Navy Shipbuilding: Significant Investments in the Littoral Combat Ship Continue Amid Substantial Unknowns about Capabilities, Use, and Cost

The concept for the LCS emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s as the Navy was trying to address two main needs. First, it had identified existing and emerging capability gaps in its ability to defeat large numbers of hostile small boats, sea mines, and quiet diesel-electric and nuclearpowered submarines, especially when these threats were present in the shallow waters close to shore, which are known as the littorals.