USS Savannah (LCS 28) conducts a live-fire demonstration in the Eastern Pacific Ocean utilizing a containerized launching system that fired an SM-6 missile from the ship at a designated target. 

The War Zone reports,

“Congress has demanded the U.S. Navy look into buying a new class of small warships loaded with missiles or adding bolt-on launchers to existing vessels…to help increase its combat capacity. Lawmakers ordered the study in response to major delays in work on the Navy’s future Constellation class frigates…”

The problem is simple. The Navy has been shrinking. Without a replacement in sight, they are rapidly decommissioning cruisers, each of which has 122 Vertical Launch Missile (VLS) tubes and eight Harpoon missile launch tubes. New DDGs, equipped with 96 VLS cells are coming online slowly and the new class of frigates, each of which has 32 VLS and 16 launchers for Naval Strike Missiles are long delayed and will also come out slowly.

Put simply, too few ships, with too few launch tubes.

It has been frequently proposed that missiles be mounted on Navy auxiliary ships. This is not likely to happen. These ships are not even armed for self-defense, beyond occasional crew served machinegun mounts. Most are limited to 20 knots, and they are busy scuttling supplies.

Few of the Navy’s MSC civilian manned auxiliary ships, are as well equipped for fitting into a Surface Action Group as the ten (soon to be eleven) National Security Cutters, with their higher speed, secure communication systems, data links, and Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF). The Offshore Patrol Cutters will be only slightly less appropriate for the role.

The Coast Guard alone can’t fix this problem, but the Coast Guard can certainly help. It may not be necessary to mount missile launchers all the time. The Navy could build kits that could be quickly mounted on cutters. There are at least two options already available:

• The BAE Adaptable Deck Launcher
• The Lockheed Martin Mk70 Missile Launcher

The Navy has already demonstrated use of the Mk70 containerized missile launcher on the flight deck of a Littoral Combat Ship.

The cutters would probably need a cooperative engagement capability (CEC), but that is probably also true of other platforms that might be used.

Each cutter could carry three or four containerized systems providing 12 or 16 launch tubes. Mk41 VLS mounted forward of the bridge, either conventionally or as Adaptable Deck Launchers could add eight more. Upon mobilization, there is potential for Navy or Marine Reservist to augment the cutter crews and operate the missile systems.

USS Savannah (LCS 28) Independence-variant littoral combat ship leaving San Diego with a U.S. Army MK 70 missile launcher on its deck – September 18, 2023. Photo Credit: WarshipCam.