More than a month after it started conducting operations, a new unit – Commander, Surface Division 11 – was recognized as a command structure. With its March 9 establishment and an April 20 ceremony at San Diego Naval Station, Calif., to recognize it formally, COMSURFACEDIV 11 took on the responsibility and oversight of four littoral combat ships (LCS) – Jackson, Montgomery, Gabrielle Giffords and Omaha – and the seven crews that would staff them. The Navy created the unit in an effort to streamline the chain of command for LCS. Previously, one commodore was responsible for roughly 30 crews and 10 different ships – a hierarchy that was deemed “too flat and inconsistent with the rest of the Navy,” the service stated in its announcement of the change.
The new command is the first of its kind to be given a specific, LCS-related warfare focus. Future comparable divisions would focus at other combat operations, such as mine warfare and anti-submarine warfare. An 0-6 (Navy captain) would command each division.
