US Combat Ship To Debut At S. Korean Military drills

The US Navy will send its latest costal combat ship tailored for Asia’s shallow coastal waters for joining military drills with South Korea.

Carrying a helicopter, a vertical takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle, a 57 millimeter gun and 21 missiles, the USS Fort Worth will become the first Littoral Combat Ship to take part in the annual Foal Eagle exercises starting next month off the coast of South Korea.

“The specific role that Fort Worth will play in Foal Eagle is really no different than any other Navy ship has for years,” Rear Admiral Charles Williams was quoted as saying by BLOOMBERG.

“Fort Worth’s role will be just a normal part of that exercise”, Williams Logistics Group Western Pacific Commander said.

The 389 foot (119 meter) LCS will operate in Asia for 16 months, basically in Southeast Asia, within the 7th Fleet grouping. Admiral Williams said the LCS could also operate in South Asia.

Fort Worth’s commanding officer Matthew Kawas said, “We are looking to normalize having an LCS out here and send the LCS all over to start participating in exercises and make it more routine”.

“We are able to operate a bit closer to shore and we do have more speed than some of the other ships,” Kawas said. “It’s just something we’re going to be actually exploring during the exercise and see what additional features we can bring”, Kawas added.

The Fort Worth may make maintenance stops in Japan while operating in North Asia, Commander Kawas said. “One of the things we’re looking at doing is not necessarily tying the ship to a specific port in order to conduct some of the regular maintenance.”

The lessons learned from the earlier deployment of Littoral Combat Ship USS Freedom in Southeast Asia have been “numerous,” Admiral Williams said. “The reliability of the ship has already been improved,” he said.

Soon after its arrival in Singapore, Fort Worth took part in the search for a crashed AirAsia passenger plane off the coast of Indonesia.

U.S. Navy officers in the Pacific fleet have raised concerns that the LCS may lack the speed, range and electronic-warfare capabilities to operate in the vast Asian waters.

“We started when there was only the USS Freedom, she was pretty much doing a lot of testing,” Kawas said.

“She came on the deployment, she got to operate with some other navy ships,” he said. “We are basically expanding what this ship can do, and testing out and learning lessons from all of our operations.”

Fort Worth “offers some good flexibility in that it’s a very shallow ship, almost five meters in draft,” he said. “That opens up a large area that we just simply can’t get some of our other ships to.”