Skip to main content
USNI Logo USNI Logo USNI Logo
Donate
  • Cart
  • Join or Log In
  • Search

Main navigation

  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Books & Press
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Naval History
  • Archives
  • Events
  • Donate
USNI Logo USNI Logo USNI Logo
Donate
  • Cart
  • Join or Log In
  • Search

Main navigation (Sticky)

  • About Us
  • Membership
  • Books & Press
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Naval History
  • Archives
  • Events
  • Donate

Sub Menu

  • Essay Contests
    • About U.S. Naval Institute Essay Contests
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Emerging & Disruptive Technologies
    • Enlisted Prize
    • NPS Foundation/U.S. Naval Institute
    • Naval Mine Warfare
  • Current Issue
  • Our Apps
  • The Proceedings Podcast
  • U.S. Naval Institute Blog
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Contact Proceedings
    • Media Inquiries
  • All Issues
With adequate planning, training, and experience  as an integrated unit, an  LCS surface action group could be a formidable  offensive weapon.
U.S. Navy (Shannon Renfroe)

Sub Menu

  • Essay Contests
    • About U.S. Naval Institute Essay Contests
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Emerging & Disruptive Technologies
    • Enlisted Prize
    • NPS Foundation/U.S. Naval Institute
    • Naval Mine Warfare
  • Current Issue
  • Our Apps
  • The Proceedings Podcast
  • U.S. Naval Institute Blog
  • Submission Guidelines
  • Contact Proceedings
    • Media Inquiries
  • All Issues

Deploy the LCS in Packs

With adequate planning, training, and experience as an integrated unit, an LCS surface action group could be a formidable offensive weapon.
By Lieutenant Commander Christopher Pratt, U.S. Navy
January 2021
Proceedings
Featured Article
View Issue
Comments

In the early 2000s, the threat of fast-attack craft and fast inshore attack craft in the Persian Gulf dominated tactical and operational decision-making. The littoral combat ship (LCS) was born from this environment and the operational mind-set it inspired. But the strategic seascape has changed with the reemergence of great power competition, and the Navy has shifted focus to coordinated theater campaigns. In this contemporary context, the deployment of a solitary LCS surface warfare (SUW) mission package marginalizes its combat effectiveness. Instead, the LCS deployment model should be built around a surface action group (SAG) of two or more SUW-configured LCSs.

Member-Only Content

Join the U.S. Naval Institute to gain access to this article and other articles published in Proceedings since 1874. Members receive this valuable benefit and so much more.

Become a Member Today

If you are already a Member, please log in to gain access, and thank you for your Membership.

 1. CAPT Wayne P. Hughes Jr. and ADM Robert Girrier, USN (Ret.), Fleet Tactics and Naval Operations, 3rd ed. (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2018), 194.

2. Sam LaGrone, “SNA: Navy Surface Leaders Pitch More Lethal Ships, Surface Action Groups,” USNI News, 15 January 2015, https://news.usni.org/2015/01/14/sna-navy-surface-leaders-pitch-lethal-ships-surface-action-groups.

3. VADM Thomas Rowden, RADM Peter Gumataotao, and RADM Peter Fanta, USN, “Distributed Lethality,” U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings 141, no. 1 (January 2015).

4. MC1 Trevor Walsh, USN, “Surface Action Group: A Key to Maintaining Maritime Superiority,” Surface Warfare Magazine 54 (Spring 2017), www.public.navy.mil/surfor/swmag/Pages/Surface-Action-Group---A-Key-To-Maintaining-Maritime-Superiority.aspx.

5. Walsh, “Surface Action Group.”

6. Normal range is the radius of sensors (r) from the ship. Two ships (two circles, each with radius r), 2r apart can see 3r in one direction instead of r. Surveillance range increases further with the inclusion of air assets.

7. A1-MQ8CA-NFM-000, “NATOPS Flight Manual Navy Model MQ-8C Unmanned Aircraft System,” 1 November 2017, 4-9, 4.4.8. 150 nautical mile maximum operating range.

