
The Navy plans to come up with alternatives to the current Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program to meet the service’s overall requirement for small surface combatants by the end of July, according to a recent Navy memorandum. The March 13 memo establishes a task force to examine the possible alternatives sought by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel after he scaled back the planned buys of LCS from 52 to 32 in February. Hagel ordered the Navy to seek out a ship…