GD launches multi-mission Littoral Combat Ship variant
Richard Scott
General Dynamics has used IDEX 2007 to unveil a Multi-Mission Combatant variant of its Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) design onto the international market.
LCS is intended to provide the US Navy with a fast, agile, mission reconfigurable surface combatant for operations in the littoral battlespace. General Dynamics Bath IronWorks (BIW), based in Maine, USA, is leading the General Dynamics LCS team currently building USS Independence – the first of two Flight 0 LCS vessels – at Austal USA’s yard in Mobile, Alabama.
Based on the innovative trimaran hullform adopted by General Dynamics for its LCS Flight 0 design, the derivative Multi-Mission Combatant has been conceived as a shallow-draft, high-speed ship able to conduct a range of missions in the air, surface and underwater domains. However, it is configured with an integral sensor and weapons suite tailored to meet the multirole needs of the international market.
“The LCS-based Multi-Mission Combatant is specifically designed to enable the maximum capabilities of the latest emerging air, surface and undersea warfare technologies,” said retired US Navy Rear Admiral Robert Sprigg, who leads the development of the Multi-Mission Combatant for BIW. “Never has any ship of this size had the aviation capacity and capability, manned or unmanned, that comes with a 1,000m2 flight deck. “This ship will be able to support simultaneous multi-helicopter operations and has a hangar big enough to house two H-60-size helicopters. Internally, it has the largest reconfigurable, roll-on/roll-off accessible payload bay ever designed into a ship of this size.”
|