What historical procurement failure does the LCS resemble?

Can the Littoral Combat Ship program be compared with earlier failures to divide responsibility between government and industry?

Yes, but the more basic failure was an incoherent mission: the program defined the ship largely by not being a frigate and combined roles that needed separate vessels.

The explanation connects LCS with a post-Cold-War expectation that a major naval war was unlikely. Its intended roles included both task-group work and specialized littoral operations. Those different missions are identified as a source of conflicting design demands. The alternative proposed in the reply is continued Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate production alongside a separate littoral ship.