One View of Hybrid Sailors

When I read this, I immediately contacted CDR Curt Renshaw to get permission to post it on the blog. In regards to every comment made about the human environment on LCS, the description within describes exactly what I observed while on USS Freedom (LCS 1). This is very accurate in that regard. With his permission...

Why JOs Should Want To Serve in LCS
By CDR Curt Renshaw, USN
Commanding Officer, LCS 2 Independence Blue

LCS is the "Special Forces" of Surface Warfare:

• Designed for asymmetric threats
• Fast and agile (achieve in excess of 40 kts in a 420 foot ship with a 100 foot beam and the volume of two FFGs)
• Concentrated Lethality via focused mission packages (e.g. 57mm gun, 2x30mm guns, 60 N-LOS missiles, armed helo, VTUAV and 11M RHIBS in SUW Package)
• Mission Oriented (take what you need for the mission and self-defense and quickly transit to/from the littoral battlespace)
• Flat, task-oriented organization of crew - Only 40 core and 75 total crew with significant cross-training (hybrid). No more pyramid/hierarchical organization. When you own a task, you own all the people on the ship for it. When you don't, you work ISE or for another task leader. (i.e. sometimes everyone works for you and sometimes almost no one does...the ability to know when is key).

Great People:

• Quality - ties into Special Forces model. Everyone is a contributor. No bit-players and no room for those who aren't proven in previous tours.
• Don't have 6 months as a UI. Step onboard and are immediately on the watchbill (produce of proven performers and rigorous training pipeline).
• The 10 percent who take 90 percent of the time aren't there. That time is left for the mission and innovative thought (which is necessary).
• Sailors in general can be grouped into three categories - Some in the Navy can't seem to follow instructions. Most, fortunately, know and follow the manual and spend much of their time training those who cannot. Only a small few are able to take a current process or manual and understand it in enough detail to re-write it to achieve the same high standards, but via a different method. LCS is blessed with many of the latter types of Sailors and absolutely NONE of the first group.

Innovation is a must:

• Paperwork and admin is not the focus of your job, it is the means. LCS is operationalized with much of the admin burden shifted to ashore. (No admin ratings and few supply ratings onboard. PMS sked ashore. Many low-skill tasks done by others).
• Completely different watch organization. OOD hands-on and drives four waterjets with a joy-stick. Two-man bridge watch and one of them is the "EOOW".
• Key platform for the future of warfare. Unmanned systems include UUVs, USVs, and UAVs to complement manned aircraft and systems. Building not only how we operate ships, but how we fight.
• At the turn of the last century, DDs were introduced to counter the torpedo boats asymmetrical threat to battleships (sounds familiar). Within a few years, they also became the platform of choice for ASW (sounds familiar again). They were also used in various versions during both World Wars to counter mines. They evolved into the workhorse of the 20th century and were flexible enough to evolve for threats that developed. Destroyers have themselves now almost become capital ships with TLAM and TMD missions. LCS is a new platform to counter asymmetric threats (mines, diesel subs, FAC/FIAC and also counter-drug, counter-piracy, SOF, USMC-support missions) and offers the flexibility to be the workhorse in the future.
• Large mission bay, flight deck and true open architecture system to support both manned and unmanned systems is the field of dreams for warfare.

Bottom-line is that this is a fast-paced environment on many levels with a focus on trimming the fat and one in which every JO will be a key operator and warfighter. They will also be surrounded by nothing but highly skilled, top-notch sailors all of whom are required to think and not just blindly follow. JOs should be clamoring to be a part of that.

A lot of SWO's are not very happy with the idea "hybrid sailors" would suggest themselves to be the "Special Forces" of the SWO community. It is a fact that is not lost on anyone who spends anytime on a LCS that the human side of the LCS program is different than anywhere else. Here is my take.

The littorals are a nasty place, and I think the hybrid sailor program got it exactly right by taking the most capable, best trained, more experienced volunteers and preparing those sailors for the littoral environment. I believe that when it comes to the LCS, the sailor selection, training, and development aspect of the Littoral Combat Ship program is the very best part of the entire LCS program. While I believe the hybrid sailor system will evolve with more experience, I was and remain very impressed with the way it has begun.

Due to the nature of small crews and high requirements, Hybrid Sailors will always be a small portion of the SWO community, but I do agree with CDR Renshaw completely. The JOs in the LCS program will move light years ahead of their peers once these ships are deployed, but I would also suggest this is a great place where qualified enlisted sailors can go and do more at sea than anywhere else in the Navy. The Hybrid Sailor program scales to any platforms developed to operate in the littorals, meaning regardless how the specific LCS technology works out the Navy has done very well building the foundation right when it comes to sailors... and that is much more important than the technology.