연안전투함 대잠전 패키지 개발 실패로 프리덤급 LCS의 운용가치가 없어짐

[위종민]

https://news.usni.org/2022/03/29/all-freedom-littoral-combat-ships-in-commission-tapped-for-early-disposal

현재 운용중인 9척의 프리덤급 LCS (2020년 취역함정도 포함해) 9척이 모두 2023년 예산에 퇴역대상으로 지정됐습니다. 

프리덤급은 대잠전 미션 패키지를 장착해 대잠전 임무를 담당할 예정이었으며, 대잠전 패키지의 가장 중요한 요소는 저주파 액티브 VDS 소나였는데, 레이시온제 AN/SQS/62 VDS는 안정성 문제 및 프리덤 급에서 운영시 견인 문제가 있었다고 합니다. 이 문제로 미해군은 대잠전 미션 모듈 개발을 중지한다고 지난 월요일 발표했었습니다. 

대잠전 모듈 개발중지 및 복잡한 컴바이닝 기어 수리와 관련된 예상치못한 비용으로 프리덤급 LCS를 더 이상 현역에 둘 이유가 없어졌다고 합니다. 대신 대잠전 임무는 FFG-62 컨스털레이션급이 담당할 예정입니다. 

FFG-62에는 현재까진 레이시온제 VDS를 운용할 예정이나, 탈레스제 CAPTAS-4를 쓸 수도 있다고 합니다. CAPTAS-4는 영국의 23형, 26형 호위함, 프랑스 해군의 FREMM 및 FDI 호위함, 이탈리아의 FREMM, 스페인의 F-110, 칠레의 23형에 쓰이고 있습니다. 

현재 건조중인 6척의 프리덤급은 인도받은 뒤 수상전 패키지를 장착해 중부 및 남부사령부에서 운영할 예정입니다. 사실상 OPV가 됐네요. 

All Freedom Littoral Combat Ships in Commission Tapped for Early Disposal - USNI News

March 29, 2022 9:34 PM

The nine in-commission Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships the Navy is proposing to decommission as part of the FY 2023 budget. US Navy Photos

THE PENTAGON – The nine Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships currently in Navy service – the youngest of which commissioned in 2020 – have been marked for disposal as part of the Department of Defense’s Fiscal Year 2023 budget proposal, USNI News has learned.

The ships – USS Fort Worth (LCS-3), USS Milwaukee (LCS-5), USS Detroit (LCS-7), USS Little Rock (LCS-9), USS Sioux City (LCS-11), USS Wichita (LCS-13), USS Billings (LCS-15) and USS St. Louis (LCS-19) – are part of the 24 ships the service has chosen to decommission in FY 2023 for an estimated $3.6 billion in savings.

In the Navy’s last plan for the Littoral Combat Ship program, the Freedom-class ships had been tapped to shoulder the anti-submarine warfare role with the LCS ASW mission package. The key component was a towed variable depth low-frequency active sonar that the Navy doesn’t have in the fleet. The promise behind the VDS was to give the Navy more tools to find the more sophisticated Russian submarines that have been entering service in the last several years.

While it showed promise in early testing, the Raytheon-built AN/SQS-62 VDS suffered stability problems and had towing issues with the Freedom-class, several Navy officials have told USNI News. As a result of the poor performance, the Navy announced it had terminated the mission module on Monday.

A Raytheon spokesperson referred all questions on the sonar to the Navy when contacted by USNI News on Tuesday.

With no mission module and unexpected costs for the repair to a complex combining gear for the Freedom-class ships, Navy officials said it wasn’t worth keeping the ships in commission.

“As we look across LCS, this is a place where we have identified that there are real costs, especially – for the Freedom-class to be able to make some of the repairs that are needed on those as we measure that against what is the best contribution to the capabilities that we need,” Meredith Berger, who is performing the duties of Under Secretary of the Navy, said on Monday.

In the same briefing, Navy budget chief Rear Adm. John Gumbleton said the ASW mission would be a major part of the emerging Constellation-class (FFG-62) frigate program.

“This is about opportunity cost. ASW mission, that went away. Roughly $50 million a year support cost for these vessels and an opportunity to reinvest $1.8 billion when this ASW mission sets [are] going to be taken up by the frigate, of which we’re buying the fourth of the line in this budget request,” he said. “It speaks to a return on investment to get at the lethality we need for our near-peer competitor.”

The Navy planned to field the VDS Raytheon sonar on the frigates, but the service now intends to use Thales’ CAPTAS-4, a Navy official confirmed to USNI News on Tuesday.

CAPTAS-4 is widely in use by “anti-submarine warfare (ASW) frigates such as the Royal Navy Type 23 and Type 26 frigates, the French Navy FREMM and FDI frigates, the Italian FREMMs, the Spanish F110 frigates, and the Chilean Type 23,” reported Naval News.

The Navy intends to take the remaining six Freedom-class ships under construction and fit them with a variation of the surface warfare mission package for missions in U.S. Central and Southern commands, a service official told USNI News.

The move from the Pentagon to shed the Freedom-class ships comes days after Congress officially rejected the Navy’s Fiscal Year 2022 proposal to decommission Fort Worth, Detroit and Little Rock as part of the FY 2022 defense budget.

Freedom-class shipbuilder Lockheed Martin told USNI News on Tuesday, “we look forward to working with the administration and the Congress as the President’s Fiscal Year 23 budget receives full consideration in the months ahead.”

[백선호]

같이 쓰기로 한 미사일이 신통치 못해서 금방 퇴역한 M60A2 탱크와 비슷한 신세네요.

[위종민]

공간이라도 넓은 인디펜던스급은 재활용할 여지가 있는데 프리덤급은 답이 없다고 생각했나 봅니다. 3년만에 치워버리다니...