|
The
Freedom’s steel monohull comes in many configurations and sizes
ranging from 85 meters to 118 meters and displacing from 1,600 tons
to 3,500 tons. Joe North, Vice President of Littoral Ships Systems at
Lockheed Martin, presents the various versions of Freedom type Littoral
Combat Ship during Sea-Air-Space 2014 exposition.
|
The Freedom’s
steel monohull is scalable from the current length of 118 meters down
to 67 meters or up to 140 meters. Its missions include self-defense,
air-theater warfare, mine countermeasures, and surface and anti-submarine
warfare. Paired with the MH-60R helicopter on board, the platform delivers
robust air defense and lethality. Feedback from the recent USS Freedom
deployment noted the MH-60R integrated seamlessly into the ship’s
combat suite and provided an extension of the ship's own sensors and
weapons.
“We have a design that is highly flexible,” said Joe North,
vice president of Littoral Ship Systems at Lockheed Martin’s Mission
Systems and Training business. “It exists and has been proven
in both small and large scales, showing its tremendous versatility,
and offers lower risk in terms of how quickly our industry team’s
current design and manufacturing processes can be adjusted to accommodate
changes.”
Among those proposed changes to the ship’s design is the Multi-mission
Combat Ship (MCS), which Lockheed Martin has studied as a foreign-market
variant. The Navy could use the MCS as a baseline to pursue an increased
self-defense capability for a next generation LCS and/or small surface
combatant. Adding another layer of self-defense capabilities would increase
the ship’s survivability in high threat environments while also
enabling it to simultaneously defend other ships by conducting additional
missions like anti-submarine or mine countermeasures.
“We’ve got the flexibility and the experience and the proven
systems, both combat and hull, mechanical and electrical to put into
the ship to meet the requirements at any level the Navy is looking for,”
North said.
COMBATSS-21:
At the heart of its combat capabilities is the COMBATSS-21 management
system, which is derived from the trusted Lockheed Martin Aegis Combat
System. Aegis has shielded ships and sailors against air threats for
more than four decades, and provides commonality in LCS for sailors
who are already familiar with the system.
“There is a wealth of sailors out there right now who could come
off an Aegis destroyer or cruiser and go onto a LCS and be very comfortable
and familiar with the system they need to operate,” said North.
|
