How do you combat a Littoral?

Beats me, but the US Navy has been messing around with something they call a "Littoral Combat Ship" for some years now.  It's gotten beyond the paper study phase and we actually have two or three of them at sea right now.  They are smallish surface vessels, with claims to awesome top speed, something in excess of 30 knots.
   According to Aviation Week the Navy is not satisfied with the program so far and wants to redesigate the class as "frigates".  That's an old and honorable name for a warship class, going way back into the days of sail.  The name died out in the sail to steam conversion, the steam warships that picked up the sailing frigate duties were called cruisers.  The name fell out of use in navies until WWII when it was applied to a new class of small anti submarine vessels.  Since then frigate has meant a mini-destroyer.  Looks like a destroyer but is smaller and cheaper. 
   The Littoral Combat Ship idea was born after a number of nasty confrontations with small fast missile boats in the Persian Gulf.  The idea was a very fast ship that could run the pesky missile boats down and blow them out of the water.  This works in the Persian Gulf where the water is calm and smooth enough to get up to speed.  It does not work offshore where you have surf and swell.  Trying to drive thru even moderate waves at 45 knots will smash the ship apart in a few minutes. 
   So, the Navy is talking about dropping the high speed requirement on the new Frigate/ex Littoral Combat Ship class.  It reduces the size and weight of the engines,  leaving more room on board for all the stuff every captain wants to have more of (rations, ammo, fuel, weapons, etc).  Aviation Week speculates that the development of small very effective auto cannon systems has solved the missile boat problem.  I doubt that.  Was I skippering a Navy ship and the missile boats came after me, I'd order up my helicopter.  Chopper is twice as fast as anything on water, and carries 5 inch rockets that will turn anything afloat into kindling wood.
  The other discouraging thing in the Aviation Week article, is the total lack of any discussion of mission.  What is the frigate/ex littoral combat ship supposed to do?  Show the flag?  Chase subs? Provide gunfire support to an amphibious landing? Missile aircraft?  Escort carriers?   Just be cheap enough so we can have a lot of 'em? Not a word about any of this. 

How deep does the sequester cut?

Pretty deep. At least according to Aviation Week.


                                                   US Military Power
                             1988                    Today                  After Sequester 2021

Army Divisions       20                        10                       6
Air Force Fighters  2788                     1493                  1157
Navy Ships             588                       275                    228

In 1988 we had 20 Army divisions.  Today we have 10. After a bit more sequestering we will be down to 6.  That's not enough to do Iraq again.  A division is 15,000 men.  Six divisions is 90,000 men.  We put 130,000 men into Iraq, without pulling our 50,000 troops out of Korea or Germany.  With only 6 divisions, we could no longer deal with regional threats like Iran.
    I feel less worried about the Air Force.  A thousand fighters is a lot, especially now that they all carry smart bombs.  One sortie with smart bombs, that hit the target, is worth hundreds of sorties with iron bombs that mostly miss. 
    Dunno what to say about the Navy.  Now that the Soviets are gone, we don't have any enemies with fleets.  But the Chinese are clearly interested in building up a real navy.