cooperation with key maritime partners representing countries such as Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Moving forward, our unique characteristics will also create the potential to engage with countries that historically have been inaccessible to traditional U.S. Navy surface combatants with deeper drafts, thereby exposing new partnerships that will promote greater regional stability and a sense of shared maritime interests. We also helped develop and refine the ships’ operations and maintenance models, validating some processes and exposing glaring shortfalls in others. Additionally, we helped to mature and inform logistics support, parts procurement, operational endurance, and contract administration and execution.
My crew informed “what right looks like” with respect to shipboard evolutions such as underway replenishment. We integrated UAVs with manned helicopter operations, transited restricted and densely-trafficked choke-points—evolutions that may be considered “routine” on more established platforms but which carried a unique risk profile on a new class of ship with many first-in-class systems that had yet to be put through the rigors of extended deployed operations.
The Coronado’s sailors demonstrated unshakeable poise and professionalism in the execution of their duties and responsibilities on a daily basis by conducting all these operations safely and without incident.
As Team Coronado built momentum and began placing “wins” on the scoreboard, our operational commander expanded the ship’s missions, giving us the opportunity to showcase our unique capabilities. Expeditionary maintenance availabilities in foreign ports and complex tactical integration with partner navies are two small, yet powerful examples of the Coronado’s success.
Admittedly, our ship did experience some setbacks, including a high-profile casualty to one of our main propulsion drive shafts due to a design-related deficiency. Overcoming those challenges, however, added to the larger learning objectives of our maiden deployment. Admittedly, some setbacks were sensationalized because of controversy surrounding the LCS program. However, at the conclusion of the Coronado’s maiden deployment, what mattered most is that we returned home safely with pride and satisfaction for the exceptional work we did and the foundation we helped lay for the program’s promising future.
Since leaving the Coronado, I now work in the LCS Fleet Introduction and Sustainment Program Office with a team that is helping this class reach its potential. Following an operational pause and programmatic rebase/reset to simplify and stabilize the LCS Program, we are poised to integrate the full capabilities of this class of ships into the fleet. With much-needed resources for ship modernization at our disposal for the first time in fiscal year 2018, we now are executing a targeted modernization plan on both the Freedom- and Independence-class variants that will deliver improved system reliability and performance, a requirement that became increasingly clear as we accumulated operational time on both platforms and developed critical insights into some of the shortfalls associated with various shipboard systems.
A Longbow Hellfire missile from the USS Milwaukee (LCS-5) strikes a target during a live-fire missile test off the coast of Virginia in May 2018. (U.S. Navy photo)
The LCS mission packages continue to show potential in the surface warfare (SUW), mine countermeasures (MCM), and antisubmarine warfare (ASW) mission areas. We are developing capability upgrades that will enhance lethality and survivability. These upgrades, coupled with the ships’ small size and high speed, will complicate adversary targeting efforts and reorient the tactical chess board in favor of the U.S. Navy in numerous domains across multiple theaters of operation.
In addition, the LCS program office is working closely with Navy Supply and Weapons Systems Support to improve the shipboard and shore-based supply parts allowance(s) to improve self-sufficiency and operational availability, enabling LCSs to remain on station and in the fight longer. At the same time we continue to deliver world-class training, to include quality virtual-reality training and other solutions to enhance the proficiency of the sailors who man the consoles, employ the systems, and maintain the equipment.
The “C” in LCS stands for combat, and these ships rapidly are becoming ready to fight and win.
CDR Larson commanded USS Coronado (LCS-4) (Gold) and Patrol Coastal Crew Alpha (USS Typhoon (PC-5) and USS Chinook (PC-9). He is currently serving as the principal assistant program manager for LCS fleet introduction and sustainment (PMS 505).
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