Littoral Combat Ships: Relating Performance to Mission Package Inventories, Homeports, and Installation Sites,  By: Brien Alkire, John Birkler, Lisa Dolan, James Dryden, Bryce Mason, Gordon T. Lee, John F. Schank, Michael Hayes, RAND National Defense Research Institute, 2007

The Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) constitutes a new class of fast, agile, and networked warships designed to overcome threats in shallow waters posed by mines, diesel-electric submarines, fast-attack craft, and fast inshore attack craft. The LCS Program Office asked RAND to help it gain a clearer understanding of operational, logistics, and cost trade-offs between three interdependent elements of the program: the number of LCSs in the fleet, the number of mission packages that those LCSs would require in order to perform a range of missions, and the number and locations of LCS homeports and mission package installation sites.

Alkire et al. worked closely with the Navy between January and November 2005 to identify scenarios that define the use and deployment of LCSs. Using these scenarios and a range of LCS fleet sizes, the authors established baseline considerations connected with developing and deploying a modular LCS.

They then developed a series of analytical tools to address the following issues: Where are the optimum locations for LCS homeports and mission package installation sites? How many mission packages of each type should be procured and when? How many mission packages of each type should be stored on available seaframes, at homeports, and at mission package installation sites? What are the costs of acquiring mission packages and facilities for homeports and installation sites? What cost and performance trade-offs and sensitivities occur with various combinations of the number of and the types of mission packages?

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About Littoral Combat Ship (From Wikipedia):

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littoral_combat_ship)

The littoral combat ship is the first of the U.S. Navy's next-generation surface combatants. Intended as a relatively small surface vessel for operations in the littoral region (close to shore), the LCS is smaller than the Navy's guided missile frigates, and have been compared to the corvette of international usage. However, the LCS adds the capabilities of a small assault transport with a flight deck and hangar large enough to base two SH-60 Seahawk helicopters, the capability to recover and launch small boats from a stern ramp, and enough cargo volume and payload to deliver a small assault force with armored vehicles to a roll-on/roll-off port facility. Although the LCS design offers air defense and surface-to-surface capabilities comparable to destroyers with 57 mm guns, torpedo and missile launchers, the concept emphasizes speed, flexible mission module space and a shallow draft.

The LCS will be able to supplant slower and larger specialized ships such as minesweepers and larger assault ships in anti-mine and special forces missions, plus robotic air, surface, and underwater vehicles. The first LCS was laid down in 2005; it is slated for delivery in 2007.

The concept behind the littoral combat ship, as described by Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England, is to "create a small, fast, maneuverable and relatively inexpensive member of the DD(X) family of ships." The ship is to be easily reconfigured for multiple roles, including anti-submarine warfare, mine countermeasures, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, homeland defense, maritime intercept, special operations, and logistics. It is also intended to be able to operate with carrier strike or surface strike groups.

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