The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to cut a littoral combat ship from its annual defense policy bill, leaving three of the ships for the Navy despite lingering questions over its warfighting capabilities.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., had floated an amendment to the bill that would have moved $556 million for a littoral combat ship, or LCS, into buying munitions instead, a notion supported by committee Democrats who said the ships are unreliable. But the proposal was opposed and defeated by Republican committee members, especially those in districts where the LCS variants are built, by a 43-19 vote.
“Having these ships, which according to tests literally cannot survive combat, has a lot more to do with parochial congressional district politics than the needs of our sailors and our troops,” Moulton said.
The Trump administration had originally requested one of the ships, and then said it supported buying a second in 2018, even though the Navy plans to move on to a new generation of frigates. The House Armed Services Committee has increased that number to three, saying the purchases will help the Navy bridge its transition and keep the industrial base humming.
Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., recounted the LCS’s long and rocky past, including ships sidelined by a hull crack and corrosion, and a determination by Defense Department testers in 2012 the LCS might not be survivable in combat.
The ship is still not certified for one of its intended purposes, sweeping for enemy mines.
“This is a disaster of a ship and I don’t know what it is going to take for us to finally recognize that sometimes we have to say ‘no’ to things that just don’t work,” Speier said.
But Republicans argued the ship is a low-cost way to boost the Navy’s capacity, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. The higher number of ships now will keep the service’s production costs down in the future at shipyards in Wisconsin, where Lockheed Martin produces the Freedom-class LCS, and in Alabama, where Austal USA produces the Independence-class variant, they argued.
Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., said the ship is on budget, but the two shipyards will not be able to continue unless the Navy orders three hulls per year.
“The three ships not only maintain a healthy industrial base, because without three ships, the skilled workforce will suffer a 10 to 40 percent layoff resulting in an extended production timeline and yielding cost increase of 10 to 15 percent,” Byrne said.
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., said the Navy is also eager for more of the ships, despite claims by Democrats that it is unwanted.
The shore-hugging LCS has capabilities allowing it to go places other larger Navy ships cannot and is playing an increasing role overseas, where it has been deployed to Singapore and will be deployed to Bahrain, Gallagher said.
“More than anything else, I’ve tried to listen to the Navy,” he said.
