LCS2 Independence

[lazarus]

Beta. When I got it into sim, I saw a zillion things that need fixing, and I screwed up the texture assignments for the flightdeck. `Sokay, good enough for testing.
Oh, yeah, it got an integral hard deck. Cracked that bugbear. Nice looking ship, even if its a bag of door knobs in the real world, but the USN seems to be having a number of procurment, doctrine and quality issues all around of late. The LCS concept is... sketchy at best. Large, under armed aluminium austere fit ships in the littorial are a bad idea. The USN would have probably been better served with a buy of modernized FFG-7`s... But it will have iTunes!764467644776448

[strikehawk]

Nice looking boat, it'll look good off the coast of San Clemente Island for NSW support. Any chance of doing a MK 5 boat? with a hard deck on the stern one could put a Zodiac on it in MP.

[Dino Cattaneo]

I am surely not an expert in military ship design, but from a technology ethusiast perspective I have always thought the LCS2 design is very interesting indeed and it is surely nice to have one in FSX!
Too bad my helicopter skills are really poor...

[CG_1976]

The LCS Design is indeed interesting. The USN uses two LCS Designs, the one shown in this thread is typical design of the one built in Alabama, the LCS1 is a total different design hull and structure wise and is built just north of Green Bay WI in Upper MI. The LCS program will continue and both designs will be used and built. USN wants the best of two worlds and I like the idea. Laz, she very robust and heavily armed I can assure you. I been on board a few LCS's including #2 when it was a PCU. They have far Superior maneuverability in the inland and coastal area's and can also handle Arctic conditions perfect. The USCG has more issue's with ship building then the Navy 10X1. That's why the USCG raids the USN Grey Fleet.

[lazarus]

Outside the box thinking to be sure. The ships have many interesting features, and would be better thought of as multi-role combat support platforms. The flex deck, modular approach and large aviation spaces are a great boon in asymetrical operations, anti-piracy, peace(giggle)keeping. The 57 mm popgun- eh. I watched one of our Halibag class FF's put hundreds of 57mikemike rounds into Huron in '07 with pretty dismal results. The RAM is a good system, but I would question its magazine size(11 rounds) vis a viz saturation attacks on multiple axis. Ditto decoy capacity. No MR-LR SAM system. AGM-175 is a very expensive camel-buster, too small for anything but COIN. Dumb. ASUW capability-Pinguins on Seahawks. Great in a low threat environment, though even the most grabasstic ragbags are getting more and more sophisticated weapons all the time. Who would have thought hezbolah would have been able to take a good chunk out of a SAAR-V frigate. It can ship modular weapons, but no word on what or how many. ASW is given a vague handwave- but thats normal every where since the fall of the USSR, and I would have thought that loosing 2 out of 3 carriers to a submarine 2 years back on exercise would have been a reminder. Not all PLAN SSN/SSK skippers are going to be dumb-asses.
The QA issues with new ship construction are pretty appalling, though. Admittedly, the procurement and budget nabobs must shoulder the blame on that. Not budgeting for or installing cathodic corrosion protection beggars belief!( the waterjets were falling off the hull, which disolved under the stainless steel housings) Like the DDX, a lot of the capabilites designed into the ship were abandoned as the cost spiraled out of control, and the first ship was 220% over budget with 2000+ discrepancies, 39 rated 'grave to serious'. Mission requirements are vague, and change too often, politically driven; yes, but much of that is internal politicking and careerisim- same north of the line, though. Maybe worse, as our procurement nabobs( all appointies from the civil service and ; almost without exception, all without any military service) will spend 500 billion dollars and 30 years studying and project defining, without ever buying a single nut or bolt-witness the ongoing Seaking replacement fiasco.(Oh! Cyclone, where art thou?) Small crew-418 ft ship with a basic crew of 30 raises questions about survivability (damage control) and combat persistence. Ships with small crews have been shown in the past to have significant disadvantages in readiness, deployability, and persistence. You have a 418 ft ship doing the jobs of a Frigate, LST, small aircraft carrier, Assault transport, ect, ect, with 30 bodies to do the skutwork, stand watch, maintain the ship, and fight the ship. This then means a nackered crew, low persistence, low efficancy, and a disproportionate amount of shipyard support- all factors run into with and responsible for the demise of the Pegasus class of PHM's, and a chronic problem with any small crew combatant.
I was just reading the text of a speech by made by Sec Nav Don Winter in 2006.
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/the-lion-in-winter-government-industry-and-us-naval-shipbuilding-challenges-02136/
which was pretty critical of navy and industry practices. Can't say much has changed.

Enough of the real world. Its still a great looking ship, and I've wanted one for the sim for a while, so. The major thingie for me was coaxing a landable deck out of the exporter, which is being put to good use now on a whole range of projects. Strikehawk, while a Mk.V boat may not happen- no aviation facilities- would a larger ship with a hard deck and ramp be of use? I've also decked the IJN Attack transport, though the boat ramp is taken up with the load of Dihatsu's, there is room for a 'Zode


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[CG_1976]

" Seaking replacement fiasco.(Oh! Cyclone, where art thou?":icon_lol: Oh no it's still going on up there. Get the RCN brass on the horn and tell them to procure some MH65C's and Jayhawks. We have the CCG, RCN down here with two crews learning the MH65C and Jayhawk.

[letourn]

I Cant find it in the Ship section someone can help me

thanks

[letourn]

I started playing with this one last Night..but still a lot left to do ...Hard Deck...Night Texture..Light.

I dont remember How to do it ..So Im gonna have to read and test so its gonna take a while.


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[lazarus]

Like the full scale article, this one is back in drydock, this time for proper texture mapping, well in hand and along shortly!

[lazarus]

Totaly revised, FSX optimized rebuild, 7 or 8 drawcalls, texture mapped, night mapped flightdeck and interior lit. nofx version only at this time. This was the first export to look for mistakes, check edge softening, so there will be some small revisions for the general release, and a bit more reduction in size- I got it down to 3.mb, and can shave off some more.
I just jammed on a CWIS from the 'spares box' a bit of greeblying left to go, nav and deck lights and such.
You blokes can do the testing, I have not had her in sim yet. Repaints welcome, I just did a fast wipe in FSrepaint to cover up the UV maps, and the flight deck is pure speculation, as it was 5AM EDT and I did not feel like researching. Note: LCS 1 deployed with a natty camou job, so repaints are in order.
Last. Have fun

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