8. HSC Mission Statement FINAL, 28 February 2020, https://cpf.navy.deps.mil/sites/cnap-cmds2/CHSCWP/Command%20Policy%202/HSC%20Mission%20Statement%20FINAL.pdf.

9. CHSCWP Command Philosophy, 21 September 2017, https://cpf.navy.deps.mil/sites/cnap-cmds2/CHSCWP/lessons/CDRE%20VISION/HSC%20STRATEGY/CHSCWP%20Command%20Philosophy.pdf.

10. Director, Operational Test and Evaluation, “Littoral Combat Ship (LCS),” FY19 Programs, www.dote.osd.mil/Portals/97/pub/reports/FY2019/navy/2019lcs.pdf?ver=2020-01-30-115500-220.

11. SEAWOLF Manual, ch. 1.5, “Maneuver Description Guide,” May 2016, 74.

12. Helicopter Sea Combat (HSC) Seahawk Weapons and Tactics Program (SWTP), COMHELSEACOMBATWINGPAC 3502.6, 28 October 2015. Fifteen of 21 Pilot Core LVLIII/IIIi events require dual ship.

13. “LCS: The Future Is Now,” All Hands Magazine, https://allhands.navy.mil/Features/LCS/.

14. Lockheed Martin, “Littoral Combat Ship,” www.lockheedmartin.com/en-us/products/littoral-combat-ship-lcs.html.

15. Brien Alkire et al., Littoral Combat Ships: Relating Performance to Mission Package Inventories, Homeports, and Installation Sites (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp, 2007), 76, Table 8.1, 13.

16. John Kirby, “Return Fire on the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship,” Time, 12 October 2012. https://nation.time.com/2012/10/12/return-fire-on-the-navys-littoral-combat-ship/print/.


1. John Marriott, Fast Attack Craft (New York: Crane, Russak and Company Inc, 1978), 11.

2. Bryan Cooper, PT Boats (New York: Ballantine Books, 1970), 9.

3. Harold Lee Wise, “One Day of War,” Naval History 27, no. 2 (March 2013).

Lieutenant Commander Christopher Pratt, U.S. Navy

Lieutenant Commander Pratt is a postgraduate student at the Naval War College (College of Naval Command & Staff). An MH-60S helicopter pilot and former EA-6B electronic countermeasures officer, he most recently served as a department head at Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 23, during which time the squadron had several aviation detachments deploy on board littoral combat ships.

More Stories From This Author View Biography

Related Articles

LCS Crew Concept
P Professional Notes

It Is Time to Single-Crew the LCS

By Commander Dan Reiher, U.S. Navy
January 2020
Using two crews for the littoral combat ship is not a viable long-term concept.
A Naval Strike Missile launch at sea
P Naval Systems

Norwegian Missile to Upgun LCS, FFG(X)

By Edward J. Walsh
December 2019
The Navy has chosen the Raytheon/Kongsberg Naval Strike Missile for the LCS and FFG(X) ships.
The large flight decks of both LCS variants make them ideal for maritime counterinsurgency. The Freedom variant’s flight deck is large enough to carry two Fire Scout unmanned vehicles.
P Featured Article

Littoral Combat Ships for Maritime COIN

By Captain Dan Straub, U.S. Navy, and Hunter Stires
January 2021
The LCS is the Navy’s solution for Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.

Quicklinks

Footer menu

  • About the Naval Institute
  • Books & Press
  • Naval History Magazine
  • USNI News
  • Proceedings
  • Oral Histories
  • Events
  • Naval Institute Foundation
  • Photos & Historical Prints
  • Naval Institute Archives

Receive the Newsletter

Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations.

Sign Up Now
Example NewsletterPrivacy Policy
USNI Logo White
Copyright © 2021 U.S. Naval Institute Privacy PolicyTerms of UseContact UsAdvertise With UsFAQContent LicenseMedia Inquiries
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
Powered by Unleashed Technologies