J de Nauclér on Jul 11, 2014 18:13 (2 hours ago):
I'm not at all sure what your comment is trying to convey.

"Projects like this ...sign of a navy & large power in decline."

Every navy, all through the ages, has had ships & vessels built for specific purposes.
Some are big...very big....some are small, extremely small.....
Some are deliberately small to merely test an idea....with a view to up-sizing if needed.
This is just one of those. Whatever, I find the design intriguing.

Projects like these usually is a sign of a navy and a large great power in decline. We have many signs in history when politicians have a tendency to spend and invest in hopeless bad ship classes like this - maybe you can stop talibans at sea with this ship, but hardly a well equipped Chinese, Russian or French warship, at all. What a dead end!

Report in today's Murdoch owned The Australian includes:-
"The LCS program, under which the US Navy plans to assemble a fleet of 52 vessels capable of operating in shallow coastal waters at high speeds, has attracted criticism from some of the most senior reaches of US politics and defence.
"LCS are part of the huge multinational RIMPAC naval maritime exercise under way off the coast of ­Hawaii. No doubt the performance of the ships will be watched closely by critics and supporters alike."

Thank you Wade for this and other pics of a vessel with an interesting history set down at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence-class_littoral_combat_ship

The Independence-class design began life at Austal as a platform for a high-speed cruise ship.