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The Challenges of Leading a Small Crew:
The Littoral Combat Ship
Troy University
Abstract
The infusion of Information Technology, combined with the concept of modularity, promises to make the new Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) a uniquely capable and robust war-fighting platform in the U.S. Navy's arsenal of ships. These highly complex ships will be taken to sea by a small crew of highly trained sailors, operating in a fashion never before seen in the Navy and illuminating an idea central to the Navy's ability to dominate the world's seas for decades to come; increased technology and fewer sailors. The use of increasingly sophisticated technology to reduce manning requirements leads to lower operating costs and a significant leadership challenge for officers and senior enlisted sailors who will be in charge of these fine ships.
Deckplate Leadership and Information Technology: The Littoral Combat Ship
The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program was brought to life in May 2004 when the Defense Department authorized the construction of two different LCS class ships to be built by two design teams, one led by General Dynamics and a second led by Lockheed Martin (Figure 1). The Lockheed Martin built LCS-1 is under construction at Wisconsin's Marinette Marine Corp. while the General Dynamic built LCS-2 is under construction at Alabama's Austal USA shipyard in Mobile ("Navy Moves", 2007). Each design team had expended significant resources and expertise to be considered, and this authorization brought the opportunity for both design teams to build the ship they had designed under a multi-million dollar contract that would be ...