Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1513581
Story by: Henryk Soliński Photo: US NAYY the specific mission modules. As it turned out, during operatio- nal activities, that number of crew members was unsatisfacto- ry, with fatigue, maintenance/repair capacity, and operational headroom. As a result of that, the crews grew to 70 persons, forcing the user to rearrange the social amenities onboard. Fur- thermore, requirements defined for the personnel also went up. The initial assumption was that three crews would be enough to keep two vessels fully manned, with the third crew engaged in training/readiness restoration. Ultimately, after 2016, these assumptions were changed. As a result, two crews man one vessel rotationally, with 4-5 month rotations in place. At the same time, the matter of training, primarily at the land fa- cilities of the US Navy, created an entirely new set of problems, as many of the sailors were unable to absorb the large dose of knowledge, within the framework of multiple mission sets assi- What drives the Americans to withdraw brand new ships so soon? According to the baseline concept, these multi-role ves- sels were to constitute an important element of the US Navy's inventory, becoming a littoral asset for low-intensity operations. For those reasons, they were to replace the OHP-Class Frigates and MCMVs, or constitute a complementary asset that would work alongside the Arleigh Burke missile destroyers. Due to the broad spectrum of tasks, the modular nature and low lifecyc- le costs were important design components - the crews were small, and high levels of automation were implemented. Unfor- tunately, as often happens in the United States, the plans and reality decided to go in opposite directions. A good example here pertains to the crew size. The initial assumption was that the primary, assigned crew of the ship would consist of 40 pe- ople, supported by 15-20 mission specialists, associated with In late 2023, the US Navy decommissioned four multirole Freedom-class Littoral Combat Ships. That would not be surprising, had it not been for the fact that the above refers to some of the youngest vessels operated by the US Navy. NAVY