USS Independence (Littoral Combat Ship) LCS-2 

Why people hating on this beautiful ship?

Broke 7 million. Thanks to all around the world who view and comment!

Can I have an artillery strike on Miley Cirus's house?

the iron clad sure has come a long way

Это ковчег?))))))))

Proud to say i helped build that beauty. Down in Alabama.

its a MULLET buisness up front ...party out the back

Design of George Lucas!

Turns on a sixpence AND has a soccer pitch on the deck! Love it!

im shore i see this ship in barbados 5 years ago,unless it was something like this ,i thought then it was an ugly looking ship

looks like something out of cars 2

If russia had build this then usa would say. . This thing can reach san Francisco in short time undetectable. ....they may inavade us.!!!!

it's actually an AUSTRALIAN boat and design .

Yes it looks like missiles behind the gun and it can hold a couple F-35s.

Not a handsome ship but certainly looks formidable

i like it ! it looks like it from future

*facepalm* You don't need to be telling a Navy to have a diversity of ships. You're not seeing the whole picture. Every ship has it's roles. Put WW1/2 Battleships or Dreadnoughts against a modern submarine, obvious outcome. Put this baby against a modern submarine, well since sub hunting is one of its roles, it would do pretty well. /wiki/USS_Independence_(LCS-2) educate yourself.

I couldn't agree more, PC has drove the world insane, glad to know I'm not the only normal person left, hell even saying the word nigger does not make you racist. Depends on the context, but ultimately it is just a word. Furthermore, the word racist is very misused, people really should look it up before attempting to insult someone with it. In what way does saying "Jap" make it seem like he was saying he was superior to them in any way shape or form? I'm just curious to what you think.

I had been asking myself the same question; you're smarter than me! I didn't even think command and control because most of that is done by satellite, airborne or data links across the many ships radar/sonar back to an aircraft carrier (or other vessel). This thing looked to be nothing more than a really cool looking helipad. Expensive helipad!

Rightly said man, USA needs those macho toys for defending and protecting its territories and people. After all if the country is destroyed because of lack of protection then what is the purpose of bridges and road?

Great looking vessel, leaves quite a wash though... BTW, How's saying 'Japs' racist? I'm a Brit, and if you called me a Brit I wouldn't care, or even if you called me a 'Limey' or a 'Pom', it's political correctness gone mad!

The LC(S) is usually a Landing Craft ? sometimes LCT (tank) it looks like the Australian built landing craft the RAN has for personnel . This hull design gives stability speed and manoeuvrability.

Wouldn't a vessel such as this fall under the jurisdiction of the US coast guard more than the USN? If I understand it right, a littoral combat ship is for Brown Water patrols?

Point is proof of concept, get the principles down with something smaller, then work your way up the scale for size. Oh BTW subs are damn near completely undetectable as is.

A Littoral ship is meant to operate close to shore, but the ship can be deployed anywhere where the USN needs it. A coast guard ship would have jurisdictional limitations.

The Phalanx system is on the back, overlooking the flight deck. The cannon on the front is something else. Probably fires AP/DU rounds at 120+/minute.

Battlefield 4 Chinese destroyer

No but we'll waste 1 trillion on the "affordable" healthcare act, which is probably enough to buy 10 of these "toys" or fix every bridge in the country.

Pepe and his Pipi don't bother me. now then. this ship is probably the way of the future. I am working on plans for a new type of ship for the U.S. Navy.

The future of combat will be allies building next gen power full shit that is how the world works gotta stay one step ahead or you fall behind so yep

I´d like to hear that again, too! If you are a Yorkshire better don´t go playing with a German Shepard Dog!! Germany salutes loyal the USA!!

oh you want us to donate this so the crew on sea shepherd can throw butter at Japanese whale ships, and dont say Japs thats racist

but how could they reduce the .. what is the word ?!!! >> ya >> how could they reduce the ( radar footprint) for the engines ?!!

FYI, "can we haz", or "I can haz" is an internet joke stemming from the video with the cat asking: "I can haz cheeseburger?"

It is designed for shallow water that is what "littoral" means in the designator...three hulls=less draft for same tonnage

Not all of us think like Pepe SGT. Some people just dont seem to understand that every nation deserves respect.

uhh that "super-cool unnecessary macho toy" could save your life buddy! and your worrying about roads? geez

I know we need these ships for our defence, but having a tennis court on the back is a bit of a piss take!

