In the return to great power competition, the times have found the LCS. These emerging technologies could play an essential role in enabling economies of force and more effective responses to subkinetic aggression as part of a maritime counterinsurgency campaign. Combined with the LCS’s relative place in the Navy’s wider fleet architecture, these characteristics make the platform a near-ideal candidate to bring to bear unmanned systems and intermediate force capabilities. Though the original concept of swappable “mission modules” has not panned out, the challenge of China’s maritime insurgency against freedom of the seas inside the first island chain has created a need for a small surface combatant with the LCS’s attributes of shallow draft, expansive and reconfigurable internal space, large flight deck, and armament centered on rapid-firing guns and offensive antiship missiles. response, the Malaysian-contracted drillship was able to successfully conclude its survey as previously scheduled, despite Chinese pressure. deployment that the situation in the South China Sea was “improving.” Supported by this U.S. China’s official reactions were uncharacteristically restrained, stating even during the most muscular U.S. commitment to defending free seas and Southeast Asians’ international rights to their offshore resources. The Navy affirmed through photographic imagery and full-throated statements from Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral John Aquilino, Seventh Fleet Commander Vice Admiral Bill Merz, and Task Force 76 Commander Rear Admiral Fred Kacher the U.S. Rotationally deployed to Singapore, the two LCSs made repeated patrols through the contested area, creating an opening for public signaling in several forms. This narrative was quickly countered by the use of Destroyer Squadron 7’s littoral combat ships (LCSs), the USS Montgomery (LCS-8) and Gabrielle Giffords (LCS-10), the latter equipped with the new Naval Strike Missile, to sustain U.S.
warships making transient appearances in the South China Sea. This led some observers to lament yet another apparent instance of high-end U.S.
Being capital ships, the America and her immediate strike group could remain in the vicinity only approximately a week before needing to sail north for further tasking, including freedom of navigation operations (FONOPS) through the Spratly and Paracel Islands and a Taiwan Strait transit. ships, led by the USS America (LHA-6), sailed into the South China Sea to discourage this coercive behavior. partner Malaysia was undertaking a hydrocarbon survey of its internationally recognized exclusive economic zone (EEZ), and its vessels were being continually harassed by the China Coast Guard and People’s Armed Forces Maritime Militia. Persistent presence to safeguard Southeast Asian civilians from China’s depredations against their rights is the new order of the day and already is delivering favorable political-diplomatic results. Pacific Fleet is embracing its role in countering China’s maritime insurgency against the rule of international law and freedom of the seas.
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