Navy Prepares to Add New Ship-Killer Missile to LCS
The navy wants to add surface to surface and defensive improvements to its littoral combat ships (LCS).
The U.S. Navy is moving ahead with plans to bolster the firepower of its littoral combat ships, adding new capabilities to the vessels that will improve their lethality and survivability in a conflict, a Lockheed Martin executive said Jan. 17.
Plans are underway to equip the LCS with the Naval Strike Missile, an over-the-horizon anti-ship missile made by the Norwegian company Kongsberg Defence and Raytheon that Joe DePietro, Lockheed's vice president of small combatants and ship systems, described as having a "long-range surface-to-surface capability that exceeds what the [Boeing-made] Harpoons can do today on current surface combatants."
The Navy also plans to add the Surface Electronic Warfare Information Program, or SEWIP, Block 2 electronic surveillance sensors to the vessels and the MK 53 Decoy Launching System, or Nulka, to protect against inbound missiles.
DePietro said the service hopes to put the NSM on all LCS platforms, starting with those slated to deploy in 2020.
"Having some of these capabilities helps it to be in a position to be more 'a little bit scout, a little bit more offensive,' have a little more capability to be integrated with cruisers and destroyers," he said.
The changes are being made to the ships -- the oldest is less than 10 years old -- out of concerns for their ability to handle a changing mission set. The LCS initially was built to conduct operations in the shallows, including defense, anti-surface warfare and mine counter-measures. It now will need to perform those missions and more as China and Russia assert their maritime power, DePietro said.