By Geoff Fein
After several years of cost increases, delays, efforts to renegotiate contracts, and cancellation of two ships, the Navy’s Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program appears to be heading in the right direction as the first ship of the new class demonstrated her capabilities in the just completed builder’s trials.
Lockheed Martin‘s [LMT] Freedom (LCS-1) wrapped up builder’s trials last week and will begin acceptance trials this weekend, Fred Moosally, president Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors, told reporters at a briefing earlier this week.
Lockheed Martin, along with shipbuilders Marinette Marine [MTW] and Bollinger Shipyards, naval architects Gibbs & Cox, DRS Technologies [DRS], Rolls-Royce and Fincantieri, have designed and built a semi-planing monohull. Freedom was launched in September 2006.
On Aug. 6, two days before completing the first set of trials, Navy Secretary Donald Winter joined the contingent of contractors, vendors and Navy personnel aboard Freedom to see for himself how the ship is performing.
Winter told Defense Daily in an interview this week that it was good to finally see Freedom get underway.
“After dealing with the LCS program for two-and-a-half years and some rather intense time periods…being able to see LCS, the ship, really is different, and it’s good,” he said. “And being able to really get a sense of the performance and capabilities was a very satisfying experience for me.”
While he has toured Freedom on many occasions, Winter noted this was the first chance he has had to see the ship “finished out.”
“[LCS] is a warship, there is no question about it,” Winter said. “And it’s not just the 57mm gun up front or the positions for the 30mms or any of the other accoutrements. The whole thing overall is designed to be able to deal with the types of challenges and potential conflicts we anticipate in the littorals in the future.”
BAE Systems builds the 57mm gun.
But LCS also has a heck of a capability in terms of projecting power off of the ship itself, he added.
“Seeing the flight deck and the hangar bay…the aviation aside without all of the normal accoutrements for construction and everything in there…you really get a sense of the amount of space, and the flexibility associated with that space, that is available,” Winter said. “Similarly, you go down below and take a look at the aft section where we can put boats in and out and the ability to put RIBs (rigid inflatable boats) in, both off the side and off the back. Pretty soon you start getting the real sense that this is going to be a very capable asset in terms of being able to work many of the challenges we have.”
The flight deck and hangar are bigger than any cruiser or destroyer or frigate out in the Navy today, Moosally told reporters on Monday. “Aviators are going to love this ship with the big flight deck and hangar area.”
Since its inception, Navy officials have said the need for the ship, which will be capable of transitioning from mine warfare to anti-submarine warfare to surface warfare operations, thanks to the mission package concept, is vital for taking on today’s threats and challenges.
“I think of what that ship could do right now in the NAG…the North Arabian Gulf…in terms of being able to just patrol, provide presence, but also do things like the VBSS mission we have…the visit, board, search, and seizure mission,” Winter said, “where you are running up to other ships, putting sailors into RIBs to board those other ships…it’s a compliant board…but you need to move people off and on and back and forth and be able to access a pretty good space there. This ship would do just great over there.”
Throughout the entire LCS process, Winter has maintained that the Navy still had hope for the concept.
“The basic design approach that has been chosen here for this very different ship, and it’s very evident when you go on board and, in particular when you get underway and see what this ship can do, you can see to a very great extent that those hopes and expectations have shown up in an actual ship,” he said.
“We do have a very capable ship now. I trust we will have a similar experience on LCS-2, and the challenge now is how do we go ahead and produce these in quantities that we want.”
The Navy does have some lessons learned and there are some things that will show up in the trials, Winter added, that have to be factored into the future build cycles. “But, quite frankly, that’s why we run trials.”
General Dynamics [GD] is building the Independence (LCS-2) with its partner Austal USA. The team is building an all-aluminum hull trimaran that is expected to begin builder’s trials later this year.
During Winter’s embark, Lockheed Martin’s crew took Freedom up to and past 40 knots, for a sustained period of time.
“This has got a heck of a power-to-weight ratio any way you look at it,” he said. “And it’s able to use that capability. So it’s not just top-end speed, but it’s how quickly you come up to speed, which, by the way, can be important in certain tactical engagements, and it’s able to sustain that speed for a considerable period of time.”
Although Freedom wasn’t tested in high sea states during the 12-day builder’s trials on Lake Michigan, Winter noted the ship preformed very nicely.
“You get a sense when it gets up to speed and you see how it gets up to speed, and the vibration levels, stability and all of that…this seemed to be a very solid ship,” he said. “While we haven’t gone through the full-up range that we want to test her on yet, I think that everybody is cautiously optimistic that we will continue to see the type of performance here that has been modeled and anticipated.”