"Naysayers Are Learning the Wrong Lessons About ..." Topic

…the Littoral Combat Ship.

"Recently, the distinguished national security practitioner and analyst Lawrence Korb, whom I hold in the highest professional regard, detailed four lessons from the saga of the Littoral Combat Ship for Defense One readers to consider. Leveraging history to inform policy is a preferred method of analysis and I was reminded of the opposing views regarding the Vietnam War. One side believed that the lesson was not to interfere in foreign civil wars, while the other concluded that the nation should never commit troops unless it was dedicated to victory. One war, two opposing lessons. Such is the case, it appears, with the Littoral Combat Ship, and it is with deep respect that I must challenge Dr. Korb's assertions.

Dr. Korb proposed that the first lesson of the Littoral Combat Ship was that the Navy focused too much on the number of ships rather than on their capabilities. This was true, but it was also necessary. The Navy came out of the 1980s with a fleet of over 500 ships (592 in 1989) and made a pivot, as part of the Second Offset Strategy, to focus less on quantity and more on high-end capabilities such as the Aegis Mk-7 weapons system. We had a large fleet and could afford to ride the numbers down a bit — and if conflict ever did rear its ugly head, Congress would turn the spigot back on and the shipyards could begin pushing out ships. Except conflict did come (9/11), and the spigot did get turned back on (the Navy budget went up 25 percent between 2001 and 2012, from $122 USD billion to $161 USD billion) but the size of the fleet went down (316 ships down to 285). The budget increase actually went to pay for additional operations and maintenance costs while shipbuilding funds remained largely flat…"
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