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Littoral Combat ShipThe Littoral Combat Ship or LCS is a new concept currently being developed by the United States Navy. The LCS will be a variation of the Destroyer (DD and DDG types) designed to replace the fleet of Frigates currently in use by the Navy, which are slowly being retired from the fleet. The concept behind the Littoral Combat Ship, as described by Secretary of the Navy Gordon England is to "create a small, fast, maneuverable and relatively inexpensive member of the DD(X) family of ships, which will begin construction in FY 2005." The goal is to develop a ship that can be easily reconfigured to be used in multiple roles, including anti-submarine warfare, Mine Counter Measures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, support of Special Operations or logistics, in addition to being able to operate with Carrier Strike Groups or Surface Action Groups. By 2004, preliminary designs by Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon were submitted to the U.S. Navy for evaluation with plans to begin construction of the first ships by 2005 and to take delivery by 2007. Some believe that LCS is a "preemptive strike" program, designed to create a successor to the FFGs before Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld can replace them with "Streetfighter," a concept for a series of corvette–sized attack boats. Because of this, a joking expansion of "LCS" is "Let's Castrate Streetfighter." An international task force has also been put together to determine the usefulness of the Littoral Combat Ship in the navies of the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Germany, in addition to the United States. External links - http://peoships.crane.navy.mil/lcs/
* http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/lcs.htm
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