As DANGER ROOM readers already know, the Navy recently commissioned the USS Freedom, the first of 55 planned Littoral Combat Ships. If all goes to plan -- and that's a big "if" -- the fast, shore-hugging ships are will give the Navy access to contested shorelines.
One of the key features of the LCS will be the plug-and-play "mission modules" that will allow the LCS to take on a range of tasks: mine-hunting, anti-submarine warfare, and surface warfare. For striking targets onshore, the Navy plans to experiment with the Army's Non-Line-of-Sight Launch System, a batch of containerized precision attack missiles originally developed for the gajillion-dollar Future Combat Systems modernization effort.
According to a recent Army news release, the Navy will evaluate the NLOS-LS (sometimes referred to as "rockets in a box") aboard the Freedom in trials early next year. The concept is that one of the ships could carry as many as 180 precision missiles, depending on how many mission modules are on board.
In the original Army concept, the NLOS-LS is designed to be a package of unattended munitions that would be parked somewhere on the battlefield, popping off precision rockets by remote control. The Army Evaluation Task Force down at Fort Bliss, Texas, has been experimenting with NLOS-LS since early this year. If it passes muster, the new system may be fielded with infantry brigade combat teams as early as 2011. **
[PHOTO: U.S. Army]
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