Instead of top speeds of over 40 knots - a key Navy requirement - the LCSs can only sail at between 10 to 12 knots on the diesel engines alone.Īs well as this, the LCSs in general - the other type being the Independence class - have proven notably expensive to operate and maintain. As a result, the vessels can lose the power of their gas turbines, leaving them running on diesel engines only. The issue is related to a design flaw that has led to repeated failures in the combining gear. The Freedom class, in particular, has been dogged by problems with its propulsion system and the Navy admitted in 2021 that it would take years to implement critical fixes on the vessels it had acquired up to that point. Photos from USS Manchester -LCS 14 Facebook page /oOcmlFt9BP Photo ops, littoral combat ship SAG (Surface Action Group). The Navy and shipbuilder are now investigating further to see how that happened.Īhead of the launch ceremony, Lockheed Martin released the following video showing how a launch of this kind is supposed to happen:įirst ever US Navy littoral combat ship IPEX (integrated phase exercise). The reason for the tug being too close to the Cleveland, according to the Navy, was a simple miscommunication. The Navy described what happened as “unintentional contact. A satellite view of the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard, in Marinette, Wisconsin, with a Freedom class vessel on the waterfront of the Menominee River, awaiting launch. The warship engulfs the tug with an enormous wave and then lurches back and forth before coming to rest in the water. On entering the water, the LCS immediately strikes the tugboat, which was very obviously in much closer proximity to the warship than it should have been at this point. Using a side-launch process, the sled-mounted Cleveland is then pulled into the Menominee River by the tugboat William C. Our employees are some of the 2,500+ people who construct Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ships for the #LCS31, the future USS Cleveland, is the newest of these ships to be christened and launched.
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