Retiring frigates may leave some missions unfilled

The Navy may be shedding all its frigates by the end of next year, but the ships are still busy and in high demand — creating a dilemma for the Navy over which ships will pick up their missions.

Defense experts say that it’s an open question of when the littoral combat ships joining the fleet will be ready to take on challenging missions like counterdrug operations and sub-hunting — frigate mainstays that have pushed their deployment pace. Some anticipate that Military Sealift Command ships and other auxiliaries may pick up some of the slack.

“There is a big unknown in regard to LCS when the three types of [mission] modules will come online and will test sat[isfactory],” said retired Capt. Jan van Tol, who’s now a defense expert with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

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