Navy: LCS fuel disparity not a deal-breaker

The Navy’s top two leaders said it didn’t matter much if Independence-class littoral combat ships were more fuel-efficient than the Freedom class, because any disparity would only exist at flank speed, and the ships wouldn’t spend much time going that fast.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., that better fuel efficiency of the General Dynamics-built LCS over the Lockheed Martin-built ship only comes into play “at the upper end” of the ships’ performance, and that’s not a major problem because “they would be used very infrequently at such high speeds.”

Mabus was responding to the latest phase of a gambit by Alabama lawmakers to influence the Navy’s plan to select a final LCS design by this summer; Shelby went as far as to ask Mabus whether he would postpone the April 12 deadline for bids from shipyards competing to build the first set of 10 ships. Mabus said he would not.

Now that defense giant Northrop Grumman has withdrawn its bid to build a fleet of new Air Force tankers in Alabama, the state’s congressional delegation has an added incentive to fight for defense dollars that would come from the Navy building more of GD’s aluminum trimarans in Mobile.

Accordingly, Shelby and his colleague, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions, have hammered Mabus in his congressional appearances during this budget season over “inconsistencies” between Mabus’ energy priorities and the LCS competition. Mabus has mandated that the Navy Department consider fuel and ownership costs when awarding contracts. So, the Alabamians say, if the Independence design costs more per copy upfront, but uses less fuel and thus will save money over the long term, shouldn’t that be a part of the competition?

Shelby said Wednesday the competition gives an “inaccurate picture” in comparing the two ships if it doesn’t give an edge to what he said was the better efficiency of LCS 2.

Mabus said he was confident the Navy’s competition included all the correct factors to help the fleet choose the best and most economical ship. And Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead said the Alabamians’ fuel-usage objections mischaracterized the way the fleet will actually use LCS, both versions of which can reach close to 50 knots.

“The amount of time this ship spends in this high-end regime, even though we need that speed, and we need that speed very much, as we are seeing down in the Caribbean and other places, the amount of time a ship spends in that regime is not going to be very extensive. It’s tantamount to saying, our airplanes are in afterburner all the time, and we know that’s not the case,” he said.

Roughead, Mabus and Marine Commandant Gen. James Conway appeared Wednesday before the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee to give testimony on their fiscal 2011 budget proposal.

Source:Navy: LCS fuel disparity not a deal-breaker

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