The Navy turned the Littoral Combat Ship into a minehunter

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The Littoral Combat Ship was supposed to be fast, modular, and cheap. Instead, it became one of the most ridiculed programs in the Navy with cracked hulls, engine failures, and early retirements. But now, two decades and billions of dollars later, the Navy might’ve finally found a job for it: hunting naval mines.

Multiple Independence-class LCSs are now operating out of Bahrain with a fully operational mine countermeasures mission package. Equipped with unmanned vehicles, advanced sonar, and airborne mine-hunting systems, these ships are taking on a mission that’s suddenly more relevant than ever with the growing threat of naval mines, UUVs, and drone boats in chokepoints like the Strait of Hormuz.

This video breaks down the Navy’s mine warfare problem, why the Avenger-class is on the way out, how the LCS’s drone-based systems work, and what this all means for future naval combat.

Intro - 00:00-01:01

Ad read - 01:01-02:25

The threats - 02:25-04:45

The current fleet - 04:45-07:31

Why the LCS? - 07:31-10:09

How it hunts - 10:09-12:39

Is it any good? 12:39-End

Written by: Kyle Gunn

Edited by: Savvy

Task & Purpose is a military news and culture-oriented channel. We want to foster discussion about the defense industry.

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