Multipurpose Is a Mistake

I've been reading a RealClearDefense article about the small Cyclone class patrol boats the Navy uses to patrol the shallow waters at the head of the Persian Gulf by Iraq's one port - Basra. Apparently the Navy plans to replace them with LCS or Littoral Combat Ships.

The new Littoral Combat Ships — the Navy is buying as many as 52 in coming years — are products of a late-1990s military craze for high-tech, multi-mission “platforms.” That is, ships, planes and ground vehicles that can switch from one task to another with the press of a button.

The problem with that concept is that the more you ask of a particular piece of hardware, the more complex — and expensive — it tends to be.

Worse, gear that can do lots of things at once usually can’t do any particular thing especially well.

I want to comment on that final point, namely "gear that can do lots of things at once usually can’t do any particular thing especially well." The other DrC and I have learned the hard truth of that one through experience with RVs.

We've RVed for 43 years, and owned 5 RVs: one Class C motorhome and four 5th wheel trailers pulled by diesel pickup trucks. The first, the little motorhome, was absolutely full of multipurpose features.

The sofa was also where we sat to eat on a table that popped up and out, and the sofa itself unfolded into the main bed, a none-too-generous double bed where we slept with our feet under the kitchen sink and silverware drawer. The bathroom did triple duty as a shower, a toilet room (it folded down like those on trains) and a wash basin plus mirror. The driver and passenger seats swiveled to become living room chairs, sort of.

The sofa was a decent sofa, a ho-hum eating place, and a terrible bed. The bath was an okay shower, a ho-hum basin and mirror, and a terrible toilet. The swiveling seats were okay to drive in, lousy to use as furniture. Features that were single use like the refrigerator, range top, dresser, and closet were fine, multipurpose features were all seriously compromised.

As we moved into larger RVs, with more single-use features, everything worked better and easier. There is a lesson here for those who are willing to learn.

The article with which we began this post says the single-use Cyclone patrol boats are fine, the LCS are compromised. Based on our experience with RVs, I believe it implicitly. And from what I read at RealClearDefense and elsewhere, it appears the new F-35 suffers from "multiple missionitis."