The LCS will carry mission modules that will allow the basic hull design -- two designs are now being built -- to carry out different combat missions. At this time modules are being procured for three missions: mine countermeasures, anti-submarine warfare, and defense against "swarms" of small surface craft. All LCS configurations will be able to operate the MH-60 Seahawk type helicopter as well as different unmanned vehicles -- aerial, surface, and underwater, depending upon role.

Other missions have been studied for the LCS, including a configuration with medical/humanitarian modules, SEAL support, and fire support, the last employing a variant of the Army-Marine Corps Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS).

Marine-carrying LCS modules would provide container-like structures that could be installed in the LCS to provide berthing, messing, command-and-control, and other spaces for troops. (Regardless of module configuration the LCS would have some self-defense systems.)

The concept of a Marine-carrying LCS, i.e., a small, high-speed ship to transport Marines, harkens back to the late 1930s when six flush-deck, four-stack destroyers of World War I construction were converted to fast transports (APD), also referred to as high-speed transports. Capable of 25 knots after two of their (four) boilers were removed, these APDs carried four LCVP landing craft and could bunk 145. Marines. 

Through 1944 a total 36 flush-deck destroyers were converted to APDs followed by 96 destroyer escorts (DE) that were similarly converted. The later DE conversions, with a speed of 23-1/2 knots, could embark 160 Marines. Both types of fast transports saw extensive combat in World War II, with several being lost in action. The DE-APDs served through the Korean War.

An LCS-type ship in this role, with its high speed and helicopter capability, could provide a most versatile and useful capability for future naval operations in littoral areas.

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