…“The Navy may want to…in the frigate design, for example…come up with ways to simplify the propulsion architecture,” said Bryan Clark of the Center for Strategic & Budgetary Assessments, a former top aide to the Chief of Naval Operations.
“It’s not really fundamentally flawed so much as the architecture is hard to support,” Clark said, which is particularly problematic for LCS’s chronically overworked crew. Using a smaller gas turbine would reduce the ships’ top speed, he said, but it would also make maintaining and operating it easier…
…“It’s probably better to have a more deliberate process to come up with a new platform like that that you’re going to keep around for 20 years,” said Bryan Clark (no relation to the CNO). “People complain about that, but in reality for that kind of investment, maybe you want to spend the extra time.”…
… Yet as missions shift, LCS remains saddled with a high-speed design. In fact, the whole hull of both variants is optimized for 40-plus knots: the Lockheed Martin-built Freedom class is based on an Italian racing yacht, the Austal Independence on a triple-hulled trimaran ferry. “That’s not the best hull design for driving around at 15 knots, (but) they’re not going to be able to change that,” Clark said: If you redesign the hull, you have to redesign everything…