The Name Game and the Blame Game

On the day before the Secretary of the Navy departs the office, he leaves us with a name for LCS4.

Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter announced March 12 that the fourth littoral combat ship (LCS) will be named USS Coronado.

The announcement continues the practice of naming the agile LCS vessels after American mid-sized cities, small towns and communities. The ship is named in honor of the patriotic citizens of Coronado, Calif.

Nice to include a picture of the General Dynamics version. Both LCS 3 and LCS 4 were named without a contract, without a shipyard, and without much detail at all. Both also used pictures, LCS 3 being the Lockheed Martin version and LCS 4 being the General Dynamics version.

The absence of details is both industrial and political. Industrial because there are no contracts for these ships yet, and political because Gene Taylor is exercising his option to really dislike the Littoral Combat Ship this year. After being the guy who publicly, effectively killed the DDG-1000 last year, Rep Taylor (D-Miss) has new target. He will certainly find a lot of support, particularly because everywhere I look I see retired SWOs pounding sand demanding answers regarding the LCS.

This is my worry. If the LCS goes down, the fleet drops below 200, unmanned systems never get pushed, and MIW goes to the graveyard.

I still say the problem isn't the LCS. The problem is the modern SWO culture. Most retired SWOs hate the LCS because it 1) isn't AEGIS or 2) isn't a frigate. That same group has no answers for how the Navy should field unmanned systems, has always hated MIW, and have adapted the least since the cold war.

There are zero active duty SWOs that stand out. None. Not one. Conformity to be exactly what the person before you was is the only way to get ahead, so it is a culture of copy. SWOs tell people to shut their mouth and get in line, but it is my observation that for the most part, the SWOs getting ahead aren't standing at the front of the line, rather hide in the pack.

I'm not the only one observing the problems with the SWO culture today. Hell, it is everywhere. They don't see a problem, just ask them. In the meantime the number of surface combatants continues to shrink, and with SWOs leading the Navy they are running out of people to blame.