Has there been any progress with the laser-guided 70mm hydra?  Probably not if focus is going toward the Griffin.  The Hydra when ground launched prolly has less range too, although for the uses described above (close-in naval defense and infantry fire support) it seems unlikely that targets more than a 1500 - 2000 meters would be engaged:  hard to tell hostile intent from a non-military vessel beyond that range.

Laser-guided 70mm rockets have already been deployed by the Marines in Afghanistan.

 

See:

 

http://www.naval-technology.co...

So it is.  Approx. $10k per unit, 1.5 - 5km range, 10 lb warhead.

 

So why the griffin? The DAGR (Direct Attack Guided Rocket) has similar range and capabilities...is the Hydra too long (75" vs 42")?   

 

 

 

When LCS was supposed to be equipped with the 25 mile range NLOS it was already problematic.  Griffin with a range of 3.5 miles as the primary surface warfare system is a total joke on a 3,000 ton frigate.  The entire concept of operations is ridiculous.

 

As for this missile the 57mm gun has a longer range, any boat or craft with an ATGW can have LCS out ranged, any 300 to 500 ton missile boat has LCS very seriously out ranged, and Griffin is laser guided so can be defeated by various means including smoke.

 

Rafael is marketing Spike NLOS for small boats. It has a range of 16 miles.  Either the USN didn't bother looking at it or it's too big for allocated space which is simply pathetic no room for growth was allocated.

 

The original Street Fighter concept was called LCS when it was a 500 ton boat.  Frigates should not have dealing with small boats as a primary mission, it's ridiculous.  Frigates that carry 140 knot helicopters don't have to carry them around at 45 knots.  The listed range USS Freedom is 3,500nm at 18knots, how many hours can it run at 45knots?

The Griffin missile is not meant to replace the RAM.  RAM is for anit-air work against aircraft and incoming missiles.  Griffin is an anti-surface missile for use against other vessels and potential land targets.  It is the temporary replacement for the NLOS missile which the US Army opted out of and therefore does njot have enough funding and is currently on hold.  The Navy has not decided whether to fund the NLOS missile itself or not.  RAM is a core self-defense capabilitiy against air threats.

 

IMHJO, neither NLOS or Griffin is adequate.  Griffin is actually, IMHO, a joke for anti-surface capabilitty on a ship like this.  This vessel is goint to face fast attack craft and potential frigates aor corvettes armed with much larger and longer ranged missiles that could sink the LCS.  What is needed is a 40nm ranged guided missile with at least a 75 lb warhead...or something that can serve similarly.  Problem is, in the lottorals  it needs many of them.  That's why they were looking at the NLOS where they could carry 45 missiles with a 25 mile range...but still not good enough for the threat environment.  The griffin and the NLOS are good against swarms of fast speedboats attacking with machine guns or should fired RPG type weapons, or small corvettes with inferior weapons..

 

This is the dilema and it is one the Navy needs to solve...and is capable of solving if they will just put the PC nonsense aside.  The vessel is large enough to accomodate an adequate solution...they may just need to make this capability a standard capability and not a mission package because of the weeight and sensors involved.

 

US NAVY 21st Century

http://www.jeffhad.com/usn21/...

 

The 57mm gun should be able to engage and dispatch literally a dozen small surface targets within 60 seconds.

 

The idea of a LCS facing frigates alone is ludicrous...with the sole exception of the very first shot of a new war.  We have enough eyes in the sky to know exactly where each and every threat surface vessel of over 1000 tons, and in a real shooting war these will be torpedoed, cruise-missiled or harpooned or stealth-drop JDAMmed to the bottom in the first 24 hours.  

 

Am I wrong here?  Just think if the US were engaged in a 'Falklands' type engagement:  The Navy would be pissed at the Air Force for not saving any surface vessels for them  to sink, and even if the Air Force didn't dispatch them all with cruise missiles from B1's or 2000 lb jdams from F22s, we would have more attack subs on station than the other guys have ships, period.  They would be bottled up in port or sunk within the first 50 nm.

 

Finally, the LCS would certainly be within the envelope of a Burke and it's Harpoons, or a Virginia SSN and it's torpedoes and harpoons if it needed to engage a threat from 50 nm. 

 

 

That said I do believe it is ridiculous to have a 2500 - 3000 ton ship that needs to have the protection of a bigger brother to take on a peer... 

Do not be so sure that the 57mm gun will take out 12 or more speeding, very manueverable speed boats by itself.  That is not as easy to do with an unguided munition against a highly manueverable target.  Thats why the NLOS was developed.  But the LCS, itself near or at frigate size, will indeed have to go up against similar sized vessels in the littorals whrre belligerent nations will dpeloy them...like, for instance the new Type 056 OPV the Chinese are already launching.  That 1500 ton vessel has a larger gun, four longer range and larger anti-surface missiles, and a RAM type aaw missile with eight missiles..  That vessel, probably in some numbers, will be located pricesly in the littorals where the LCS supposed to be designed to fight And those crowded waters are not so easily distinguished between friend, foe, neutral or non-combatant.

The LCS will not necessarily alwasy have a Burke, LA  Class or Virginia near or with it either...not neceesarily even within those vessels envelope.  The whole idea is to not have to tie up those vessels in these less intensive littoral environs so if you have to send one with the LCS, then you have defeated the purpose.

No, I believe the LCS itself has to have the firepower to take on equal or smaller threats and defeat them in detail, and to be able to handle swarming small craft as well (Not to mention the mine hunting role and the ASW role in those same waters).  For that it needs something betteer than the NLOS, and cetainly an order of magnitude better than the Griffin.  But all they have now is the Griffin which itself is a shame and a testament to poor planning...but it is better than nothing.  I just hope they move on to something much better with a 75lb or so warhead and a 40+nm range before it is needed.

At greater distances and attacking from multiple ais they can dodge it by performing erratice, rapid manuevers as they close...as they get closer, they can't, but can the turret turn fast enough and make enough hits once they get in that close to take them all out.  Closr in the 50mm gun will also play a strong role.  I'd much rather thin them out very appreciably at standoff ranges.

 

Yes, they have the helos, and that will help...butr not if the adversaries are armed for AAW with missiles that out range a Maverick.  Our enmeis know full well what we are doing with these vessels and you can bet they are already strategizing too.

 

So, we get back to having a ranged weapon that is cost effective enough to be able to carry in numbers during a AsuW mission.  Like in excess of 24 of them.

 

I'd rather that particular anti-surface capability (at leas a part of it to about 8 missiles) be a standard part of this vessel like the 57mm gun.

 

Otherwise, if you are out doing anti-mining or ASW work, you may get caught flatfooted.

 

If they do not, then I expect small flotillas of 3-4 vessels to work together so that you have at least one ASuW and one ASW vessel with them at all times.

 

Would have been better, IMHO, to have had a vessel this size that was multi-mission from the get go with the capability of doubling down on the anti-mining.  Both Lockheed and GD offer mullti-mission variants of these same hulls.  But at this stage, that is not likely so the procedures and policies have to be developed to work them to be survivable in multi-role engagements because that is almost surely what they will face against a determined and prepared enemy.