The publication of the Pentagon's requests for the US military budget for 2021 offers many food for thought, and many “surprises” showing the profound evolution of US strategic perception for decades to come. Among these requests, one of the most spectacular is that from the US Navy, concerning the withdrawal of the first 4 units from the Littoral Combat Ship program, ships that have been in service for only 6 to 12 years.
Presented at their launch as the panacea in terms of modern and modular combat ship design, the Littoral Combat Ships turned out to be in the perfect lineage of those overly ambitious and poorly designed programs that have delighted American manufacturers for the past 20 years. . Divided into two classes, the Freedom class 3000 tonne monohull designed by Lockheed-Martin, and the Independence trimaran class of 2800 tonnes designed by General Dynamics, these corvettes designed for speed and coastal action, were to allow, by the carriage modules, to adapt to a whole set of missions, ranging from sovereignty to anti-submarine warfare or mine warfare. Unfortunately, it quickly turned out that these ambitions were excessive, and the modular dimension was abandoned, while the price per ship rose from $ 250m to over $ 700m over the course of construction.
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