The US Navy was forced to redefine the entirety of its strategy at the dawn of the new millennium. Left with mighty Cold War-era vessels to engage tiny pirate boats, the service desperately needed to change scopes.
Thus was born the Independence-class of littoral combat ships built for a new program of nearshore operations and with a design so unique that the Navy had no choice but to purchase the model as well as its competitor.
The trimaran has so far surpassed the Navy’s requirements for the new role, with an angled and strange-looking silhouette that enables a smooth performance that previous generations could only dream of.
The sky’s the limit for the groundbreaking model, but the US Navy expects it to fully redefine the future of maritime warfare…
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Living not far from Mobile, AL, I got to watch the Independence and Coronado being built. Every month or two, we would drive down and check out the progress from across the river. They are a fascinating ship to behold in person.
well try this on for size,these ships are junk.the independance class can be repaired easily but the freedom class is being retired.why,because they are braking apart.there internal beams are braking due the stress on the open waters.they had a documentery about this,so till they figure how to fix them they will be put in mothball.what a waste of money.
Interesting how all the old footage is of Royal Navy ships?
It seems that no one notices the fact that the procurement offices at the Pentagon are run by future, very high paid, employees of Pentagon's contractors. Money is no object, since is OPM (other people's money). Gen. Eisenhower said this when i was in KG. The LCS concept is idiotic, since the USCG, the little, poor brother of the other 3, or is it 4, since Trump created his own version of Starfleet, has been doing shore control since it was created, way back when there were only 13 states. Then there are the PARASITES at Capitol Hill, and 1600 PA Ave. and their so called need for national security, with checks deposited promptly in the coffers of "reelection campaign funds". IT IS MONEY, OURS! yes we have a choice. Someone said long ago, "vote the bastards out of office". i say= do not vote, AT ALL, NEVER, and teach your children the same. The only thing that your vote changes, MAYBE, is who has the hand in your wallet.
My nephew says they're very wobbly in rough seas. We should give the whole class to Ukraine. Imagine the creative uses they would put to them.
An aluminum ship in salt water is just a ridiculously bad idea.
What happens when senators, military contractors over rule what the sailors want and need.
So let me get this straight…your flick is about the USN…and the first minute shows the British Leander class frigate F-104 HMS Dido?! Another example of shoddy work on this channel.
Sure it doesn’t have a mission… 😅😊
My rule of thumb for this channel. Whatever is said in the video the opposite is true. These ships are getting scrapped my guy.
I still have a crush on Lt(N) Marland, who was in an Independence Class video years ago. She was such a cutie.
Please God, no more Aluminum ships.
Hulls are already cracking, engine issues, half of them already being decommissioned…this thing is an unfortunate mistake.
Expensive. A French cruise missile can easily take it out.
Things could be worse. You could build a new aircraft carrier for $13 billion.
You missed a few things like the ships are so undercrewed that crews end up working 10 or 12? hour shifts instead of the standard 8 and the result is that they get completely stressed and strung out during a deployment, they are under armed with no antiship capability (they had to design a new lighter weight cruise missle for it).
And the lockheeed version has these problems plus its a complete disaster. The propulsion system craps out and the ships where for a time compleltly unfixable. A fix has been found but lockheed refuses to take responsibility and fix the problem because its so expensive.
Just like the future destoyer program the navy bought into vessels that where so new in concept they didn't bother to see if it would actually work before purchasing it. the whole project is a complete disaster.
They need a naval version of Thunderbird 2, easy to build today.
I thought these littoral combat ships where literally melting in the sun.
Exactly.. these types of ships are being scrapped due to all the problems they have. Maybe do some more research and get a different conclusion.
Will the navy learn from this?
The trimarane looks SO insanely futuristic and intimidating. I’m sure any enemy seeing this comming with $hit! Like the stealth destroyer 💀💀
It annoys me that there are “military news” channels that are stating in their videos about the trimaran version they only built one and the military cancelled the program, a lot of misinformation about this amazing ship!
It does seem that ‘multi-role” anything tends to mean disastrous cost overruns.Anywhere…
The video is a bit confusing, referring to the Freedom class capabilities while showing pictures of Independence class. Also, there's lots of video of the mission modules available, but none were shown.
The best thing about the Independence class LCS was its futuristic appearance.
What is the song used for this video it is awesome!
waste of tax payer money
Better than being stuck with a fleet of dozens of really cool looking but useless ships I guess.
This video seems far too positive about this class given other articles about expensive and inadequate they have proved to be.
Pure propaganda, so now you are a shill for the inept admin of the Navy that thought this Boondoggle was a good idea.
The ship already accomplished its mission. Provide jobs, and slush monies to marginal congressional districts.
Why so much imagery of (old) Royal Navy vessels? Such lack of attention to detail raises questions about the correctness of the whole post!!!
Interesting LCS has purpose but Trimaran built HVS? was used to move troops into war zone East Timor in 99 which was successful. But I believe LCS was rush into service before downpat of mission modules were design to carry. Lessons from OHP frigates weren’t carry through, new FFGX Constellation class is right choice but at a cost n size but better Sea keeping.
Was this tub not recently removed from service?
Sometimes I play these videos at 1.25x, for nostalgic purposes.
I'm guessing in hindsight they should have built the hulls from steel instead of Aluminium given the cracks that have appeared. Because the ferry the independence class is based on doesn't sail in rougher sea states it wasn't subject to the same forces as the Independence class is, also the hull doesn't look exactly like the ferry, the ferry has a more gradual slope to the bow, probably providing more stability to the outer hulls.
Seems to me that they would be best served in the US Coast Guard for going after drug runners in the open ocean. With its speed it is a lot faster than what they currently have.
They should have updated the OHP class
It’s weapons are pitiful for any warship
Your information is out of date. Crew compliment, and several of the things you have said need to be re-designed were implemented years ago…. But thankyou for doing a fair video on this class, usually anything you hear about this ship, is mixed in with the issues from the Freedom classes engine issues.
the problem is they're always broken
More waste of money. Already being cut. Might as well have just used the money and built more destroyers.
I don't think the Navy could plan its way out of a paper bag.
Those ships would have been better for the Coast guard but made of steel not aluminum !!
It served its mission quite well. It enriched LM and Austel executives. That was it point. Screw the American war fighter- I need a bigger quarterly bonus to pay for my lifestyle. So we will sell the Pentagon ships that breakdown continuously and that crack in two. Mission accomplished!
So easily the mission could be to counter piracy, or to counter the Chinese and Russian far northern patrols. It could combat Chinese illegal fishing or be a permanent flag patrol in the South China Sea or the area between Taiwan and china.