![]() ![]() Instead of having to return to home port for a lengthy refit, an LCS could be reconfigured for various tasks at a commercial port closer to the combat area in a matter of hours.Ī fleet of ships that could be switched between combat roles based on demand promised to make for a more dynamic Navy. Rather than being built for a single task, the LCS would be able to perform multiple roles thanks to so-called “mission modules” which could be quickly swapped out as needed. But most importantly, the core goal of the LCS program was to produce a modular warship. Their primary armament would consist of guided missiles, with fast firing small-caliber guns being relegated to defensive duty. These ships would be more nimble than older warships, able to quickly dash through shallow coastal waters where adversaries couldn’t follow. It was this line of thinking that lead the US Navy to embark on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program in the early 2000s. Going into the Cold War it became clear that to remain relevant, warships of the future would need to be smaller, faster, and smarter. ![]() A few years later, the advent of practical long-range guided missiles meant that adversaries no longer had to be within visual range to launch their attack. Airplanes and submarines, vastly improved over their WWI counterparts, presented threats from above and below. ![]() Over the years warships became larger and heavier, a trend that culminated in the 1940s with the massive Bismarck, Iowa, and Yamato class battleships.īut by the close of WWII, the nature of naval combat had begun to change. ![]() Naturally the technology improved quite a bit in those intervening centuries, but the idea was more or less the same: the ship with the most guns and most armor was usually the one that emerged victorious. From the Age of Sail through to the Second World War, naval combat was done primarily in close quarters and with cannons. ![]()
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