Looking at the Stark, and the other Perry class which hit a mine, I guess it shouldn't surprise that Thach took such a beating and kept floating. Again, obviously no combustibles and especially munition/fuel on board which would cause a fire - and fire sank a lot of ships in the Falklands, the last time there was a real test of modern(ish) naval ships in combat. However it was almost ridiculous what Thach absorbed - so many bombs, as well as SSM missiles, SM2 which have a dual role anti surface capability too, and then, most surprising, that torpedo hit, which has a warhead not much smaller than the Mk48. Last Rimpac one of our Canadian subs took a Mk48 shot at a much, much larger ship, nearly 3x the displacement of Thach, and broke it in two, and it sink in minutes, it seemed like an eyeblink on the video, and both halves of the ship were under water.
The primary criticism of the LCS program based on all the articles I've read isn't armament, which is still an issue and they have been adding a lot of firepower to try and do something about hits - it's been the ability to absorb damage that's been criticized the most. It has the lowest grade in hull/defensive rating. Not even do they reach level 1, where as the Perry class were OPNAVINST 9070.1 Level II standard. Also, the Perry class had many times the number of crew to help with damage control, there could be as few as 50 sailors on an LCS, and really a max of just under 1000 if they have an aviation and full special mission crew loadout -not a lot of bodies to work damage control.
That Level II standard is mighty impressive IMO. Perry class - Very.Tough.Ship.
