Thread: FFG-7 weapons questions

This story has come full circle. I was on the base again today and saw on the USS Kauffman FFG-59 a new gun in the former MK 13 launcher location. It's a real gun this time, the same one that's been fitted on the aft missile decks of most cruisers (I think it's called a "chain gun"?).

I planned to take a cell phone pic at lunch time but unfortunately the ship had left by then. there were several other OHP's in port but none of those had the new gun.

I posted these pix a couple of months back. The Navy has bought nine Bushmaster kits with remote optical sights to mount over the old MK 13 launcher magazine. They are putting them on the last nine ships of the class. Most of the FFGs will be decommed by 2014. We are losing 11 in Mayport.

I saw one of those on FFG 60, USS Rodney M. Davis (the bushmaster) over the top of where the Mk 13 launcher used to be, and we just had two of them installed on my tin can, port and starboard, below the rear facing SPY arrays..

What's scary is that the designated replacement - the LCS - is not any better armed in it's current state than the Perrys. With the NLOS missile portion of the SuW module cancelled by the Army, an FBO requisition was filed earlier this month to figure out what to put in that empty missile bay. By the time the requisition is answered by bids, we may be looking at a full-fledged multi-year RFP. Given NAVSEA's track record, down-select will have occurred and assuming no legal fight over the winner, there may be seven or eight hulls wet by the time a missile is selected (forget integration and stand-up). Add that projected initial cost for the missile replacement to what it takes to build an LCS and we're looking a the same price to put a Flight IIA Burke in the water. So much for cost savings.

So for now, the tired but dignified and veteran Perrys will be replaced by a very fast, very hi-tech gunboat. And before anyone cries foul and starts talking about the off-board assets, a May 2010 report by PMS420 - the Program Manager for the LCS Mission Modules - clearly identifies that the automation of the remote systems like VTUAV and Spartan - still requires too much man-in-the-loop for even simple operations like detection and classification of targets. No one built a solution to replenish/refuel the remote asset while underway (you have to stop and take it aboard). Oh, and forget about operations beyond Line-of-Sight - if you can't see it, you can't control it. So much for true ISR. Terminator it 'aint. Not to mention the bigger problem in that the Mission Modules lack several key aspects - no forward deployment to the hot crisis zones today, no in-theater repair capability and worse yet, no standardization of support equipment.

So for all intents and purposes, there is no functional TTP advantage to deploying an LCS in place a Perry. At least the Perry doesn't have to swap modules to conduct limited SuW and full ASW. The helo is still part of the equation, the Towed Array comes with the seaframe and if you've got the Bushmaster mod, you can still fight small-boat assets. LCS would have to go home to pick up the ASW module and give up part of the SuW space for the questionable RMS. Gack.

Sorry for the OT, but it drives me crazy to see a good platform like Perry waylaid because someone thought a ferry would make a proper warship.