I just saw the guys comments and am now crying with laughter. think before you type comes to mind...

considering this futuristic design, you would figure it would go faster than 44 knots (51 mph)

I wouldnt call it a combat ship I would call it a long range surveillance ship/Chopper carrier

this is a good vessel for the sea shepherds

Is that a basketball pitch on the back deck there? The US really look after their sailors!

Yeah, say it to the SGT's face, and say it to my face too!

That's very brave of you. Why don't you put your address if you're that sincere?

Both,,,Amphib ships like this will be delivered to USCG, and USN in near future.

The US Government needs to spend a few billion to create some insanely large aircraft that can put out wildfires.

wow, this is real and not cgi, godbless the United Stetes Navy

...or a troll. That HAS happened before, believe it or not.

This boat looks like the character boats from cars 2 hahaha

Cool story bro... but if you don't mind what was your original opinion?

Does anyone know how this ship would fair in stormy weather??? Very curious.

they should make the front extra sharp to stab sharks

It looks like a race boat version of uss zumwalt

We are the worlds top 3 % ers. Yea baby Yea

lol i stil say uss new jersey is the strongest and king of navy fleet

oh sick a football field on top??? 'Merica!

Little Man in a Boat = Littoral. I think.

Love the music. My new favorate song.

Please; tell us how you really feel.

I like it the USS Independence I lie them To Rey Billed This new Plans How TO MKAE IT FASTER?!...

WOW!

Its beautiful. God bless America

what kind of ship is it classed...cruiser,destroyer, battleship?

When the F-35s are unleased, I'm pretty sure they can VTOL on this. No need for helicopters now !

Now that's some serious shit.

That a badass boat/UFO thingy

They won't their cowards

All the nice girls like a sailor, either littoral or deep sea.

God Bless America.

Is it Steve Jobs boat?

..... makes no sense.

What a beautiful ship AWESOME

Why the sudden fit?

I got to ride one of those

I love america

badass ships.

SS Starship

Thank You

cool toy

'Murica

Cool

It is actually an Australian design (coming from an American) I am a first class ship fitter by trade and actually helped build these vessels for Austal USA in Alabama. You are right though...a MEAN boat!

its if i ran radar ops on any other ship the first targets i'd be looking at in more detail would be the ones with the smallest signatures knowing what these are capable of... with that said i guess it is more of a matter of how utterly stupid your enemies are, after all the british fooled the u-boats by cross dressing and dancing around foolishly on deck. i'd have gotten the hint after not having seen another war boat and started sinking them by the 3rd or 4th one.

with only one turret, a very big (looking) bridge, waht appears to be a hangar door + very short runway/helipad, and ports(?) on the sides, i assume this is some sort of command vessel, that would probably be used for small scale conflicts in localized areas.. i mean, it doesn't appear to have the ability of an aircraft carrier (shit ton o' planes, shit ton o' airborne ordinance), so i guess a small-ish command ship is what i can think of...

Apparently these are supposed to be loaded with modular "mission packages" rather than static armaments, so what you're seeing is just defensive weaponry. It isn't, by design, a destroyer, so it isn't supposed to bristle with guns. For what it's worth, you could buy only three or four F-25s for the price of this ship, but only a little over a third of an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer.

Oh, and it goes 44 knots ;) BTW - almost all modern cruisers and destroyers only carry 1-2 main guns (usually a 5" DP) - because the real weapons are the missiles carried. The 57mm onboard the LCS is more or less meant to nullify said torpedo boats, and provide some 'covering fire' for landing forces. Again, the word "littoral" is important here. Let's not forget this is only a 3,000 ton ship - the size of WW2 destroyers, and 1/4 the size of modern ones.

It's a very high rate of fire 57mm, and it's only used for defense anyway. Not to mention the two 30mm cannon, and .50 cals around the ship. Did you not notice the vertical launch system directly behind the 'main gun'? Or the gigantic helipad?! I suppose you don't understand the word 'Littoral' either. As in, close to shore. Where the real threat is tiny torpedo boats. You *need* smaller guns. The ships purpose is to help put marines ashore, and help protect the other ships doing the same.

