Surface Forces: LCS Gets A Bigger Crew And Lots Of Tweaks

Cmdr. Pat Thien, left, Commanding Officer of the littoral combat ship USS Freedom (LCS-1) on Aug. 13, 2013

Everytime the Navy tries to introduce a new high tech ship, they sell it on the idea of reduced manning. It seems invariably that operating and maintaining complex sensors and weapons at sea takes more people than they thought.

Surface Forces: LCS Gets A Bigger Crew And Lots Of Tweaks

The latest tweak is to crew size, with ten personnel being added. That makes a big difference, because both LCS classes have accommodations for only 75 personnel. Normally, a ship of this size would have a crew of about 200. The basic LCS crew was 40, with the other 35 berths occupied by operators of special equipment. In practice the original crew was usually 55. That was 40 for running the ship and 15 for the mission package. From now on the average will be 65.

Report: LCS Manning Could Permanently Increase by 2015 | USNI News 

The Navy is considering increasing the crew sizes for both variants of the Littoral Combat Ships (LCS) by 2015, according to a July report obtained by USNI News based on the early data from the current deployment of USS Freedom (LCS-1) and tests aboard USS Independence (LCS-2).
The report — prepared on the Office of Chief of Operations (OPNAV) surface warfare office — recommends the Navy add accommodations to berth 98 crewmembers ahead of a 2014 study that could increase the crew’s size.