McCullough: Retire the Frigates

The lack of consistency in talking points is disturbing. Our collective memories can't be this short, can it?

The Navy has few small-ship options if its littoral combat ship program continues to lag behind schedule, the service’s top requirements officer said Tuesday, because the fleet’s frigates are too old or maxed-out on equipment to upgrade further.

Vice Adm. Barry McCullough told lawmakers at a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s seapower subcommittee that the fleet’s Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates’ hulls were rusting and wearing thin, that the ships couldn’t bear the weight of additional weapons or sensors, and that it generally wouldn’t be worth trying to extend their lives to have them around in place of the planned LCS platforms the Navy thought it would have by now.

I might be mistaken, but wasn't there a frigate symposium in Mayport just a few weeks, or maybe a few months ago? Wasn't the topic something regarding the options to upgrade weapon systems and how to SLEP the frigates? It doesn't make much sense to me that US frigates cannot support additional weapons or sensors, but every foreign ship of the exact same ship type can.

Feel free to flame me, but I believe Vice Adm. Barry McCullough takes the longest and perhaps hardest to believe route to finally making the point that should have come first. Investing money into the frigates at this point wouldn't be "worth" it, and the value decision can't be undersold.

When operating helicopters, we are still putting over 200 people on frigates being deployed, and that ends up becoming a ship too expensive to operate for the capability being provided. Manpower costs will sink the Navy long before spending money on programs like the LCS.

The whole idea of value, highlighting a discussion of whether or not the gains outweigh the costs, is the key point in the frigate discussion. I'm not sure anything else Vice Adm. Barry McCullough said is even believable, but no one can fault the Navy for whatever decision they make on the value argument because quite honestly, it is very difficult to make the counterargument to value in a time of constricted budgets.

If you read the Navy Times article, the key point isn't really whether or not the Navy should SLEP the frigates. The key point of the article is the deteriorating material condition of the ships, including the minesweepers. It fits in with vague discussions of other platforms, suggesting a broader pattern that should be of concern to Congress.