It's weird; work just keeps piling up without my realization, like the state of Polnareff...
Hey everyone, Tomeko here.
Today, I'd like to introduce the following item from a minor company (how rude!) that I like, the Bronco Model.
U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ships LCS-2 Independence
A brand new ship that had just been commissioned in January this year, here is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) of the U.S. Navy.
It may also be referred to as a "Coastal Combat Ship" too. At the moment, it's still between the trial ~ practical use level, but it may or may not be produced in masses
latter, I hear.
An LCS is ships that is mainly used as the main defense of the coast of mainland America.
Its use is similar to a frigate, and the size itself is slightly smaller than the defense ships of MSDF.
Its max speed is 47 knots.
That is very fast, I wonder if they are going to pursue dodgy ships around the Mexican coast or something? (If I recall correctly, I think the max speed of Ootaka /
Shirataka had Max speed of 44 knots)
The most characteristic part of Independence's appearance is the structure method called the Trimaran.
If you look on the bottom right of the image, you should be able to see the bottom of the ship.
This trimaran ship has three bodies, and the cost is also high due to its complicated structure. However, there is a merit in this, that it enables the ship to obtain a
large space as the flight deck.
Oh btw. that image was taken from the
1/700 scale kit from Dragon/Cyber Hobby. This kit here is
unfortunately currently sold out... but it was a rather popular kit, so it may be re-released later... or so we shall hope. Let's ask Dragons nicely!
Anyway, if you want to have a look at the actual thing, you could run a search online for the keyword "LCS-2" or similar and you might find images of the bottom of the
ship shaped like the top part of a pitchfork.
By this great space gained from the trimaran, the Independence is able to utilize a variety of Military Helicopters. It could even be seen as a small aircraft carrier for
hellies... ok that might be a bit of an exaggeration.
This is also an image taken from the Dragon/Cyber Hobby kit, but this edgy near-futuristic design is a product of the pursuit for stealth capabilities.
Now, this is moving onto the capabilities of this ship, the Independence has its equipments changed according to the situations or the mission given.
This basically means it has the minimum equipments required to function as a defense ship as a base, and can be adjusted with a variety of options to function and serve
as a flexible ship. You could think of it as a ship version of a multi-roll aircraft, or in a sense of a retro game,
it could be seen as the difference between the Fire Mario, Tail Mario, Frog Mario, and Hammer Mario etc.
I digress.
The most interesting part of the Independence is that it is equipped with a system called C4ISR, which operates under brand new battle command, Net-Centric Warfare.
I really don't have much knowledge regarding the combat systems, so I can't explain this very well, but...
The U.S. Navy has shifted to a network centered battle strategy, so they've worked hard on the data processing side of things!
......or something, I guess.
I apologize, I really should go research this properly next time.
orz
By the way, it does have stealth capabilities, but the radar and sonar equipped are rather plain.
This could be due to the idea that they would mostly use the heli to scout the area, so they don't really need expensive high-spec gear.
So yeah.
Compared to the historic Independences, the warships crowned with the title of freedom from control, this one seems to be smaller at a glance, but we could say it
actually has the capabilities to defend America, acting as a breakwater.
Right then, that's it for today!
See you next time!
By Tomeko, who will go home early, regardless.
......
.........
.........Tomeko's imagination Section (what the) ...............
This naval ship Independence.
Boasting its speed and stealth and the compact size.
Being able to flexibly deal with each situation by the change of gear,
and by the use of networking with other fleets, it can handle combat more efficiently.
When thinking of the U.S. Navy, you might have a strong impression of them having enormous aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines etc. for great masses of firepower and
heavily armed equipments, so why did they make something like this...?
Let me give a quick redundant talk of this.
So ships equipped with heavy arms and great firepower are very powerful, but they are of course also very expensive. But regarding littoral combat, there had been cases
where these expensive ships they had put their hearts into, being damaged by the cheap weapons of the enemy ships.
These are often referred to as a "Cheap Kill", basically like taking the Queen with a Pawn in chess.
(I don't know if I should put this in comparison, but I think the South Korean Multi-Role Patrol Frigate ROKS Cheonan being taken down by the North Korean torpedo would
also be something similar...... I apologize if I'm wrong.)
America is a large country, but that doesn't mean they can handle these high-cost ships being taken down so often. So they decided to make cheaper ships (the Independence
may be a trimaran, but they had been designed for mass production after all, so they are so much cheaper than the heavyweight ships at any rate) so that even if they do
get "Cheap Kill"ed, the damage can be kept to the minimum.
This idea had been building since the days of the Cold War, with changes over time.
Unlike a large country like America that can put in great amounts of money into creating powerful weapons, those with very cheap equipments with little funding that could
never go into combat head on, such as the terrorist attacks against America, or the countries behind that position etc, bearing such ideas.
It's not like I fully understand all this myself, but yeah, this just means it has taken in a different concept from the past, at least that's for sure.