Littoral Combat ships

Question:  What is a littoral and how do you combat it?   Most warships have names that suggest what the ship is supposed to do.  Destroyer, battleship, aircraft carrier, mine sweeper, and so on.  Even a land lubber can form an idea of what such a ship is supposed to do.  Where as combating littorals draws a blank, even among sea goers. 
   The dictionary defines littoral as seashore or coast.   So presumably the littoral combat ship (LCS) is supposed to operate close to shore.  In the old days such a ship was called "coast defense", but real Navy officers want to operate world wide and in blue water, and so "coast defense"  became perjorative (bad think) and we have "littoral combat" instead.
   The Navy wants a fleet of 50 odd littoral combat ships  and already has half a dozen in service or under construction.  They are small (2500-3000 tons) fast (40 knots) stealthy, and pricey ($440 million each) which is a lot of money for a small ship.  They don't carry the Aegis SAM system to save money, space, and weight.  Aegis is big, and effective and has been the standard anti air system on Navy ships for many years.  Without Aegis, the littoral combat ship will be in trouble if enemy aircraft appear.  LCS is armed with a single 2 inch gun,  enough to deal with a Somali pirate motor boat perhaps, but not enough to convince a regular merchantman to stop, change course, or obey orders, not enough for anti air craft work, not enough for shore bombardment, and certainly not enough to fight it out against an enemy destroyer. 
   LCS does carry a lot of other neat stuff, like a flight deck big enough to operate a couple of helicopters, a stern boat launch well to put Marine landing parties ashore, a dual power plant (gas turbines for the 40 knot dash and diesels for long range cruising).  The plating is all sloped to make it stealthy. 
    LCS doesn't have armor plate and is built to ordinary commercial standards rather than the tougher Navy standards.  The Navy has said the LCS is not expected to remain mission capable after taking a hit. A nice way of saying that one hit will sink it.  This is not unusual for a Navy ship, certainly WWII destroyers would sink after taking a solid hit. 
   I would feel better about LCS if they were cheaper.  A lot cheaper.  And carried a real gun.