Will the Navy turn the USS Fort Worth into a ‘mothership’ for military drones?

WASHINGTON — Will the USS Fort Worth and its class of Littoral Combat Ships, which the Navy has targeted for decommissioning, get a new mission by becoming a “mothership” to a fleet of drones?

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro recently told congressional lawmakers on defense committees that the Navy is exploring the repurposing of the problem-plagued ships.

“The Navy continues to conduct fleet experimentation in pursuit of future capabilities across multiple platforms, including an ongoing study of the supporting infrastructure required to operate a future hybrid manned/unmanned fleet,” Del Toro wrote in a letter to lawmakers, first reported by Breaking Defense, an online news outlet.

“This effort uniquely focuses on dedicated platforms acting as a mothership for a variety of future unmanned capabilities,” he said. “To date, this study has analyzed current Navy platforms that could be repurposed for this concept.”

U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, led House members in blocking the Navy from decommissioning the USS Fort Worth and two other LCS-Freedom Class ships last year. Granger, the ship’s sponsor, was then the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee and now chairs the panel.

“You certainly shouldn’t decommission a ship when it’s premature to do that,” she told the Star-Telegram last year. “And it’s got useful years left. It’s a waste of taxpayers’ money to say, ‘OK, we’re just going to get rid of this ship and start over with something else.’ It’s absurd to me.”

The Navy had moved to decommission nine of the LCSs in its budget after being blocked on retiring three of them, citing the costs and malfunctions of the relatively new swift warships, as well as the need for ships with more firepower for new threats from China in the Pacific.

Littoral means close to shore, as the ships can operate in shallow waters. They were designed in the 2000s to combat piracy, a threat at the time.

The USS Fort Worth, the oldest of the targeted ships, was commissioned in 2012 with an expected lifespan of 25 years at a cost of $400 million. It was built by a team led by Lockheed Martin. Congress must approve the retiring of ships before their useful life.

In the government funding bill signed by President Biden in December, lawmakers agreed to let the Navy decommission four of the Freedom Class ships, stipulating that the Pentagon needed to explore other uses for the warships as well as possible sale to other countries of the decommissioned ones.

“There are possibilities for foreign military sales,” said Bryan Clark, a Navy expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington-based think tank. “I would see interest in the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia. There are a lot of shallow ports there.” Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf and the Philippines in Southeast Asia are likely markets, he said.

Congress clearly wants the ships to be used and not just be mothballed, as lawmakers said in the appropriations bill that funds the government in fiscal year 2023.

“It is noted that despite repeated concerns from the congressional defense committees, the Navy continues to propose the decommissioning of many Littoral Combat Ships well before the end of their useful service lives,” said the funding legislation. “However, it is understood that the Navy is conducting studies on the alternative uses of these platforms, including the future integration of unmanned systems.

“It is noted and appreciated that the Navy is taking these positive steps in utilizing ships that were funded at great taxpayer expense.”

The government-wide funding bill, signed Dec. 29, 2022, required the Navy secretary “to submit a detailed development plan” to Congress within 30 days. Del Toro sent the letter in early February.

“The Navy will continue to conduct experimentation to determine the feasibility of future capabilities and will keep Congress appraised of our progress,” said Del Toro.

The legislation does not specify which four ships will be retired, and the Navy has not made an announcement. But in the legislative language in the House, the USS Fort Worth was protected as one of the five the Navy would keep, in addition to the USS Wichita, USS Billings, USS Indianapolis and USS St. Louis.

The four ships that the House last year had identified for decommissioning are the USS Little Rock, USS Detroit, USS Sioux City and the USS Milwaukee.

Congress also required in separate legislation, the defense authorization law, that the U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for security in the Caribbean and Latin America, report by April 1 on the use of the LCS in its missions to stop drug interdiction and trafficking.

The USS Fort Worth is currently in its home port of San Diego. The crew recently visited the namesake city, welcomed by the USS Fort Worth Support Committee.

“Freedom-variant littoral combat ship USS Fort Worth (LCS 3) is undergoing maintenance at its home port of Naval Base San Diego. Due to operational security, we do not discuss future operations or ship movements,” said Capt. Marc Crawford, commodore of Littoral Combat Ship Squadron ONE.