First of all the ship is in its testing phase, of course there is bound to be some problems. Also the reason they are trying to put fewer crew is because they designed the ship to be almost fully automated. Lastly the reason for the lack of armament is because the ship can be designated to different mission modules, for example if the ship is going to be assigned as a land support ship they will fit it with surface to surface missile, if a carrier escort it will be fitted with surface to air. :)

They don't really serve a purpose- the ship itself it useful for beach bombardment, I don't know it's maximum range but our destroyers do anti-air, anti-sub, and have 64 surface to surface missile launchers that can be equipped with nuclear warheads and they have 4 anti-ship harpoon missile tubes, and 6 torpedo tubes, two hangers for helicopters and a main gun. Much more versatile, smaller and faster. The battleships are powerful, but they serve a purpose we do not need currently.

Because of the shallow draft these smaller combat ships can get in close to land many troops, launch vertical jets and helicopters,transport tanks with special offloading ramps where others would run aground and can outmaneuver most any other combat ships. They are looking to dock 2 in Singapore and and Aussie shipbuilder has a contract to build more for the US Navy. The Philippines just purchased 2 similar warships from Japan which were included in the last exercise.

I cannot refute what u say as my knowledge on specific Israeli intelligence operations is minimal. However, what I do know is that simply because of Israel's very small size compared to her surrounding hostile neighbors, Israel must, out of necessity, have better intelligence and carry out better operations. Remember that when Israel is wrong, the price it pays for a particular mistake, is much greater than that paid by any other Arab or Muslim country.

There is not one single military in the world that is not in the business of "borrowing" technologies. Let's not single out Israel for activities that all countries engage in. Even our government has a large espionage and intelligence gathering infrastructure in place to learn the military secrets of not only our "enemies" but our "friends". Quotations because in the world of espionage, one never be certain. I am glad for our close collaboration and cooperation with Israel.

More automation, less crew, same offensive power in a smaller, more difficult to find and hit plateform. And may be also cheaper to build and run than larger vessels (I love the look of WWII battleships but I wonder what it would cost to build and operate a vessel like the Iowa around modern technology... and for what missions?). For low level threats (pirates, ect..) the Navy doesn't need more than destroyer sized ships, and for high level threats they always send full fleets, not single ships.

Well israel does have a powerfull R&D (and most often has a no-nonsense practical oriented approach to hightech that is lacking in the US or Europe) however they also do have a history of aggressively "borrowing" technology. Most famous case: stealing the entire blueprints for the Mirage multi-purpose fighter in the 60's (stolen from switzerland if I remember well), but you might also note that the Galil assault rifle was hugely inspired (and a bit improved) from the AK. Iran's R&D is a joke.

For what mission? By whom? Our Cruisers have 95+ missile tubes each capable of being armed with nuclear warheads, we can unload 95 missiles AT ONCE from a cruiser while moving at top speed and bombarding anything on land, sea, or air. American Battleships are the most powerful surface ships ever conceived and are so destructed the United States Marines forbid the Navy from decommissioning them all. I understand you're patriotic- that's fine, but no one can afford to be better than the U.S.

If I remember rightly LCS class ships are used for rapid response operations. PArticularly handy against threats like piracy. That big deck on the back is to launch helicopters from. I imagine the thought process of Somali pirates: "Let's go hijack that tanker." "Getting into position." "Boarding....what the @#&* is that? (seeing Littoral Combat Ship) All in boarding party are shot to ribbons by the two Blackhawks launched from the flight deck

Why does it look like shit? I'm curious - what drives you to disrespect this work of engineering and technology? Is it just that you are brain-washed to hate everything American? Are all Russians like that? Well, no not really, you see, my girlfriend is Russian, in fact she lives in Moscow too, just off the Garden Ring. Russian women LOVE American men! Oh by the way, your use of English isn't all that convincing either.

Very good vessel, Lots of room, In fact so much room not all of it will be used, The landing pad is bigger then needs to be, Shrink that down some what, enlarge the hanger and make more room at front of the ship for a VLS. And seeing how wide it is, don't make the landing pad so wide.. Not like you can land 2 choppers side by side on it, So use some of that width to put in a few torpedo launchers. A lot of people and experts are complaining about lack of such systems..

@POBulkhead Ummm, you were in the Navy and don't seem to know what littoral means. as in LITTORAL CLASS aka near shore waters Definition: The littoral zone is the part of a sea, lake or river that is close to the shore. In coastal environments the littoral zone extends from the high water mark, which is rarely inundated, to shoreline areas that are permanently submerged. Also Tri Hulls handle high seas quite well.