The LMACC employs a formal engineering concept.  Ship designs tend to work with very specific requirements documents, and those requirements can over-constrain innovation and are hard to track through the design and building processes.  in addition, as very tightly controlled requirements are quickly over-run by new capabilities, the requirements seem to be chasing what is new, which increases costs as well as potentially limiting the ship's effectiveness when delivered.

The LMACC turns this dynamic on its head.  Because they are relatively simple to build, and employ variety by building mission specific variants on top of a baseline capability, chasing advances in technology occurs through new builds.  This means that these warships can be built quickly, efficiently and without fear of being overtaken by new technologies.

One of the fundamental principles employed in this design is that of "evolutionary adaptation."  There are many agencies in the USN dedicated to entirely autonomous warships by 2045.  This idea is sound in terms of a stretch goal, but we need warships in the interim.  LMACC is intended to bridge the gap between fully crewed and lightly automated, to highly automated and lightly crewed.  Autonomy found in SEA HUNTER class MUSVs (Medium Unmanned Surface Vessels) is easily adapted to lightly crewed warships, and retains the principle of human in/on the loop when armed with short and long range weapons.

Here are the set of primary design concepts employed in the LMACC design:

1) Ability to operate forward, within the first island chain.

2) Employ a philosophy that "the network is the platform."  This means each LMACC/MUSV is a node in that network.

3) Largely passive sensing, and EW capabilities found in larger warships.

4) Create a cloud based sensor grid employing 5G technology.  Experimentation is ongoing with this concept now.

5) Will do long range precision fires employing available missiles (LRASM), allowing CVBGs to be farther behind, and DDGs to move in after first strike with additional strikes.

6) Employs Human-Machine partnership capabilities to generate optimal courses of action.

7) Is a persistent presence in grey zone and deterrence operations.

8) Long range, uses maneuvering in anti-missile defense, can get close to littorals, and requires little to no replenishment in a 60-90 day deployment cycle.

The following links to documents such as journal articles, technical reports, theses, and briefings are available to fill in greater detail.

Executive Summary (PPT)