Littoral Combat Ships

The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) constitutes a new class of fast, agile, and networked warships designed to overcome threats in shallow waters posed by mines, diesel-electric submarines, fast-attack craft, and fast inshore attack craft. The LCS Program Office asked RAND to help it gain a clearer understanding of operational, logistics, and cost trade-offs between three interdependent elements of the program: the number of LCSs in the fleet, the number of mission packages that those LCSs would require in order to perform a range of missions, and the number and locations of LCS homeports and mission package installation sites. Alkire et al. worked closely with the Navy between January and November 2005 to identify scenarios that define the use and deployment of LCSs. Using these scenarios and a range of LCS fleet sizes, the authors established baseline considerations connected with developing and deploying a modular LCS. They then developed a series of analytical tools to address the following issues: Where are the optimum locations for LCS homeports and mission package installation sites? How many mission packages of each type should be procured and when? How many mission packages of each type should be stored on available seaframes, at homeports, and at mission package installation sites? What are the costs of acquiring mission packages and facilities for homeports and installation sites? What cost and performance trade-offs and sensitivities occur with various combinations of the number of and the types of mission packages?