The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) may not operate as advertised because it is too heavy when laden with full complements of equipment, the government’s chief watchdog agency said July 30. “Outstanding weight management and concurrency risks related to buying ships while key concepts and performance are still being tested continue to complicate LCS acquisitions,” the Government Accountability Agency (GAO) said in the report. Excessive weight caused the first two LCS vessels to enter service to fall short of speed and endurance requirements, GAO stated. Present seaframes also cannot meet service-life requirements as well. The report did note that the Navy has plans to recover the service life allowance on the LCS’s Independence-class variant.