21 Years After First LCS Order, First Minehunters Deploy

Sailors use a straddle carrier to load a minehunting USV sonar tow vessel aboard USS Canberra, 2024 (USN)

After decades of development, the U.S. Navy has deployed its first mine countermeasures mission package aboard an Independence-class Littoral Combat Ship, fulfilling the vessel's capability to perform its designated role at last.

The MCM package consists of a Textron-designed unmanned surface vehicle, aluminum-hulled and unpainted like the Independence-class; the AN/AQS-20 towed sonar for minehunting, installed on the USV; a helicopter-mounted mine detection system; and a minesweeping package installed on the USV. In service, it will replace the Navy's MH-53 mine countermeasures helicopter platform and the aging Avenger-class minehunting vessels.

Design of the Independence-class formally began in 2004, and the mission packages were designed in parallel. Initially, the minehunting package centered on Lockheed Martin's Remote Multi Mission Vehicle, an unmanned semisubmersible that the Navy bought in low-rate production to use for sonar towing. The Navy struggled to keep the RMMV in service at sea for more than 75 hours between failures, and it was ultimately replaced with a Textron USV design. This required the development team to start over in testing USV-sonar integration. The General Dynamics Knifefish unmanned submersible was also part of the initial package for neutralizing buried mines, but was canceled in 2021.

The revised MCM package achieved initial operational capability (IOC) in March 2023, nine years behind schedule, and the first unit was embarked aboard USS Canberra in April 2024. Installation involves craning the USV and containerized support equipment into the starboard side loading hatch, then maneuvering it around the mission bay with a compact, special-purpose straddle carrier.

After a year of further experience with the package, USS Canberra and USS Santa Barbara have now deployed from San Diego on a mission to replace existing minehunting assets in Japan and the Mideast, according to USNI. One more vessel is expected to deploy this year.

Work on the package is not yet done. In February, the Navy awarded Bollinger an advance order for $8 million to procure "items needed to improve the MCM USV based on findings from operational testing." Production is under way for the minehunting payload for the USV, as well as the minesweeping payload.

The twin LCS classes were initially intended to accept all mission packages and to be interoperable with each other. This concept proved impractical in service, and in 2016, the Navy assigned the mine countermeasures role to the Independence-class and the antisubmarine warfare role to the Freedom-class. The ASW sonar suite failed to develop, in part because of interference from high noise levels from the Freedom-class' machinery, and the ASW package was canceled in 2022.

The Navy has downsized the Freedom-class, as the vessels cannot perform the ASW mission without an ASW sonar suite. Under then-Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Mike Gilday, the Navy sought to decommission the first nine Freedom hulls - one just five years old. Five Freedom-class vessels have been removed from service to date, along with the first four Independence-class hulls.