Logistical Analysis of the Littoral Combat Ship

Abstract

The purpose of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is to provide the Navy with an affordable, small, multi-mission ship capable of independent, interdependent, and integrated operations inside the littorals. The LCS will be designed to replace high-value Naval assets when conducting high-end missions such as littoral Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Mine Warfare (MIW), and Anti-Surface Warfare (ASuW) as well as low-end missions such as Humanitarian Assistance (HA), Non-combatant Evacuation Operations (NEO), and Maritime Intercept Operations (MIO). To accomplish these missions and successfully counter the enemy's littoral denial strategy, the Navy has stated that the LCS must incorporate endurance, speed, payload capacity, sea-keeping, shallow-draft, and mission reconfigurability into a small ship design. Constraints in current ship design technology make this desired combination of design characteristics in small ships difficult to realize at any cost. This thesis analyzes the relationship between speed, endurance, and payload to determine the expected displacement of the LCS; determines the impact of speed, displacement, and significant wave height on LCS fuel consumption and endurance; and analyzes the implications of findings on LCS logistics. The Joint Venture high-speed, wave-piercing catamaran is utilized in this thesis as the LCS seaframe to demonstrate the logistical implications of the speed, endurance, and payload tradeoffs with respect to the modular design of the ship. The weight and space requirement of each onboard and modular system is determined and added to that of the Joint Venture seaframe. Factors considered for full displacement calculations include the base seaframe, installed weapons systems, command and control systems and sensors, personnel and supply load levels, fuel storage capacity, ordnance load levels, and modular systems (embarked manned and unmanned air and sea vehicles). (30 tables, 13 figures, 37 refs.)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA415144

Entities

People

  • David D. Rudko

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Boats
  • Deployment
  • Littoral Combat Ships
  • Logistics
  • Marine Transportation
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Naval Architecture
  • Naval Operations
  • Naval Warfare
  • Navy
  • Pegasus Class Hydrofoils
  • Ship Design
  • Ships
  • Submarine Warfare
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Marine Hydrodynamics
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Naval Mine Countermeasure Systems Development.

Technology Areas

  • Autonomy
  • Autonomy - UAVs
  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control
  • Space
  • Space - Satellites