The Navy turned its ‘little crappy ship’ into a mine hunter

The Navy turned its ‘little crappy ship’ into a mine hunter

After more than two decades of controversy, cost overruns, and early retirements, the U.S. Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship is finally doing one of the things it was originally intended to do: hunt mines. Multiple Independence-class LCSs are now operating out of Bahrain, or are scheduled to arrive soon, with a full suite of mine countermeasure (MCM) gear. These ships, plagued at one time by hull cracks, represent the Navy’s latest attempt to moderniz…